My Name is Leon: Characters (AQA GCSE English Literature): Revision Note

My Name is Leon: Characters

Here you will find characters profiles for:

Main characters:

• Leon

• Carol

• Maureen

• Tufty

• Sylvia

• Mr Devlin

Other characters:

• Jake

• Zebra/Judy

• Castro

• Leon’s father

• Jake’s father

Leon

• Leon is the titular character and the protagonist of the novel

• Leon is eight years and nine months old when the story starts, and is 10 by the end

• Leon lives in Birmingham, starting off in a flat with his mother, Carol, and baby brother Jake

• He later lives with Maureen and then Sylvia, both in Birmingham

• De Waal presents Leon as a calm, quiet and loyal young man who cares about others:

  • Amid chaos at home, and then in the care system, Leon retreats into himself 

  • He is very observant, as he’s had to pay attention to his mother’s needs and moods:

    • Leon finds ways to eavesdrop on adults, as it is important to him to know what the adults around him are doing and thinking

  • This is a direct influence of the trauma of being a child who has to care for those who should be caring for him

• De Waal presents a contrast between Leon’s precocious maturity that he has been forced to adopt and the immaturity that suits his age:

  • This is shown in how he reacts to what he overhears, especially when he thinks Maureen and Sylvia want to abandon him for the seaside and a dog

  • Maureen addresses this, telling Leon about the “danger” of “hearing half a conversation”

• Leon struggles to understand how others feel and think:

  • As he has been raised in a situation where the dynamics were far from typical or appropriate, Leon fails to read situations in a typical manner

  • He does not trust adults:

    • This stems from his mum’s erratic behaviour

    • It is also the result of social services talking down to him and making decisions that affect him without consulting him or explaining them

  • De Waal may be making this choice to show that the way social services talk to and about him leads to Leon feeling detached from new people

• Leon is also very vulnerable and insecure, although he does not realise it:

  • He pines for his mother and Jake

  • While he frames this desire as needing to look after them both, in reality he needs them to feel secure

  • He understands his mother’s issues, but just wants her to love him:

    • De Waal signifies this in their final moments together in the book

    • Leon tentatively asks if his mother still loves Jake, and she realises he is asking, without daring to, whether she loves him

    • He needs this affirmation that he never gets

  • This is further highlighted when he runs away from Maureen and Sylvia:

    • He reacts emotionally to believing neither love him, and is ready for them to abandon him like any others

    • He thinks he is independent, and that he just needs his family unit, but is deeply hurt by the idea they do not love him

    • He has grown to love them, especially Maureen

• De Waal presents Leon as a character in conflict:

  • The situation with his mother is a constant struggle:

    • Leon tries to bring order into a chaotic home

  • His father left after Carol became pregnant with Jake, and Leon overhears that his father may be wanted by police

  • Then he is taken from his family by social services:

    • He wants to be with his brother, and is not given the choice

    • He feels his mother is also being kept from him

• Leon is also a character of contrast:

  • He is big and tall, but emotionally vulnerable with instability at home

  • His mother and brother are white, but his father Black

  • He loves to garden, and care for his brother, showing his nurturing spirit, but loves games and TV with soldiers and weapons, and is fascinated by Mr Devlin’s weapons

  • We know him to be smart and good with numbers and letters, but he falls behind in school

  • At school, they are worried about him having no friends, yet he makes friends quickly with Tufty and Mr Devlin, as well as being loved by Maureen and Sylvia, who do not originally intend to have him long-term

  • He is outwardly well-behaved and polite, but steals

• Leon often behaves well even when he doesn’t want to:

  • He is angry when Carol visits and wants to swear, but “has to swallow them down as usual”

• Leon struggles with his identity:

  • He has very little knowledge of his family:

    • His mother is often ill

    • His father is absent

    • He only meets his grandmother once, before she dies the next day

  • He appears to have no knowledge of his Black identity, other than noticing similar patois between his father and Tufty

  • We see him retreat into himself, either desperate to watch TV, or get lost in fantasy:

    • In the second half of the novel, he is driven by the fantasy of reuniting his family and loses focus on anything else

    • He also has violent fantasies under stress from the likes social services

    • De Waal shows here that reality is too much for a young boy, so he dissociates to survive

Carol

• Carol is Leon and Jake’s mother

• She is in her early 30s

• As her mental health spirals, she is hospitalised and the boys taken into care

• Later in the narrative, we find out she is in a halfway house in Bristol, which is close to two hours away

