Marc is such a clod.

Is there anything worse than a know-it-all that doesn’t know anything? No, there isn’t. And that is what describes Marc to a T!  This guy wanted to be in control of everything at the carton plant, but just went around making a mess of everything. He was a spoiled-rotten brat and a snob who looked down on his fellow workers.

Marc ended up spending only six months in prison after the carton plant arrests and then began moving up the ladder of power.  Now, he has become a well-known politician.

Tissie likes girls…girls and heroin.

Tissie has some problems with communication and also gets a little depressed.  Her problems have led to her being a junkie.  She lives in the garage and works as a prostitute enough to fund her drug habit and spends the rest of the time trying to get Sabina’s attention.

She says “potato”.  He spells “p-o-t-a-t-o”.

Adrian lives to be Vera’s left-hand man. He is best friend, puppy dog and creepy stalker guy all rolled up in one package.

When he is on good terms with Vera, he is good at taking her theories and crunching the numbers to prove them.

When he is not on good terms with Vera, he really has nothing at all to say or do. He is worthless and is merely waiting to serve her again.

Ted is the strong and silent type. He is especially quiet while stealing cars.

Ron met Ted in lock-up. Ron considered him a great philosopher, although he is generally more thoughtful than wordy.  He and Ron went into business together and Ted became a pro, literally, at stealing cars.

He has an unusual and complicated relationship with many of the females at the garage, but everyone who knows him has a deep level of trust in him.

He has money and titles, and Vera likes it.

Professor Kren shows up in a limousine and a sleek black suit to teach about the transformation of society. Vera used to laugh that he was the only revolutionary with servants. Then, she started to like it. She became his most devoted student and his lover.

He became the head of the state run bank and eventually, she started to use his power. She became rector of the university and got him to pull strings with  prison officials for her benefit.

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That Alberts is a slippery one.

George Alberts met Luisa, Nachalo and Margarita through political meetings and they became inseparable. Shortly before the carton plant takeover, Alberts was fired. From that point on, his true alliances became shrouded in a cloud of suspicion. Although he did participate in the uprising, he was not arrested; he was inexplicably able to release Luisa, Sophia and Sabina from jail and arrange for their emigration to the U.S.

Alberts also somehow manages to pre-arrange a job for himself in the U.S. as a high school science teacher. He lives with Luisa until Luisa figures out that he was trying to make her his “wife,” then he packs up and leaves with Sabina. Sophia never sees him again, as she can’t stand him and considers him an opportunist and pedagogue.

He teaches Sabina science and sets up a large lab in their home. Eventually, he is labeled a subversive at the high school and is fired. He then starts a business that is connected to the military. Hmmm… that activity does sound a little suspicious…

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“So many times, it happens too fast
You change your passion for glory
Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive”

-Eye of the Tiger by Survivor

Yarostan met Manuel during his first term in prison.  Manuel was the first person to point out to Yarostan that the revolution they supported and fought for was never intended to free them, but to re-enslave them to new masters.  He described to Yarostan a meeting that took place between politicians and a select few workers, some of the workers who had fought the hardest and the loudest.  But after this meeting, the workers were no longer engaged in common projects with the workers, but were speaking from platforms about projects determined within their own meetings.

Anton, a prisoner that Yarostan meets at another time, described his decision to keep shooting at the “liberation army,” since he knew that he did not want to be reconquered.  He criticized the fact that this second army parked within easy access to the fighting workers, but did nothing to help.  They were waiting until the most volatile revolutionaries had died before they stepped in to take power over the remaining people.

Zdenek was a union devotee.

Zdenek has worked in the same factory as long as he has been working, which was prewar. Oh, he was in jail for some time, and that is where he met Yarostan. When they first met, Yarostan thought they were about the same age, but the years have taken their toll on the dear man. Now, Yara affectionately calls him “Grandfather”.

Yarostan and Zdenek have had parallel worldviews throughout their friendship. When they first met, they thought like Luisa, but as they started to see the consequences of the “workers’ uprising,” they changed their opinions. His current ideas may best be described as nihilist.  He describes his hopes:

“For people to destroy the language along with all the other conditions they’re born into, for every generation to shape its own world and invent its own language. How can we talk of a revolution in which people reshape their world if we can’t even imagine people shaping their own language? How can people shape anything if they never leave the world they’re born into?”

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Jasna isn’t a leader.

Jasna was part of the carton plant taker and later taught at Yara’s school.  She is a warm caretaker type and took a part in making sure that Yarostan “the vagabond caught oversleeping” was cared for.

Although her intentions are very good, she is usually befuddled by her lack of confidence and remains timid in group situations.  She parrots the rhetoric of Luisa at the carton plant factory and is the last to join the strike at Yara’s school.

Ron is a rebel, a rebel without a cause.

Ron has struggled to find purpose and acceptance. He’s got an abusive dad and a drunk mom. He’s not really a good fit with most people, but he has developed leadership skills and street-smarts. He has been able to find some expression through petty crime and the black market. Then he met “Sophie”.

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