# The Giant Raft — Character guide

> Key figures in The Giant Raft by Jules Verne.

- [Torres](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_giant_raft_se/characters/torres.md): Torres joins the jangada as a fellow traveler rescued in the forest, but his quiet reserve and pointed questions about the Garrals mark him as something other than a grateful passenger. He fixates on Minha and on Joam Ga
- [Benito Garral](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_giant_raft_se/characters/benito_garral.md): Benito is the energetic young Garral who manages the commercial side of the jangada voyage and takes charge when action is needed. He is quick to trust and quicker to act, whether hunting game along the banks or confront
- [Joam Garral](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_giant_raft_se/characters/joam_garral.md): Joam Garral is the patriarch of a thriving plantation at Iquitos, a man whose competence and generosity have made him beloved by family, servants, and neighbors alike. Yet his calm authority masks a buried identity, and 
- [Manoel Valdez](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_giant_raft_se/characters/manoel_valdez.md): Manoel is the steady, observant counterweight to Benito's impulsiveness, a doctor engaged to Minha Garral and welcomed into the family as a son. From the moment Torres appears, Manoel distrusts him, noting the man's shif
- [Joam Dacosta](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_giant_raft_se/characters/joam_dacosta.md): Joam Dacosta is the identity Joam Garral left behind after being wrongly condemned in a notorious affair of stolen diamonds. A dying accomplice entrusted proofs of his innocence to Torres, who now uses them as a weapon o
- [Fragoso](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_giant_raft_se/characters/fragoso.md): Fragoso is a good-natured jack-of-all-trades whose sociability and quick hands make him welcome wherever he goes along the Amazon. It is his casual generosity — offering Torres a free shave and speaking up for him — that
- [Judge Jarriquez](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_giant_raft_se/characters/judge_jarriquez.md): Jarriquez is the magistrate in Manaus charged with extracting the secret of a cryptogram on which a condemned man's life depends. Proud of his reasoning, he tries ages, dates, and victim counts until his frustration turn
- [Minha Garral](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_giant_raft_se/characters/minha_garral.md): Minha travels the Amazon aboard her father's giant raft, engaged to Manoel and cherished by the whole Garral household. Yet Torres's veiled threats and her father's hidden dread temper her joy, and she can only watch and
- [Lina](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_giant_raft_se/characters/lina.md): Lina serves as companion to Minha, but her curiosity and instinct make her far more than a servant aboard the jangada. She dislikes Torres on sight and persuades Fragoso to stay behind and keep watch while the family vis
- [Yaquita Garral](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_giant_raft_se/characters/yaquita_garral.md): Yaquita is the matriarch of the Garral family, married to Joam by Padre Passanha and mother to Benito and Minha. Her devotion shapes the domestic world of the jangada, from the chapel built for the old priest to the care
- [Judge Ribeiro](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_giant_raft_se/characters/judge_ribeiro.md): A former judge involved in the original Tijuco crime case.
- [Ortega](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_giant_raft_se/characters/ortega.md): A historical figure referenced in the backstory of the crime.
- [Araújo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_giant_raft_se/characters/araujo.md): A name mentioned in connection with the Tijuco affair.
- [Padre Passanha](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_giant_raft_se/characters/padre_passanha.md): For fifty years Padre Passanha has led the mission at Iquitos, baptizing and educating the Garral children and marrying Yaquita to Joam. Now retiring to Pará, he travels with the family on the jangada, where a private ch

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_giant_raft_se/characters