Shadow Song Terry Kay Character Analysis

In The Winter of Our Discontent John Steinbeck wrote “I wonder how many people I’ve looked at all my life and never seen”. Though Steinbeck posed this thought, this could easily be a statement made by Terry Kay’s eccentric character, Avrum, a supporting character in the novel, Shadow Song. Kay tends to explore humanitarian issues in his works. This modern American author, Kay develops characters in this novel through events, dialogue, complex character relationships, vivid descriptions, and connections to classic American authors.

Terry Kay develops characters through events and dialogue. One instance of this is when the main character Bobo fought with his wife Carolyn about him going into the Catskill Mountains. This is revealed early on

Amy Lourie was Bobo’s love interest during his first summer in the Catskills, a relationship that was prohibited and frowned upon during the 1950’s. This relationship was frowned upon because Bobo was a southern Christian boy and Amy was a Jewish girl from New York City, and the relationship was considered a mixing of the classes. Amy and Bobo spent the summer together, and then parted ways, not to see each other again until after Avrum’s death. Avrum’s death brought Amy and Bobo back together for a few love filled days which both of them relish greatly. Avrum was part of what brought Amy and Bobo together in the beginning, so it’s only fitting that Avrum’s death bring them back together. Avrum Feldman was believed to be crazy by most of the characters in the book, because he ‘heard’ the ghost voice of opera singer Amelita Galli-Gurci, and told many tales about her shows and how she changed his life. While Avrum told stories mainly about Amelita Galli-Gurci and they mainly focused on her, there were a few stories of Avrum’s that taught Bobo many lessons, and that Bobo remembered for his life. Avrum and Bobo were quite opposites, Bobo a young, Christian man and Avrum, an older Jewish man. They disagreed on lots of things due to their differences, and this only brought them closer together and made their relationship