Character Analysis
Jeremy Simms is the one good apple in the otherwise rotten Simms barrel. He's a nice kid, blond-haired with eyes that are "whitewashed blue and […] seemed to weep when he spoke" (1.85). He makes multiple efforts to befriend the Logan children (Stacey in particular). Here's what he gets for it:
He was often ridiculed by the other children at his school and had shown up more than once with wide red welts on his arms which Lillian Jean, his older sister, had revealed with satisfaction were the result of his associating with us. Still, Jeremy continued to meet us. (1.87)
Why does Jeremy want to be friends with the Logans? We never really learn. Mostly, it seems like Taylor uses Jeremy to suggest how difficult, and downright dangerous, inter-racial friendships could be during the time in which the novel is set.