The Hairy Ape characters

Also known as Bob Smith

Appears from the start

A massively built stoker aboard an ocean liner who takes pride in the strength that feeds its furnaces. Known as Yank, he believes he belongs at the center of the modern industrial world because his labor makes the ship move. He dismisses politics and reflection in favor of physical certainty.

Appears from the start

An elderly Irish stoker who remembers the age of sailing ships as freer and more human than life below decks on a modern liner. Paddy's nostalgia irritates Yank, but it offers an early challenge to Yank's conviction that machinery gives him a secure place in the world.

Appears from the start

A stoker who interprets the crew's suffering through socialist politics. Long argues that wealthy owners exploit the men below decks and urges class solidarity, ideas Yank initially rejects as empty talk because he identifies with the ship's power.

First appears in chapter 2

The educated daughter of a steel magnate and a passenger in the liner's privileged upper world. Dissatisfied with sheltered wealth, Mildred speaks of doing social good and demands to see the stokehole, though her interest is detached from the workers' actual lives.

First appears in chapter 2

Mildred's conventional and disapproving aunt, who accompanies her on the voyage. She regards Mildred's desire to visit the stokehole as improper and futile, and she is comfortable with the social division Mildred claims to question.

First appears in chapter 2

The ship's officer assigned to escort Mildred below decks. He warns her about the heat, dirt, and harshness of the stokehole but must obey the influence attached to her family and allow the visit.

First appears in chapter 7

An official at the Industrial Workers of the World office whom Yank asks for help attacking the steel industry. The secretary listens skeptically to his demand for violence and suspects that such an obvious proposal may be an attempt to entrap the organization.

Also known as the hairy ape

First appears in chapter 8

A powerful gorilla confined at the zoo. Yank sees the animal as another creature judged by its body and shut out from human society, and approaches its cage in search of the kinship he has failed to find elsewhere.