Ellen
One of the story's two protagonists, Ellen is Paul's wife and the mother to their child. Economic depression and environmental devastation on the farm has left her feeling caged and hopeless. She longs to move to town, where her father is a store owner. Her eyes are described are being fixed wide-open, as though she cannot shut her eyes to the truth of the couple's desperate situation.
Paul
The second of the story's two protagonists, Paul is a farmer and Ellen's husband. Though only thirty, he has been stripped of his youth by the hardship of farming infertile land. Stern and stubborn, Paul refuses to see the bleak future that Ellen fears. He is too proud to give up on his dream of a prosperous farm.
The Baby
Ellen and Paul's child begins the story crying in his crib, which is covered by a fine-clothed muslin tent that keeps out the dust. At the story's climax, Paul finds the baby dead in Ellen's arms.
