If There Be Thorns | Characters & Character Analysis

If There Be Thorns Characters

Bartholomew Scott Winslow Sheffield

Bart turns ten the summer the house next door is renovated and occupied. Bart has a strange physical problem in that nerve endings in the body don't go all the way to the skin. This makes him clumsier than he should be and unable to feel pain normally. Bart is the first to meet the woman who claims to be his grandmother and the first to begin working out the truth about his parents, though it seems he does so more while pretending to be Malcolm than as himself.

Bart shows many of the signs of a multiple personality disorder, seeming to be almost unable to control when he acts like the young Bart and when he acts like the decrepit Malcolm. Bart himself seems ruthless but likely isn't nearly as evil as he's portrayed. It is noted, however, that his brother Jory knows that Bart will do whatever...
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