John
John is the central character in the story, and the third-person narration follows his perspective closely. John is a young man from a small village in Kenya. He is well-educated and about to depart for Uganda where he will attend college. However, John's girlfriend Wamuhu is pregnant, and John fears this will destroy his possibility of a future, as well as his relationship with his preacher father. Throughout the story, John is overcome by internal conflict over what to do – marry Wamuhu or leave her to raise the baby alone, risking ex-communication. John finds himself unable to act, until the very end of the story when he strangles Wamuhu to death and effectively sentences himself to death through his actions.
Stanley
Stanley is John's father. He is a Calvinist preacher who has subscribed to white European notions of religion and education. Stanley is stern and controlling, referring to his adult son as "the boy" throughout the story. John is afraid of his father and what Stanley would do if he found out about Wamuhu's pregnancy. The narrator suggests that Stanley is so harsh toward John because he feels guilty that John was conceived out of wedlock.
Susana
Susana is John's mother. Though she does not buy entirely into the parenting style or religious fanaticism that Stanley forces on their family, she is also a passive character who frequently defers to her husband. She confronts him once, at the beginning of the story, telling him that he acts too harshly toward John. However, she is never able to get through to Stanley and remains a bystander in his treatment of their son.
Wamuhu
Wamuhu is a young woman who becomes pregnant with John's baby. John thinks she might be the most beautiful woman in the village, but he resents the fact that she is not educated in the same Euro-centric way he is. She does not speak English and she is circumcised, as her family follows the traditions of the tribe rather than the Christian upbringing that Stanley has provided for John. John is certain that Wamuhu's pregnancy will destroy his chance at a future. At the end of the story, Wamuhu refuses John's bribe to lie about the father of the child, which prompts John into a fit of rage in which he strangles Wamuhu to death.
