Janie, Mag, and the Boys Character Analysis

Janie, Mag and the boys are Mr. Sommers and Mrs. Sommers’s children. They are mentioned only at the beginning of the story when Mrs. Sommers lies awake at night, meticulously planning how to spend her fifteen dollars. Initially, she is set on using her small windfall to buy much-needed clothing for her children. Notably, it’s unclear whether her desire to purchase new items for the children is motivated by devotion for them, or by the prospect of saving herself time from darning and mending their old clothes. Either way, the story begins by placing the children at the center of Mrs. Sommers’s world. As the story unfolds, however, Mrs. Sommers’s commitment to her children seems to be forgotten as she spends the money allotted to them on expensive items for herself. At the end of the story, Mrs. Sommers longs for her journey to continue forever, presumably even if this means that she never returns home to her children.