Myop is a 10-year-old Black girl living with her family in the Jim Crow South. She possesses a sensory appreciation for the natural world, noting the smell of the air and the bubbles in the local spring. Her youthful optimism colors her perception of the woods and farm until she wanders away from her familiar domestic boundaries.

The Hanged Man is a deceased Black sharecropper whose body lies hidden in a damp section of the forest. His physical remains offer silent clues about his working-class life and the violent nature of his death. The threads of his blue denim overalls and his broken teeth firmly ground him in the harsh realities of the surrounding historical era.

She is a sharecropper who provides a nurturing influence for her young daughter. She represents the safety of the domestic space and the established working routines of the family's farm life.

He is a sharecropper working in the Jim Crow South. Though physically absent from the immediate events of the summer day, his position as the patriarch of the family establishes the working-class background of Myop's household.

The chickens live on the sharecropper farm alongside Myop's family. They serve as friendly companions during her playful explorations of the property boundaries.