Protagonist

Character Role Analysis

Marie Lazarre Kashpaw (Honorable Mention: June Kashpaw)

The book really is an ensemble, so there isn't a protagonist in a classical sense. That being said, Marie's story is arguably the most central figure—after all, she's the matriarch of the family at the heart of the novel, and she definitely figures pretty heavily even in many of the chapters that aren't focused solely on her.

There's an argument to be made for June as the protagonist, since the story kind of unravels around her death, but since she's not really an active, living character for most of the book, we have to give the nod to Marie.