The Girl Who Smiled Beads Character Analysis

Clemantine Wamariya

Clemantine Wamariya is the author and protagonist of The Girl Who Smiled Beads. Before the Rwandan Genocide breaks out, Clemantine has a happy childhood. She plays with her brother Pudi, imitates her sister Claire… read analysis of Clemantine Wamariya

Claire

Claire is Clemantine’s older sister and is 14 when the book opens in Rwanda, before the Rwandan Genocide breaks out. As a teenager, Claire is confident and enterprising, and she dreams of going to… read analysis of Claire

Rob

Rob is Claire’s husband and Mariette, Freddy, and Michele’s father. He’s an aid worker at the refugee camp in Burundi where Clemantine and Claire first stay after leaving Rwanda. He is young… read analysis of Rob

Pudi

Pudi is Clemantine and Claire’s brother, older than Clemantine and younger than Claire. When they are kids in Rwanda, Clemantine and Pudi play together in the mango tree in the yard, pretending it is… read analysis of Pudi

Clemantine’s Mother

Clemantine, Claire, and Pudi’s mother is modest, religious, and regal-looking. In the backyard of their house in Kigali, Rwanda, Clemantine’s mother has a big garden that is her pride and joy. She… read analysis of Clemantine’s Mother

Clemantine’s Father

Clemantine, Claire, and Pudi’s father is a big man with a broad smile. In Kigali, Rwanda, he started his own car service that grew into a large commercial car rental business. He… read analysis of Clemantine’s Father

Clemantine’s Grandmother

Clemantine’s grandmother lives in Butare, Rwanda, in a small farmhouse in a field of sunflowers. When the conflict in Rwanda escalates, Clemantine’s mother sends Clemantine and Claire to stay with their grandmother. Clemantine and… read analysis of Clemantine’s Grandmother

Mukamana

Mukamana is Clemantine’s nanny when she is a young girl in Rwanda. Clemantine always asks Mukamana to tell her stories that explain how the world works. Often, Mukamana tells Clemantine the story of a… read analysis of Mukamana

Mariette

Mariette is Claire and Rob’s first child and Freddy and Michele’s sister. She is born at Rob’s family’s house in Uvira, Zaire, but Clemantine and Claire become refugees again shortly after her birth… read analysis of Mariette

Mama Nepele

Mama Nepele is Rob’s mother. She lives with Mama Dina and the rest of Rob’s family in Uvira, Zaire. She is gentle and attentive, always making sure that Clemantine has what she needs. She… read analysis of Mama Nepele

Mrs. Thomas

Mrs. Thomas is the woman with whom Clemantine stays during the week to attend a nice school in the United States. Mrs. Thomas has a beautiful suburban house. Clemantine calls Mrs. Thomas her American mother… read analysis of Mrs. Thomas

Ryan

Ryan is Clemantine’s boyfriend whom she lives with in San Francisco after she graduates from Yale. Although Clemantine depends on Ryan, she pushes him away because she still feels traumatized by her past and… read analysis of Ryan

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is a talk show host and philanthropist. She was the host of the Oprah Winfrey Show, a daytime talk show in which she covered popular culture, world events, and self-help. The Girl Who… read analysis of Oprah Winfrey

Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel is a Holocaust survivor and the author of Night, a memoir about his experience in Auschwitz. When she is in high school in the United States, Clemantine reads Night an identifies with… read analysis of Elie Wiesel

Susan

Susan is a popular girl at Clemantine’s school in the United States. Susan bullies a girl from Eastern Europe and doesn’t invite her to her pool party. Clemantine corners Susan in the bathroom and… read analysis of Susan

Minor Characters

Pascazia

Pascazia is Clemantine’s second nanny in Rwanda. She joins the family after Clemantine’s first nanny, Mukamana, mysteriously disappears. Pascazia upsets Clemantine’s mother one day by walking Clemantine home from kindergarten past a group of people celebrating someone being stoned. Shortly after this incident, Pascazia disappears too.

Mucyechuru

Mucyechuru (“grandmother”) is a woman Clemantine meets in a refugee camp in Burundi. She tells Clemantine stories and teaches her how to forage for food.

Musaza

Musaza (“grandfather”) is Mucyechuru’s husband. He tells Clemantine stories and teaches her to forage. Mucyechuru and Musaza make Clemantine feel protected and cared for.

Mama Dina

Mama Dina is Rob’s aunt. She lives in Uvira, Zaire. She is decisive and commanding and talks to God very casually in her prayers. As the conflict escalates and the family is displaced from Uvira, Mama Dina’s prayers become more direct and casual.

Mwasiti

Mwasiti isRob’s cousin. Mwasiti lives in Uvira, Zaire on Lake Tanganyika where Clemantine and Claire stay after Claire marries Rob.

Dina

Dina isRob’s cousin. Dina lives in Uvira with Mama Nepele, Mama Dina, and Mwasiti.

The Beasleys

The Beasleys are the family with whom Claire, Clemantine and Rob first stay when they immigrate to the United States. The Beasleys provide them with lots of resources and eventually enroll Clemantine in a better school, arranging for her to stay with Mrs. Thomas during the week.

Mr. Thomas

Mr. Thomas is a lawyer and Mrs. Thomas’s husband. He takes Clemantine to the Secretary of State office so she can finally get official identification as a United States citizen.

Freddy

Freddy isClaire and Rob’s third child and Mariette and Michele’s brother. He’s born while Claire is a refugee in Africa.

Michele

Michele isClaire and Rob’s third child and Mariette and Freddy’s sister. She’s born in the United States.

The Beckers

The Beckers arethe couple who greet Clemantine, Claire, Rob, Mariette and Freddy when they land in Chicago.

Sarah

Sarah is the Beasley’s daughter. Sarah is nice to Clemantine, but Clemantine doesn’t understand Sarah’s teenage behavior.

Caulay

Caulay isMrs. Thomas’s teenage daughter.

Mrs. Kline

Mrs. Kline isa friend of Mrs. Thomas’s who takes Clemantine shopping for clothes. She buys Clemantine her eighth-grade graduation dress and makes Clemantine realize that she needs to learn to love her body.

Linda

Linda is a white woman whom Clemantine and Claire meet at church in South Africa. Linda gives them food and clothes and enrolls Clemantine in school. Clemantine wants Linda to be her mother.

Luisa

Luisa is Clemantine’s one friend at Yale.

Rhoda

Rhoda is Clemantine’s friend and the daughter of the landlady of Chibolya, the slum in Zambia where Clemantine, Claire, Rob, Mariette and Freddy live for a while. Although Rhoda lives in a slum, her mother makes sure she believes her life is perfect.

Zach

Zach isClemantine’s boyfriend while she is a student at Yale. Zach is a Black American from Atlanta, Georgia. He goes with Clemantine on her class trip to Kenya to study Swahili.

Carol Jacobs

Carol Jacobs is one of Clemantine’s professors at Yale who teaches a class on the W. G. Sebald, an author and historian. Sebald’s works teach Clemantine to retrieve her past by trusting her jumbled instincts, memories, and habits to reveal it to her.

Uncle

Uncle isClemantine’s close friend in Rwanda with whom she stays when she visits as an adult. Uncle has a beautiful house and garden where Clemantine feels as peace for the first time in her life.

Vicki

Vicki isClaire’s childhood friend in Rwanda. When Clemantine visits Rwanda after immigrating to the United States, she and Vicki watch the sunset over Kigali.

The Girl Who Smiled Beads Characters