Beth Hammond

Beth is eight years old when her mother dies. She does not have very many memories of her mother, and she expresses almost no emotion over the loss. The narrator is an objective third person that keeps distance from Beth’s psyche throughout the novel. Beth is exceptionally closed off and detached from her emotions throughout the entirety of the story, and only rarely do readers see evidence of her true feelings. As a child, she is emotionally detached. Because readers only meet her after she has been orphaned and drugged with tranquilizers, readers cannot say whether or not this is her natural state or a result of the pills and trauma of losing her mother.

When Beth is in the orphanage, she is fueled by a desire to attain as many pills as she can and to play chess as often as she can. She does...