Never Come Morning: Analysis of Major Characters
"Never Come Morning" delves into the lives and struggles of its major characters, primarily set in a Polish neighborhood in Chicago. The protagonist, Bruno "Lefty" Bicek, is a seventeen-year-old hoodlum torn between aspirations of becoming a professional boxer and the tumultuous realities of gang loyalty and personal guilt. He grapples with the fallout of his girlfriend Steffi Rostenkowski's tragic experience of rape by gang members, which profoundly impacts their relationship and her sense of trust. Steffi transitions from innocence to disillusionment, ultimately seeking refuge with another man after her betrayal.
Supporting characters like Bonifacy Konstantine, a deformed barber and local crime boss, and Casey Benkowski, a failed boxer turned mentor, illustrate the complexities of neighborhood dynamics and crime. Fireball Kodadek, a fearsome gang member, represents the threats Bruno faces within his own ranks, while police captain "One-Eye" Tenczara embodies law enforcement's indifference to the youth's struggles. The narrative culminates in Bruno's boxing ambitions, where he faces both physical challenges and moral dilemmas, highlighting themes of violence, loyalty, and the quest for redemption. The story paints a vivid picture of the harsh realities of life in a troubled community, with characters who reflect a range of human emotions and societal issues.
Never Come Morning: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Nelson Algren
First published: 1942
Genre: Novel
Locale: Chicago, Illinois
Plot: Naturalism
Time: The 1930's
Bruno “Lefty” Bicek (BI-sehk), a seventeen-year-old hoodlum in a Polish neighborhood in Chicago. Proficient at baseball and boxing, Bruno is blond and athletically built, with a large body and long arms. He lusts for tobacco, women, food, and public triumph but is also haunted by guilt. He dreams of becoming a professional boxer, even as he steals a slot machine and leads his neighborhood gang, the Warriors, to reorganize as the “Baldheads.” Bruno's intentions are often good: He repeatedly promises to himself that he will make up for injustices to his girlfriend, Steffi Rostenkowski. With his peers, however, Bruno lets the code of gang loyalty and his desire to conform prevent him from asserting himself when gang members follow him and Steffi to their alley hideaway and rape her. As Steffi is demoralized by gang rape, Bruno seethes inwardly until a Greek outsider attempts to get in line; with one kick of a metal-tipped shoe, Bruno breaks the Greek's neck. Although he successfully escapes from the scene, Bruno is later picked up by the police and questioned about a shooting for which he is not guilty; he takes the blame out of gang loyalty. In jail, Bruno reads boxing magazines and struggles with his conscience, which tells him that he is guilty of killing Steffi, even though she is alive and as well as any woman can be after what she has suffered. After his release from jail, Bruno dreams of fighting the former state light heavyweight champion while he struts outside Mama Tomek's house of prostitution, where Steffi now lives, soliciting customers. He finally gets his boxing match and hangs on through sheer determination, even with a broken hand, to defeat his opponent. Afterward, he is met by the police and arrested, as a result of information passed by the jealous Konstantine, for murdering the Greek. Bruno's final comment is that he never expected to live to be twenty-one.
Steffi Rostenkowski (ros-tehn-KOW-skee), Bruno's seventeen-year-old girlfriend. In the beginning, Steffi is innocent, poor, and indolent. After being raped by members of Bruno's gang, she goes to live with the barber, Konstantine, at Mama Tomek's. After her betrayal, she loses her sense of trust; as she listens to the passing trains, Steffi thinks that God has forgotten them all.
Bonifacy Konstantine (BAHN-eh-fahs-ih KAHN-stahn-teen), a barber and local crime boss. With a left leg shortened and twisted by childhood disease, the barber is deformed in both body and spirit. He hungers for a cut of every small-time operation in his neighborhood—even the haircuts required for membership in Bruno's Baldheads. Konstantine makes arrangements for fights for the local toughs, and he is angered when Casey makes the arrangements for Bruno's fight. His loss to Bruno in a card game is part of his motivation for informing on Bruno to the police.
Casey Benkowski (behn-KOW-skee), a failed boxer who is Konstantine's henchman. A bicycle thief at the age of ten and a pimp at fourteen, Casey, now twenty-nine, coaches the youths of the neighborhood in fighting, baseball, theft, and hoodlumism, but he turns to the barber for orders.
Fireball Kodadek (KOH-dah-dehk), the only member of his gang whom Bruno fears, a big man sick with tuberculosis. Kodadek, having once pulled a knife on Bruno, retains his dominance and shows the gang that Bruno, although he is strong, is less tough than he seems.
“One-Eye” Tenczara (tehn-ZAHR-ah), the police captain who questions Bruno and later arrests him after his boxing victory. A man with a small mustache and colorless eyes, he sports a large hat, sleeve garters, a pen and pencil in his shirt pocket, and a cigarette behind one ear. After eleven years on the police force, Tenczara is not impressed by Bruno's claim to know an alderman who is his own recently indicted brother-in-law.
Tiger Pultoric (puhl-TOHR-ihk), a former boxing champion whom Bruno idolizes. Before Bruno's fight, Kodadek and another of the gang take Pultoric—a short man wearing patent leather shoes and a light green suit with an imitation carnation in the lapel—to Steffi's door, and Bruno injures his hand in the struggle that ensues.
Honeyboy Tucker, a black boxer from South Chicago. Bruno dreams of fighting Tucker and finally defeats him in front of an audience that cheers Bruno, as a white man.