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Nick Adams
Nick is the protagonist of many of the stories in
Nick's father
Nick's father is a doctor. He emphasizes the importance of masculinity to Nick. He also has a hot temper and has trouble getting along with his wife.
Bill
Nick Adams' best friend from home, Bill drinks with Nick in "The Three-Day Blow," and the two often fish and hunt together. He is glad when Nick breaks up with Marjorie.
Marjorie
Nick Adams' girlfriend at home, Marjorie expects to marry Nick. But in "The End of Something," he breaks it off with her, only to later question that action.
Uncle George
George is Nick's uncle. He comes along to help deliver the baby in "Indian Camp."
Dick Boulton
This man, half-Native American, half-Caucasian, made a deal to chop wood for Nick's father in "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife." He accuses Nick's father of having stolen the wood, though, and gets kicked out.
Eddy
Dick Boulton's son.
Billy Tabeshaw
A Native American who comes with Dick Boulton to chop wood. He is quiet and sensitive.
Ad Francis
Ad is an old boxer who Nick Adams meets when he is punched off of a freight train. This man is somewhat crazy but very tough.
Bugs
Bugs is traveling with Ad Francis. He feeds Nick and saves him from Ad's anger.
Luz
Luz is the Italian nurse and lover of a young American soldier in "A Very Short Story." She eventually leaves this soldier for an Italian major, calling the relationship with the American an immature one.
Krebs
Krebs is the main character of "Soldier's Home." He returns home to Kansas after being in the war, feeling disoriented and empty inside.
Helen Krebs
Krebs younger sister, she plays indoor baseball and looks up to Krebs as a hero.
Drevitts
In Chapter VIII, he shoots the two Hungarians with Boyle.
Boyle
In Chapter VIII, he is a police officer who helps Drevitts shoot the two Hungarians.
Cornelia Elliot
The wife of Hubert Elliot in "Mr. And Mrs. Elliot," Cornelia is an unhappy American living in France with her husband.
Hubert Elliot
A poet living in France in "Mr. And Mrs. Elliot," Hubert cannot make his wife pregnant or happy.
Peduzzi
An Italian man in "Out of Season," Peduzzi has a tendency to drink too much. He attempts to take an American couple on a fishing expedition, but the wife leaves early and he forgets some of the equipment.
Villalta
A great bullfighter, he is described in Chapter XII.
George
The student who goes skiing with a friend in "Cross-Country Snow." The friend might be Nick Adams, but George calls him Mike.
Helen
Nick's significant other in "Cross-Country Snow," Helen is pregnant.
Maera
A bullfighter who tries to stop Luis from partying all day before a bullfight. Eventually, Maera is killed by a bull.
Luis
A bullfighter who drinks and dances all day before a fight, even when his fellow matadors try to stop him.
Joe
The narrator of "My Old Man," Joe tells the story of his father as a horse jockey.
George Gardner
A jockey friend of Joe's father in "My Old Man." George seems to be Joe's father's only supporter by the end of his life.
Hopkins
He was an old friend of Nick Adams's. Nick thinks of Hopkins as he makes coffee in "Big Two-Hearted River." Hopkins, we can assume, was killed in the war.
Sam Cardinella
When he is about to be hanged in Chapter XV, Cardinella is too afraid to walk. A priest tells him to be a man.
