Leaving Atlanta

Regarded by Tasha Baxter as “the weirdest kid in her class, maybe in the whole school” (44), Rodney is a loner who initiates a friendship with Octavia Fuller shortly before he’s abducted. Octavia defines Rodney as “good people” (154), due to his tendency to be nice for no particular reason. Rodney is a smart boy but a poor student. Rodney also lacks the athletic ability often expected of boys. He’s a slow runner and, though his father tried to teach him how to swim, Rodney failed to learn. His parents are middle-class and aspirational. His father, Claude L. Green—a native of Plain Dealing, Louisiana—prides himself on running his own body shop. Rodney’s mother, Beverly, is a Chicago-born homemaker who exercises her own ambitions through her children—that is, completing her daughter Patricia’s homework, and assuming that her son’s presence deserves merit in school due to his high scores on standardized tests and the fact that the Greens pay substantial taxes. It’s strongly suggested that Rodney may be dyslexic, due to his inability to remember spelling words and multiplication tables. 

Rodney has the characteristics of a middle-class African-American child. He attends Greater Hayes AME Zion Church and is a member of the Youth Branch of the NAACP. He gives off the aura of adequate parenting, despite having rather unloving parents who are more concerned with aspiration than they are with their son’s well-being.

Rodney’s lack of interest in school comes partly from the uninspiring adults around him, particularly his fifth-grade teacher at Oglethorpe Elementary, Mr. Harrell, who displays thinly-veiled contempt for him. Though Rodney is a timid boy who wears glasses and fell victim to bullying by Jashante Hamilton during his elementary school years, Rodney asserts boldness by stealing candy from Lewis’s Market before school. He is both fearful and resentful of his father, who expresses concern that Rodney’s mother is making him effeminate.  

Rodney’s character is symbolic of the social pressures often imposed upon black boys. His father pressures him to follow a masculine ideal that’s incompatible with who he is; his mother and Mrs. Lewis demand that he maintain a façade of social respectability, which discourages him from associating with poor children like Leon Simmons and Octavia Fuller. 

Cruelly nicknamed “the Watusi” by her classmates on account of her dark complexion, Octavia’s loving relatives, and her neighbor and friend, Delvis Watson, refer to her as “Sweet Pea.” Because she’s dark, Octavia incorrectly believes that she’s ugly. Her schoolmates also assume that she’s very poor and neglected, due to her hair often being a mess and because of rumors that Monica Fisher starts about her. Octavia’s strong and sympathetic mother, Yvonne, works the graveyard shift at the Sunbeam Factory, which produces popular baked goods. Yvonne has a cousin named Elaine, who lives in Chicago. Elaine’s daughter, Nikky, is three years older than Octavia and sends her clothes—often pretty dresses—that she has grown out of. 

Her father, Ray, is a professor, probably at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, and married to another woman named Gloria. Octavia usually sees her father once every summer, while she’s visiting her grandmother in Macon. She resembles Ray, sharing his hair and complexion. With Gloria, he has a baby named Kiyana—Octavia’s half-sister. Ray is largely absent from Octavia’s life, providing only child support and occasional visits, during which he brings gifts of school supplies and ill-fitting clothes. Octavia’s meddlesome grandmother lives in Macon, Georgia—Yvonne and Ray’s hometown. Octavia eventually leaves her mother to go live with her father, stepmother, and younger sister in South Carolina. 

Jashante is Tasha’s crush. Jashante is in Tasha’s class, though he’s a few years too old to be in the fifth grade. A news report later reveals that he’s 13. Jashante lives in the projects and calls Tasha “Fancy Girl.” His cousin is fifth-grader Cinque Freeman. Jashante bullied Rodney Green when they were in elementary school. He and Tasha get into a scuffle on the playground after a relay race as a result of Tasha behaving dismissively toward him. The fight results in her new coat getting ruined. She and Jashante later make amends at the roller-skating rink, where both of them are hanging out with friends. Jashante buys Tasha a pack of plain M&Ms with the money that he earns from selling pine-scented car fresheners at the West End Mall. Jashante disappears one October, and many people fear he’s dead. His mother, Miss Viola, goes mad as a result of the loss of her son. Jashante also had two younger sisters.

The author inserts herself into the narrative as a classmate in Mr. Harrell’s class at Oglethorpe Elementary School. Tayari is neither a total outcast, like Octavia, nor one of the more popular girls. Tayari’s mother is president of the PTA. One day, Monica Fisher invites Tayari to her upcoming slumber party, but the party never takes place. It’s canceled after Tayari’s mother forbids her daughter from going. Mrs. Jones also calls all of the other mothers to notify them about the party being unsupervised. As a result, Tayari’s friends ostracize her.

Monica, a popular classmate of Tasha’s, Octavia’s, and Rodney’s, is a transplant to Atlanta from Chicago. Tasha regards her as “the best rope skipper ever seen in Georgia” (4). Monica wears her pressed hair in a page boy. Her best friend is fellow popular girl Forsythia Collier. Monica is competitive with Tasha and, like many of the other children in Mr. Harrell’s class, makes fun of Octavia for being dark-skinned. Monica distinguishes herself by bullying other girls, particularly Octavia. 

Mrs. Grier is a second-grade teacher who once taught Octavia and now serves as her mentor. Octavia describes Mrs. Grier as “tall and big, not fat,” but imposing (164). She emphasizes the importance of both good grammar and ladylike behavior—meaning that Octavia should avoid using words like “period” in favor of “maturity.” Mrs. Grier is stern but fair. Octavia appreciates her rectitude and her aversion to lies. They became friends after Mrs. Grier exposed Monica Fisher for lying about Octavia writing in a school textbook.

Mrs. Grier was the youngest of 12 children born in Sugarloaf, Alabama. Three of her siblings died, including her brother, Everett T, whom white men murdered. She came from a family of sharecroppers. Jones never reveals Mrs. Grier’s age, but the reader can discern that she’s well into middle-age, due to her wavy, “silver-white [hair] and cheeks hung low” (231). Both of Mrs. Grier’s parents died while still sharecroppers, leaving most of the children to move in with relatives. Mrs. Grier moved to Atlanta with her aunt Lee, her namesake, and Lee’s husband, James. She performed chores, mostly at the service of her cousin Twyla, to earn her keep. 

Delvis is Octavia’s best friend and neighbor, and the son of Miss Darlene, Yvonne Fuller’s best friend and neighbor. Though Octavia dislikes Miss Darlene, she’s fond of Delvis, who plays an elder fraternal role. Both of their mothers work the graveyard shift at the Sunbeam Factory. Delvis has twin siblings—a brother and a sister, named Darlita and Donathan.