Carter Character Analysis

In “Gaps in the Hickory,” Carter is Jeanie and Jackson’s child, Izzy and Delores’s grandchild, and Lucy’s older sibling. He presents as a young boy but is transgender and seems to identify as a girl (though the story doesn’t say so explicitly). He feels most himself when he has long hair and wears his sister’s clothing, but he has to be secretive about it, since a lot of people who live in his rural Mississippi town—especially his father—hold bigoted views. In the story’s present, Carter is grieving the recent death of Izzy, the only person who really accepted him for who he was. For much of the story, Carter (like the rest of his family, minus Izzy) believes that his grandpa Denver ran off with another woman before he was born. Because of this, he has no idea that he really has another grandmother, Delores, who not only would accept him as he is, but who would also empathize with his struggles with identity. At the end of the story, Jeanie, fearing for Carter’s safety, takes Carter to live with Delores in New Orleans.