Tex

Mason, unlike Tex, wants desperately to leave Garyville. He is counting on a basketball scholarship to propel him to college and beyond. Mason is disciplined and responsible, and he fends for both himself and Tex while their neglectful father is away. He often acts as the foil for Tex in the book. In contrast to Tex, Mason does not have much of a connection with animals. When thinking about Mason’s bond with his horse, Tex muses, “Mason had never treated him like a person, so Red had never acted like one” (3). Mason does not have time for leisurely pursuits, and he can be stern and unyielding. Nevertheless, it is clear how much he cares for his little brother. He defends Tex from Pop from the beginning.

When discussing Mason with Jamie, Tex says, “[m]aybe being popular and being liked ain’t the same thing” (154). Because of his athletic prowess, Mason is one of the most popular boys in school. Many are jealous of him, and he can be aloof. Pop also describes Mason as resembling the boys’ dead mother: “Yeah, Mason is a lot like she was, proud as Lucifer, a bulldog for grudges” (198). Yet, it is Mason who Tex turns to when he is scared. Mason has always been available to him, and it is Mason who would consider sacrificing his scholarship for Tex. There is an undeniable bond between the brothers.

The father of Mason and, ostensibly, Tex, Pop is absent much of the time. He follows the rodeo circuit, obeys his own whims, and gets caught up in questionable business ventures. He forgets about retrieving Negrito for Tex because he ends up in a pool tournament in a neighboring town. He served a stint in prison for dealing in bootlegged alcohol, and he generally has a knack for trouble. Through Tex’s eyes, Pop is an idol, an ideal to live up to, and a role model. However, Mason finds Pop irresponsible and inexcusable. When it surfaces that Pop is not really Tex’s father, it is revealed that Pop has unconscionably ignored Tex because he still harbors anger over his parentage.

While Tex himself does not always see this, the reader clearly knows that Pop—while not wholly a villain—is, at best, a self-centered pleasure-seeker, and at worst, a callous character who refuses even to comfort Tex when the truth comes out. Pop himself does not have a talent for self-reflection: his young wife took comfort in another man while he was in prison for business that she cautioned him against. He recounts her death with characteristic insensitivity, essentially suggesting that she brought it on herself through stubbornness. Pop cares little about anybody but himself.