Another character whose perspective Leaf Storm represents is Isabel, who is also the protagonist of the short story “Monologue of Isabel Watching It Rain in Macondo.” She’s the Colonel’s daughter and the mother of Martin’s son. She experiences significant anxiety. In the narrative present, her primary concern is how her association with the doctor will affect her and her son’s lives moving forward. At one point, she states: “And tomorrow it won’t be my son who goes to school but some other, completely different child; a child who will grow, reproduce, and die in the end with no one paying him the debt of gratitude which would give him Christian burial” (26).

In addition, Isabel worries about how her son will grow up, considering that he’s beginning to resemble his father. These concerns hint at Isabel’s cynical belief in the cycles of history. At one point in the novella, Isabel recalls how, the night she fitted her wedding gown, she discovered that she bore an exact resemblance to her mother, who died in labor. Martin eventually abandons her and her son after exploiting her family’s wealth under the guise of a business opportunity, and Isabel worries that her son may inherit his father’s worst qualities.

Isabel’s anxiety presents itself in the short story, too, as she’s the only character who registers the apocalyptic nature of the rain flooding Macondo. In contrast to Martin, who is so indifferent to the rain that he expresses boredom with the storm, Isabel becomes disoriented as the storm becomes more and more transgressive. By the end of the story, however, she finds peace in the silence that follows the storm’s end. This resonates with the resolution she finds at the end of Leaf Storm, as she discovers that no one is left from the Macondo she knew to curse her for joining the doctor’s funeral. Instead, Isabel’s worries turn to the destiny of her family, framing them as being inextricable from the destiny of Macondo.

The third character whose perspective informs Leaf Storm is the boy. His point of view introduces readers to the world of the story, framing its events as first-time experiences: “I’ve seen a corpse for the first time” (15). This allows him to learn things about the world around him at the same time that readers do.

The boy’s innocence insulates him from the subtext of the events that fill his mother and his grandfather with concern over the course of the funeral. Instead, the boy is preoccupied with the mystery of the rituals surrounding death, as well as the role he must play at the funeral. His resolution to behave for his mother’s sake illustrates his willingness to respect the solemnity of the doctor’s funeral, even though the events preceding it shock him. Throughout the novella, he thus fights the urge to step out and escape the sight of the doctor’s corpse, knowing that behaving means sitting still and looking directly at the coffin. Another aspect of the boy’s characterization is his desire to be with his peers, especially Abraham. The boy convinces himself that the more he behaves at the funeral, the sooner it can finish and the sooner he can see Abraham.

One of the central characters of Leaf Storm is the doctor, whose death propels the narrative forward. The novella reveals that the doctor died by suicide, though the text also implies that he had a terminal illness for at least three years before the start of the novella.

The doctor is a highly unreliable character, which the novella signals through his decision to withhold treatment from the wounded men on the night of the riot. His only credential is a letter of recommendation from a military superior, and though he initially sees patients while he’s a guest at the Colonel’s house, he eventually reneges on his Hippocratic Oath to pursue a life of indulgence and vanity. The banana company’s arrival catalyzes this change by setting up a clinic to rival the doctor’s practice and eventually putting him out of business. From then on, the doctor becomes the object of the village’s wrath, which contributes to his decision to enter seclusion. The doctor’s unreliability extends to his relationship with Meme, as the novella leaves it ambiguous whether they really have a sexual relationship with each other and whether this resulted in her having a child. When Meme vanishes, the doctor is the prime suspect, and though he says she left of her own accord, no evidence supports his claim.

The doctor is a faithless man, though he’s quick to clarify that he isn’t an atheist. As he explains to the Colonel, he’s disturbed by the question of God’s existence, so he prefers not to think about it. This compels the Colonel to seek his religious conversion. Consequently, the doctor increasingly isolates himself to avoid confronting the question. The text implies that when the Colonel introduces Pup to the doctor, he starts to experience a change in character. This culminates in his breaking his seclusion to treat his former benefactor, the Colonel, after the Colonel experiences a severe fall. Out of respect for the doctor’s dignity, the Colonel ensures that he’s granted a Christian burial.

The story “Blacamán the Good, Vendor of Miracles” introduces its titular protagonist and narrator as a boy who aspires to become a fortune teller. Blacamán the Bad deems him fit for this pursuit because he has an “idiot face.” Blacamán’s character arc evolves through his transformation from a boy of humble beginnings to an extravagant faith healer who overshadows his mentor. Throughout his tutelage, Blacamán the Good experiences frequent abuse from Blacamán the Bad. This culminates in an extended period of torture and imprisonment while the two are on the run from the US military, during which Blacamán the Good manifests his gift for healing and resurrection for the first time.

As a celebrity, Blacamán the Good becomes arrogant, which characterizes his narratorial voice. At one point, his monologue details the various possessions he owns as a faith healer, which include a “six-cylinder touring car […] genuine silk shirts […] topaz teeth” (181), to explain why he would rather live well than live like a saint. He eventually takes revenge against Blacamán the Bad for his abuse, and the cruelty he exacts on his former mentor suggests that he hasn’t lived up to his name by finding the capacity to truly transform, but has instead digressed beyond his mentor’s basest instinct.

In “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World,” the villagers are the protagonists. The story arc reflects their changing attitudes toward the corpse that washes up on their shores, which escalates from basic sympathy for a dead man to familial affection.

Initially, tension between the women and the men is intense, especially once the men see the women’s interest in the drowned man. Only when the women reveal the drowned man’s face to the men does their resentment toward him subside. This underscores the epiphanic nature of the drowned man’s beauty, inspiring even the men to look past their egos and appreciate his uniqueness and the tragedy of his fate: “They only had to take the handkerchief off his face to see that he was ashamed, that it was not his fault that he was so big or so heavy or so handsome” (151). The villagers take various steps to humanize the drowned man, bestowing upon him a name and relatives to amplify the emotional significance of his funeral rites.

The drowned man’s arrival in the village significantly affects the villagers’ self-image as a community. After they send the corpse off to the sea, the villagers ardently hope for the drowned man’s return and proceed to make the village more accommodating for his large size. From then on, the village takes on a new identity as “Esteban’s village,” signifying their permanent change from who they were at the start of the story.