Aunt+Jimmy

Aunt Jimmy

The character of Aunt Jimmy helps to convey the dysfunctional family environment in which Cholly was raised -
 * Overall Aunt Jimmy, the caretaker of Cholly, is not described very thoroughly by the narrator in terms of personality. She appears to have been a fairly good-natured person, but that is mostly implied through conversations Aunt Jimmy's friends had about her after she died ("'You know how she was. So good.'" p. 141). However, at the same time, Aunt Jimmy often reminds him of "how she had saved him" (p. 132), making it seem as if Aunt Jimmy likes to maintain the apperance of goodliness, and is not actually as sweet as she appears. This is comparable to the character of Pauline, who chooses to pick fights with her husband, Cholly, in order to appear at least better than him in the eyes of her children, even though she is not great of a parent herself.
 * The narrator's description of Cholly's opinion of Aunt Jimmy is mostly of disgust - he does not appear to be very grateful for Aunt Jimmy at first, even though she took him in when his mother, Aunt Jimmy's niece, was going to kill him