Purcell is one of the narrator’s closest friends and Big Jeff’s cousin. Purcell and Big Jeff are both named Jeff Purcell, so most of the students call him “Little Jeff” because he is smaller than Big Jeff. He hates this name, however, so the narrator calls him Purcell out of courtesy. Purcell is on the editorial board of the school’s literary review, Troubadour, alongside the narrator. Later in the school year, he stops going to chapel, arguing that he doesn’t believe in God, but he ultimately caves in and continues to go so that he won’t be expelled. Like the narrator, Purcell loves Ernest Hemingway—and when Hemingway selects the narrator’s story as the winner of a writing competition, Purcell gives the narrator a first edition copy of Hemingway’s In Our Time. Despite their close friendship, the narrator is often envious of Purcell because of his wealthy background.