Lizzie Bright And The Buckminster Boy

Lizzie Bright Griffin is Turner’s friend, who transitions to his romantic interest as the story goes on. Lizzie is Black and the target of racial discrimination from the prominent leaders of Phippsburg. Despite the challenges she experiences—her mother has died, and her father is not present in her life—Lizzie is confident, lively, and affectionate. Unlike those in Phippsburg, Lizzie is welcoming and warm toward Turner, and the two spend time together on the beach where Lizzie often hunts for clams, as well as on Malaga Island. Turner and Lizzie form a strong bond through their time together, and Lizzie is often playful with Turner. Lizzie’s spirit is apparent when Turner arrives late at Mrs. Cobb’s: “[Lizzie’s] mouth was closed tight, but her eyes said, ‘Turner Ernest Buckminster, if I had to sit in this parlor alone with her for one more minute, I’d have thrown something through a window, and it would have been your fault’” (114). This wry humor is characteristic of Lizzie’s character.

Although she seems determined to fight the displacement of Malaga’s residents, Lizzie is ultimately powerless against the forces that conspire against her, her family, and her community. Although she is characterized as energetic and determined, Lizzie succumbs to despair after she leaves Malaga and Turner is devastated to learn that she died shortly after arriving at the hospital. This underscores how Lizzie becomes a victim of racism and the economic greed of the Phippsburg leaders.

Reverend Buckminster is Turner’s father and the pastor of Phippsburg’s First Congregationalist church. Reverend Buckminster is at first characterized as principled, stern, and even callous toward his son. He begins the story opposed to his son’s relationship with the people on Malaga Island. He tells his son, “‘Turner, no one on that island is fit company for a minister’s son. Heaven only knows what goes on over there. But whatever it is, it’s not for decent-minded folks to be around” (86). This close-mindedness makes Turner question his father’s humanity and ability to relate to him: “Turner wondered if his father had ever played baseball, had ever hit a fly into air so blue that it hurt his eyes to look at it. He wondered if his father had ever joked around, out-loud lied, gotten into a fight and pushed another kid’s nose off to the side, jumped off a cliff about as high as a middle-sized pine into an oncoming froth of wave. Probably not” (119). Just as Reverend Buckminster finds it difficult to relate to his son, Turner finds it difficult to relate to his father.

As the book progresses, Reverend Buckminster gradually becomes more understanding toward Turner and tolerant of the Malaga Island residents. He praises his son’s sympathy for Lizzie and the disadvantaged island community and chastises himself for not taking a stand against the town’s businessmen. In his climactic act as a more sympathetic and opinionated character, Reverend Buckminster gets into a physical fight with the town’s sheriff when his son is threatened. This demonstrates that he has undergone a character arc from unsympathetic to empathizing with his son and the Malaga community. His tragic death at the end of the book adds to the elegiac style of the book.

Mr. Stonecrop represents the selfishness, greed, and power of the male leaders of the Phippsburg community. Turner identifies these characteristics when he refers to Mr. Stonecrop’s “omnipotent presence” (87) and “understanding that his importance in the town, his importance in the church, and the importance of his mission gave him the right to step in on the minister whom he paid every Sunday morning” (87). Mr. Stonecrop lacks empathy, common courtesy, and humility.

Mr. Stonecrop is a static character who does not grow or change over the course of the book. The only difference between his actions at the beginning of the novel and its end is that he will go to greater lengths to try and get what he wants as the story progresses. Although the person who locks Turner in Mrs. Cobb’s cupola is never identified, Mr. Stonecrop is motivated to prevent Turner from “interfering” with the Malaga eviction. Even the name Stonecrop evokes inflexibility, hardness, and inhospitality, and conjures the image of a farmer who grows and harvests a “crop” of stones rather than nourishing food. This image emphasizes and foreshadows Mr. Stonecrop’s harmful actions toward the town when he leaves suddenly after bankrupting many of his fellow townspeople.

Mrs. Cobb begins the story as a cantankerous, unsympathetic, and isolated character. She is portrayed as being physically and figuratively imposing—Turner notices “a large hand, attached to a large woman” (12) when he meets her for the first time. Her words to him match her stern exterior: “‘We don’t run around half naked in Phippsburg. Maybe that’s the kind of thing they do down to Boston, but not here. Not in a God-fearing town. And especially not the minister’s son. Throwing stones at my house—my very house! You’re supposed to set some kind of example. Don’t you know that?’” (13). Like many of the other townspeople, Mrs. Cobb holds the Buckminsters to a higher standard of behavior than ordinary people.

However, like Reverend Buckminster and Willis Hurd, Mrs. Cobb is a dynamic character, slowly connecting with and like Turner and Lizzie. Turner believes that her affection for Lizzie led Mrs. Cobb to leave her house to him. When he says, “‘I know what she wanted me to do with it’” (161), he is referring to Lizzie living in the house. The fact that Mrs. Cobb becomes so concerned about Lizzie’s future and safety implies that she has become more understanding, caring, and connected to the other characters in the story.