# The Mother — Character guide

> Key figures in The Mother by Pearl S. Buck.

- [The Mother](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mother_se/characters/the_mother.md): A widow tethered to her fields and children, she discovers in a stranger's small kindness a heat she cannot name or bury.
- [The Man](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mother_se/characters/the_man.md): An agent who waives his fee and lingers in a neighbor's dooryard, his false cheer masking the eyes that slide toward a woman across the way.
- [The Woman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mother_se/characters/the_woman.md): She sits spinning at her threshold while a visitor's gaze drifts to her, her stillness the quiet center of a tension she half-perceives.
- [The Old Mother](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mother_se/characters/the_old_mother.md): A grandmother who watches the rice seedlings against greedy birds, her sharp cries and long memory shaping the household's daily rhythms.
- [The Elder Son](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mother_se/characters/the_elder_son.md): Bent early by labor, he broods on a mother's love that pours toward his younger brother, his patience wearing thin as a dammed river.
- [The Young Man](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mother_se/characters/the_young_man.md): Quick, brown, and light on his feet like his father, he is the mother's favorite, slipping away from his brother's blows to wander.
- [The Young Girl](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mother_se/characters/the_young_girl.md): She is the girl in her father's household who runs to pick up a weeping child, whose smallness weakens her heart even when she shouts at the ones under her feet. That same instinct will follow her into marriage, where a 
- [Some Stranger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mother_se/characters/some_stranger.md): Anonymous figure who delivers news via letter.
- [Li The First](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mother_se/characters/li_the_first.md): Named character, possibly a family member or local figure.
- [Cousin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mother_se/characters/cousin.md): A cousin of the mother or another character.
- [Child](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_mother_se/characters/child.md): A child character, possibly the mother's youngest.

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