• When the boys are taken into care, Carol doesn’t see Jake again, and sees Leon three times before the novel ends

• Carol is clearly struggling with her mental health:

  • Initially, it appears to be postnatal depression

  • As the story continues, we learn that this is just one facet of her mental health issues

• Carol’s character is revealed piece-by-piece as the narrative progresses:

  • Leon — as a naïve narrator — doesn’t always understand, but the reader, more mature and experienced, can pick up and infer

  • We learn from her file that Carol has problems with alcohol and substances:

    • Leon quickly ignores this

    • This may be de Waal signalling his immaturity in that he only thinks she is sick, and never responsible for any of her issues

  • We find out from her file that Carol makes no effort to attend any appointments once the boys are taken into care

  • It is clear from these notes that social services feel forced to place the children in care permanently

  • When these notes confirm that Carol has a “high level of self-interest”, this is no shock to the reader:

    • To this point in the narrative, Carol has seemed more interested in the men in her life than her own children

    • This is further supported by time she spends chasing Jake’s father while leaving the boys with Tina in Chapter 3

    • It is also reflected in her anger towards Leon — “if you hadn’t been sneaking around he would have come in” — when she notices him listening in on her conversation with Jake’s father at the door

• Carol is not seen for a large part of the middle of the narrative, but when she comes back, she is a changed character:

  • Early on, she is vibrant when happy and erratic when sad

  • This then changes to a suffocating depression that sees her consigned to bed, wetting herself and leaving her children completely unattended

  • When we see her in care centres to meet with Leon, she seems a completely different person

  • In that first meeting, she is somewhat vacant and doesn’t notice when Leon enters the room to see her

  • Leon notices that she has lost a lot of weight, and looks like “she’s never been happy”

• Carol is, whether by her own fault or not, quite selfish

• Carol recognises that she cannot care for Leon, but does not seem to consider his feelings:

  • When she first tells him she cannot care for him, she also says she “can’t manage” herself 

  • Later, we hear she hasn’t marked Leon’s birthday in any way

  • In chapter 41, the last time we see her, she again tells Leon she can’t care for him

  • She gets angry at Leon’s suggestion that she come live with Maureen to be looked after:

    • She does not mind passing off the responsibility for Leon’s care, but is riled by the idea people see her in a negative light

• This may connect with the idea that Leon talks about her being pretty and attractive:

  • As someone who has been seen as pretty her whole life, she needs to uphold an image in her head of who people think she is:

    • This is more important than caring about the needs of others

  • This rubs off on Leon, who is proud of her beauty, and then feels embarrassed to be seen with Maureen later on:

    • Leon thinks Maureen and Sylvia are fat and ugly when he believes they are rejecting him

    • This reveals that he has taken on physical attractiveness as an important characteristic

• The last thing we see of Carol is her at her best, and as Leon sees her:

  • “She gives a little curtsy like he’s a king and she’s a servant” before she leaves:

    • This is the mother that Leon sees throughout, a charismatic and beautiful character

    • It is also typical of her, to show such charm but, ultimately, to leave Leon alone

Maureen

• Maureen is an experienced foster parent who takes Leon and Jake in 

• Maureen is older than Carol:

  • Although her age isn’t specified, she has children and grandchildren of her own

• When Maureen enters the story in Chapter 6, she is instantly warm and caring:

  • Leon is slightly taken aback by how affectionate she is to Jake

  • This can be seen in the confusion Leon feels when she kisses Jake, “even though she’d never met him before” 

• In many ways, Maureen is the opposite of Carol:

  • While Carol is seen as a beautiful, slim and young woman, Maureen is described by Leon as having “fuzzy” red hair, “arms like a boxer” and a “massive belly”

  • This is also represented in the differences in their homes:

    • With Carol, Leon is left hungry and caring for himself

    • Maureen’s home “smells of sweets and toast”, and Leon is surprised by the amount of food he is given to eat

  • This is also true in the way she talks about the children and her parenting:

    • Carol is selfish and thinks about her own needs

    • Maureen talks about how she never stops being a parent, even after her own and the foster children have moved out

  • The first physical description of Maureen mentions her hair being like “a flaming halo”:

    • This symbolism may be the author showing Maureen as an angel coming to the rescue

• Maureen is principled and confident:

  • In the meeting with the social worker after Jake has been adopted, she makes it clear she is unhappy with the decision

  • She is also understanding and not ignorant of the fact that Jake is more likely to be adopted because he is white:

    • She is the first person to talk to Leon about race

    • She shows she is angry about the injustice, support Leon has not received before

