Character Analysis: The Palace Thief

In the story, “The Palace Thief”, the characters gain different interactions with each other. Throughout the story, those relationships start to change. Mr.Hundert, a main character in the story, develops relationships some of these characters. Here is how those relationships change from the beginning to the end. First up is Sedgewick Bell. In the beginning, Sedgewick and Mr.Hundert have a very awful relationship. Mr.Hundert is Sedgewick’s teacher. When Sedgewick was introduced into Mr.Hundert’s class, he was a class clown. Sedgewick payed no attention in class and never knew answers to the questions he was asked. These two were like arch-nemesis. In the middle of the story, Mr.Hundert starts to feel bad for Sedgewick. When Mr.Hundert

Mr.Hundert almost gets caught with the souvenir gun in his possession. I feel like this was a setup. Who else knew that he had the gun? Mr.Hundert and Senator Bell ended the story with a skeptical relationship. So, in the beginning and middle of the story we don’t hear from Charles Ellerby. Mr.Hundert mentions Mr.Ellerby once but he doesn’t talk about him. The most we know is that Charles is another teacher. It almost seems like Mr.Hundert looks up to Charles Ellerby. Later on in the story, we see that Mr.Hundert trusted Mr.Ellerby. Mr.Hundert liked Charles because he was “ a moralist of no uncertain terms(P.96)”. Mr.Ellerby gave Mr.Hundert advice about what to do in the Sedgewick situation. That friendship didn’t last long though. When Mr.Woodbridge’s death had come, the two turned to rivals for the spot. Mr.Ellerby spoke accusations about Mr..Hundert. Once Mr.Ellerby became headmaster, in the same month he asked Mr.Hundert to retire. So you see that Mr.Hundert was an known man. He had relationships with all these people. Somehow though, as time went by, these relationships didn’t stay the same. What happened? It seems that people change people. So we know what changes people, but