The Speaker is a 17-year-old student living in a working-class town in California's Central Valley. Uninspired by his daily classes and the mandated enthusiasm of school pep rallies, he skips these events to sit outside by the canal. He possesses an artistic sensibility and intensely desires to hitchhike to San Francisco to experience a broader, more sophisticated world beyond his dusty hometown.

The Friend is a high school teenager who shares the speaker's feelings of alienation and confinement. With shoulder-length hair and a quiet demeanor, he does not drink or smoke but carries a pure, youthful wild energy. His silent presence offers a sense of camaraderie and proves the speaker is not entirely alone in longing for a bigger life.

The Teachers work at the high school in the San Joaquin Valley. They enforce daily attendance and the routine of roll calls over genuine intellectual engagement. To the young speaker, they appear entirely out of touch with the restless ambitions of adolescence.

The Classmates are the other students attending the speaker's high school in the Central Valley. They participate in the standard school routines, such as attending pep rallies for the unnamed sports team. The speaker feels fundamentally disconnected from them, viewing their musical abilities and interests as unrefined compared to the people he hopes to meet in San Francisco.