  • She also scolds Carol for her behaviour in front of Leon:

    • This shows she is comfortable standing up for what she thinks is in his best interests

• Maureen suffers a stroke halfway through the story:

  • This is another example of Leon experiencing loss and a feeling of abandonment 

  • In the hospital, it becomes clear that Leon loves Maureen, and her affectionate nature is helping him

  • In Chapter 15, Leon is worried about touching her, in case she dies

  • By Chapter 19, he is worried by how she smells and sounds different, but is comforted that Maureen is the same when she hugs him:

    • This hug instantly cheers him up, and is something Leon has lacked a lot in his life — affection from an adult

• When Maureen gets out of hospital and goes back to Sylvia’s, life seems to be getting back to a normal rhythm

• Her importance to Leon is underlined by the fact that overhearing part of Maureen and Sylvia’s conversation, fantasising about a nice move to the coast, is so emotionally difficult for him:

  • This conversation sees Leon not only go looking for Jake and his mum, but also break down emotionally about his difficult life

  • He fears she is “just like everyone else”

• Maureen is committed to Leon:

  • She wants to keep Leon permanently and shows determination to protect him, even if this means defying social services

  • When he is missing towards the conclusion of the novel, she waits up for him in a panic

  • She also doesn’t call social services, because she does not want them to take him away

Tufty

• Tufty is a Black man with West Indian roots

• He is also known as Mr Burrows and Linwood

• Tufty comes into the story when Leon moves in with Sylvia:

  • Leon meets Tufty at the local allotment

  • He shows kindness to Leon instantly, helping him make his bike more comfortable and then showing him his gardening skills

  • This is important, as Leon is again feeling lost and abandoned, and Tufty is quickly warm and caring towards him

  • He is a present male role model for Leon, whose father is in prison:

    • Up until this point in the narrative, we see Leon without any Black role models

    • This emphasises Tufty’s importance

• Another way de Waal uses Tufty is as a symbol of the importance of community:

  • For Leon, he has only ever cared about his mum, dad and brother:

    • This has left him somewhat isolated from other people

  • Tufty is the first sign of a friend we see Leon make

  • Suddenly, from a lonely life, Leon is building a new home, with loving care from Maureen and a sense of community at the allotment 

• Tufty is protective of Leon:

  • While his anger towards Mr Devlin is misplaced, it signifies someone fighting for Leon, unlike his prior family life

  • He then does so again during the riots, even after Leon has threatened both him and Mr Devlin:

    • This is another big moment for Leon, who has never known an adult in a difficult situation stand by him

• Tufty’s inclusion in the book can be seen to represent the Windrush Generation:

  • Leon then meets his friends, who play dominoes together and are forthright with their political opinions

  • They openly discuss racism and the police’s discrimination of Black people

  • This is completely new to Leon and gives him a sense of belonging based on his race

  • Tufty and his friends also show a softer side to masculinity, with Tufty reading poetry for the group

• Tufty becomes someone that Leon greatly looks up to:

  • Tufty’s skills in the allotment inspire Leon to join in

  • He is patient and kind, and does not treat Leon like a small child, which Leon respects

  • Tufty does not patronise him and bend the truth

  • Leon becomes very interested in gardening, wants to join a martial arts club because Tufty does it, and even repeats back Tufty’s poetry to others:

    • In this way, the author is showing us how Tufty is helping Leon to find his voice

    • He literally speaks Tufty’s poetry in a confrontation, but also begins to find confidence in his own thoughts and starts standing up for himself, even when it is misguided

• The author uses Tufty’s influence in the allotments to be representative of the care that Leon should have had growing up:

  • Tufty guides Leon through the simpler, early steps of planting seeds, akin to a parent guiding him through his early years

  • He teaches him about the community, both the allotment and that relating to being a young Black man

  • He is protective of him over Mr Devlin, much like a parent might be

Sylvia

• Sylvia is Maureen’s sister

• We first meet Sylvia when Maureen and Leon go on an impromptu visit:

  • This is day is the first big sign we are given that Maureen is unwell

• Leon goes to live with Sylvia while Maureen is in hospital:

  • This means that Leon is not forced to go to another foster carer’s home

• Sylvia is different to her sister:

  • She is less outwardly soft

  • She has a more cynical view on life and more blunt honesty

  • A good example of this is the fact that Sylvia doesn’t celebrate her birthday, as it is just a tally of the years she’s lived

• Unlike her sister, Sylvia has no children, and she works part-time at the supermarket

