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Edward Bloom

The father of Will Bloom and the protagonist of the novel. As a young man, Edward is charming, intelligent, humble, and clever. As an adult, he travels the world in search of adventure. His death is the central event of the book. As his last name is Bloom, and because much of the novel is about what happens in Edward’s imagination, he has been compared to the main character of James Joyce’s Ulysses, Leopold Bloom.

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Will Bloom

Edward’s son and the narrator of most of the novel. As a boy, Will misses his often-absent father. As an adult, Will visits Edward and listens to his stories, many of which he’s heard before. Will gets frustrated by his father’s insistent on telling jokes and outlandish stories, but he remains loyal to Edward through a slow and difficult death.

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Sandra Templeton Bloom

Edward’s wife and Will’s mother. As a college student at Auburn University, she chooses Edward over Don Price and remains faithful to him until his death. In college, Sandra was beautiful and popular, an unlikely match for the peculiar, imaginative Edward, but she falls in love and agrees to marry him.

Karl the Giant

A man whose appetite is so enormous that he pillages fields, orchards, and even pets in Ashland until he is finally appeased by Edward. At first, Karl is aggressive and threatening, but later, he becomes gentle and compassionate, a testimony to Edward’s enormous ability to influence just about anyone.

Don Price

An Auburn University student who asks Sandra to marry him. He is the leader of the group of fraternity brothers who steal and use the landlady’s glass eye. Don is arrogant, drinks too much, and fights with Edward. He may be the novel’s only human antagonist since he directly confronts and duels Edward. 

Jenny Hill

The mysterious and beautiful young woman who owns and lives in a shack in a swamp in Specter. She falls in love with Edward and lives with him when he visits, but she becomes so lonely and stagnant that she loses her grip on reality. It is unclear whether Jenny Hill is a real person or a symbolic one who grows out of Edward’s imagination.

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Mr. Templeton

Sandra’s father and Edward’s father-in-law. He adores his daughter but is unimpressed when the young couple tells them they are married, switching the conversation to a story about fighting in the cavalry. His wife is bedridden. Templeton is simple and childlike.

The Old Lady with the Eye

Edward’s landlady in Auburn when he goes to college. She treats Edward generously when he arrives, and he returns her kindness by finding her stolen glass eye and returning it to her. 

Dr. Bennett

The elderly doctor who has taken care of Edward and his family since Will’s birth. Dr. Bennett is compassionate and dedicated and thinks of Edward as an immortal god who cannot die. He appears in the four “My Father’s Death” chapters.

Norther Winslow

A poet who left Ashland when Edward was young and who now lives in “the place that has no name.” Winslow represents a person who is stuck in the residue of his dreams and is unable to escape the depression and trappings of this strange town.  

Amos Calloway

The previous owner of the Birmingham house that the Blooms purchase. The neighbors loved the Calloways so much that they do not accept the Blooms when they move in. 

Jasper Barron

A natty dresser, Barron serves as Edward Bloom’s vice-president and then takes over Bloom Inc. when Edward retires. Barron has high regard for Edward and narrates one of the only chapters not told from Edward or Will’s point of view.

Mrs. Rainwater

The overweight, wealthy older woman who shops in the lingerie department where Edward once worked. Wanting to be beautiful, she shops for the perfect girdle. Mrs. Rainwater is comic and cartoonish. Her role in the novel mirrors one of Hercules’ labors: fetching the girdle, or belt, of the Amazon queen, Hippolyta. 

Wiley

An honest old man who lives in Specter. Wiley tells Edward about the shack in the swamp where Jenny Hill lives.

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