Minke

Minke is the novel's main character and primary narrator. He is the son of unnamed parents who are relatively high-class native Javanese. His grandparents have been able to get him into one of the top high schools in the Indies, which is taught by the Dutch. Minke takes pride in the fact that he is well-educated, but during the course of the novel he learns that there is much his school education has not taught him. During the novel, he becomes educated by life and by non-European teachers.

Minke is not his given name. His mother calls him Gus and the reader must assume that Gus is his given name. Minke is a name that a teacher called him in elementary school, and it stuck. At the time, no one realized that the teacher was actually insulting Minke. The teacher almost said "monkey" in derision, but quickly changed...