• Sylvia’s outer exterior is harder than Maureen’s, but she is very protective of her sister:

  • This is seen when she takes in Leon, even though fostering is not something she is keen on

  • She takes in Leon when Maureen is ill because she understands Maureen doesn’t want Leon to be taken away

  • This is further illustrated by her telling Leon she is going to look after him until Maureen’s well again because Maureen “loves us both”

• Sylvia has more of a social life than Maureen:

  • We see her with friends at her house on multiple occasions, including on Leon’s birthday

  • She is a key part of the local community’s planning for a street party to celebrate the Royal Wedding

  • She also goes on a date while Leon lives with her, and looks to have a romantic connection with Mr Devlin at the end of the novel

• Sylvia not having experience as a parent changes the dynamic for Leon once again:

  • Leon is able to spend time at the allotments and pretend to Sylvia that he has made friends of his age at the park because Sylvia is not paying the same attention to Leon as Maureen would

  • But it also helps her form a bond with Leon:

    • By being more direct and honest with Leon, Leon gains respect for Sylvia, and enjoys not being spoken down to as a child as often

  • Her sense of humour also helps the bond form:

    • She makes some jokes and comments that might be inappropriate for a boy of Leon’s age, especially as she swears when talking to him

    • Frustrated by social workers and adults in his life talking to him like a child, Leon enjoys this change, and it makes him fonder of Sylvia

Mr Devlin

• Mr Devlin is an Irishman who comes into the story in Chapter 17

• He is older than Tufty, closer to Sylvia and Maureen’s age

• Mr Devlin is a senior member of the committee that runs the allotments

• When we first meet Mr Devlin, he seems to be oppositional to Tufty and Leon:

  • Later, he softens to Leon when they talk and then spend time alone

• Mr Devlin is brought into the story by de Waal as another authority figure and role model for Leon as he finds community at the allotments

• It can be argued that de Waal uses Tufty, Maureen, Sylvia and Mr Devlin to represent different aspects of parenting that Leon is now getting:

  • Mr Devlin treats Leon with respect and looks to teach him things, but is a stricter figure than the other three, and shows more anger

  • Like with Sylvia, it is some of the things about Mr Devlin that are less child-friendly which Leon appreciates:

    • The knives and weapons in his shed fascinate Leon

• Kit de Waal is part Irish, and Mr Devlin represents her Irish parent, Irish people in England, and links to the Troubles, a key historical and social point for 1980s Birmingham and Britain:

  • He faces some discrimination, with Tufty insinuating that he is a terrorist, linking him to the IRA

  • Mr Devlin himself is prone to prejudice, making a racist statement back to Tufty in the same argument

  • Ireland has a long history of emigration

  • This is represented in Mr Devlin, who it is revealed lived in Brazil in the past

• As Mr Devlin softens, we learn more about him:

  • We find out that he once lived in Brazil and went through family tragedies 

  • He appears to have had a son who passed away, and he has carved a wooden doll of him, that he is attached to and speaks to:

    • When Leon takes the doll, Mr Devlin is devastated, and then incredibly angry when he finds out that Leon has it

    • He is also astounded that Leon would take something he didn’t need, feeling upset that he had shown affection to someone who then seems to betray him

  • It also appears that he helped look after many children when living in South America

• It becomes apparent that Mr Devlin is struggling with his personal trauma:

  • He seems to drink heavily, which is likely used by the author to show that Mr Devlin is trying to dull his pain

  • When drinking, he is caught talking to himself about his pain:

    • In Chapter 31, he says aloud to himself, “I was loved. They loved me”, which shows him wistful about his past

  • It is possible he sees a part of his old life in his time with Leon, and wants to show him guidance like he would with his son 

  • Leon regularly describes him in ways that suggest he isn’t looking after himself:

    • Leon notes that he wears the same clothes each day, talks about smelling whiskey on his breath, even suggesting he “might actually be a tramp” 

    • This contrasts with how he looks at the end, once he starts spending time with Sylvia

    • Leon then describes him as “clean”, with new clothes, and even noting him “washing his hands in the water barrel by his shed before he comes to see Sylvia” 

    • He is happy and starts to take care of himself

Other characters

Jake 

• Jake is Leon’s baby brother, who was born on the day the story starts

• He is taken into care with Leon when Carol can no longer look after them

• He has a different father to Leon:

  • This man is married and wants nothing to do with him or Carol

• Jake is white

• He is adopted before his first birthday, and separated from Leon

• Jake is Leon’s pride and joy:

  • With Carol neglectful of them both, Jake forms an attachment to Leon as a caregiver

