The novel’s protagonist and episodic first-person narrator is a 24-year-old black man from Lotus, Georgia. Six foot three inches tall and obviously black, he has to be conscious of maintaining a smart appearance while he travels across the country so he is not continually stopped by the police. The importance of this is highlighted when Billy, a man Frank stays with in Chicago, puts off lining up at the employment agency because Frank’s appearance is of primary importance; for fear of being thought crazy, he cannot wear the “ripped galoshes” the minister gives him when he gets out of the mental hospital as he travels across the country (16). Frank is very proud of his army clothes and wears them in order to command respect and pass through the streets without being harassed. 

Frank is born to hardworking parents who generally neglect him, leaving his care to his harsh step-grandmother, Lenore Money. He grows up “the real mother” to his younger sister, Cee, and is protective of her, thinking that while she can tremble at the sight of a body being tossed into a hole, he “could handle it” because he is stronger and more courageous (4).