# Brother Jim — Poetry character guide

> Brother Jim in Poetry by Ring Lardner.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Jim, healthy Jim

**First appearance:** 0004-monday

## Snapshot

The narrator's baby brother, whose first word, 'Daddy,' becomes a family triumph and whose toddler ambitions run mostly toward demolishing the youngest sibling.

## Who they are

Brother Jim is the household's celebrated prodigy, a boy whose single utterance of 'Daddy' prompts triumphal music and makes the warring nations seem like trifles. Yet his darker comic side emerges in his mysterious antipathy toward baby number three, whom he longs to slap despite the infant's total innocence. He matters because he embodies the collection's blend of paternal pride and domestic absurdity, turning a baby's first word and a toddler's grudge into subjects worthy of mock-heroic verse.

## In the story

### [In the Wake of the News](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_19_se/chapters/in-the-wake-of-the-news)

Celebrated for speaking his first word, 'Daddy,' marking a milestone in childhood development.

### [The Youngest One Breaks In](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_19_se/chapters/the-youngest-one-breaks-in)

The youngest child who speaks his first word, 'Daddy.'

### [A Mysterious Antipathy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_19_se/chapters/a-mysterious-antipathy)

Expresses a strong, unexplained desire to harm his younger brother, No. 3.

### [Parting](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_19_se/chapters/parting)

One of the three small sons left behind.

### [Exalted Above His Fellows](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_19_se/chapters/exalted-above-his-fellows)

Mentioned as 'healthy Jim,' who is sneered at for not being ill.

### [Speech Economy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_19_se/chapters/speech-economy)

The child whose speech is described; he uses phrases like 'Twee, pahk, birt' and 'Ba-ba me'.

### [Decision Reversed](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_19_se/chapters/decision-reversed)

The child (referred to as 'my kid') whose joyful reaction on Christmas morning reverses the narrator's mood.

### [The New Plaything](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_19_se/chapters/the-new-plaything)

The new baby brother, referred to as 'brand new brother' and the subject of the poem.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_19_se/characters/brother_jim
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_19_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_19_se/characters