  • Leon adores his little brother, thinking him perfect

• Social services promise that Jake will write letters to Leon, but it takes Sylvia and Maureen hassling them consistently for even one letter to be written for Leon’s birthday:

  • De Waal could be using this as an important plot point to remind the reader how families separated by the care system are truly torn apart

  • Even a simple request like updates on his life can be ignored once the system splits them up, highlighting how the care system is happy once its obligation is fulfilled 

• Another important point of Jake’s character is to highlight the racial inequality within the system:

  • De Waal is direct with this point, having characters reiterate that Jake being white has a significant influence on him being adopted 

• Equally, it reminds us that adoption is more likely for younger children, especially babies, as adopting parents want to raise children as their own:

  • De Waal uses Jake as a symbol of what Leon isn’t and what that means for him

  • Leon’s fears that Jake will forget him are also unimportant to social services, which may be a comment on how the system forgets about the needs of older children 

  • It could also be de Waal commenting on how the system dehumanises those caught up in it

Castro

• Castro is one of Tufty’s friends whom Leon meets at the allotment

• In their meetings together as a group, Castro is loud and vocal

• Tufty and his friends are keen to bring about change for Black people, but have different ideas on how:

  • While the others call to lobby people in power, Castro calls for an army

  • None of the men disagree with Castro’s anger, but they don’t agree with violent protest

  • The irony here is that violent protests do start, but because Castro is killed in police custody

• De Waal uses Castro and his fate to reference incidents of the 1980s, but also events that are still common now:

  • The 1980s were a time of much racial discrimination, and deaths of Black people in custody added fuel to eventual riots at the time

  • The Black Lives Matter movement in America has more recently highlighted discrimination and the mistreatment of Black people

• We see that Castro has had problems with the police before:

  • He is known to the officers who come into the allotments

  • Leon is confronted by Castro later in the novel when he is on the run from the police for resisting arrest:

    • This could be de Waal highlighting how Black people have had to resist discrimination from the police, only to be labelled criminals for doing so

• Although not central to Leon’s personal plotline, Castro’s story is crucial to the novel’s social commentary and the riot sequence:

  • As such, the character of Castro is another piece of commentary about the fate of Black people, particularly Black men, in the UK

  • Equally, this could be de Waal showing how these stories are happening all the time and are easily, and often, overlooked

Zebra 

• Zebra’s real name is Judy, but Leon names her Zebra because of her black-and-white hair

• Of all the social workers in the story, Leon trusts Zebra the most

• This appears true of Maureen, too:

  • She respects Zebra trying to do the work, even if she disagrees with the results

• Zebra does make an effort to help, going out of her way to collect Carol in the early morning to ensure she makes it to a visit with Leon

• She also sends Leon a birthday card

• Giving her a nickname could be a way of the author indicating that these social workers come in and out of children’s lives:

  • They make meaningful things happen (adoptions) without forming any meaningful connection with the children

  • They can thus be seen as faceless entities rather than real people

Leon’s father 

• Leon’s father is a Black man with West Indian roots

• His name is Byron Francis

• He lived with Leon and Carol inconsistently

• He ultimately left when he found out that Carol was pregnant with Jake by another man

• Leon is positive about his dad, and treasures positive memories of him:

  • Leon remembers his father arguing with neighbours about a dangerous dog that he didn’t want near Leon

  • His father came to visit with Christmas presents one last time before he left for good

  • He also remembers hearing his father argue with his mother, and how he would repeat words and talk in “fast West Indian” patois when angry, but thinks nothing of it

  • Like with Carol, Leon’s naivety is apparent with his views and feelings towards his father

  • He fails to see the negative traits in either of them

• Leon overhears social services talking to Maureen about Leon’s father:

  • They state that “when they catch up with him he won’t be seeing daylight for a long time”

  • This suggests that Leon’s father is on the run from police

• Tufty and, to a lesser extent, Castro remind Leon of his dad:

  • Leon is desperate for the guidance of his father

  • De Waal places these two characters in to fill in as Leon’s Black male role models

Jake’s father

• We learn very little about Jake’s father

• He is a white man

• He is married, and he has no interest in being part of Jake and Carol’s lives

• He is insulting towards Carol:

  • This intimidates Leon

• It doesn’t seem that Jake’s father has any involvement with social services after the boys are taken into care:

  • This could be a suggestion from the author that men are too easily allowed to wash their hands of responsibility for children

Sources

De Waal, K. (2016), My Name is Leon, Viking