To Have and Have Not characters

Appears from the start

A Key West fishing-boat captain who makes his living taking clients into Cuban waters. He is capable, physically tough, and devoted to supporting his wife and daughters, but one customer's refusal to pay leaves him unable to cover his expenses and pushes him toward illegal work.

Appears from the start

A wealthy American who hires Harry's boat for an extended fishing trip from Havana. After repeatedly losing fish through his own poor judgment, he leaves Cuba without settling the substantial bill, creating the financial crisis that drives Harry's next decisions.

Appears from the start

An alcoholic boatman who attaches himself to Harry in Havana. Though unreliable and often desperate for a drink, he knows the waterfront and helps Harry arrange work after Johnson disappears without paying.

First appears in chapter 5

A Chinese intermediary in Havana who offers Harry money to carry a group of Chinese migrants secretly to Florida. His businesslike proposal places Harry in a scheme where neither the passengers nor the boat captain can safely trust him.

First appears in chapter 9

A Black crewman who works with Harry on a dangerous liquor-smuggling run. He understands the risks of the crossing and remains aboard when the operation brings the boat under gunfire.

First appears in chapter 11

Harry's wife in Key West and the mother of their daughters. Strong, direct, and intensely attached to her husband, she understands that his hazardous work grows from the need to keep the family housed and fed.

First appears in chapter 15

An impoverished Key West laborer and family man who sometimes works aboard local boats. With few ways to earn money, he accepts a job helping Harry on a charter whose passengers are more dangerous than they first appear.

First appears in chapter 16

A successful novelist living among the affluent seasonal residents of Key West. His public confidence and literary reputation contrast with his private selfishness, strained marriage, and habit of treating other people's lives as material.

First appears in chapter 17

Richard Gordon's wife, emotionally isolated within their marriage. She sees more clearly than her husband does the cruelty beneath his cultivated self-image and increasingly questions the life they share.

First appears in chapter 20

A prominent member of a group of Cuban revolutionaries who charter Harry's boat as part of an armed escape from Key West. Controlled and purposeful, he treats violence and the lives of outsiders as costs of the political cause he serves.