Character Analysis
Charlie Simms
We're not meant to like Charlie Simms: "He was a mean-looking man, red in the face and bearded" (5.98). Yep, that's bad news. He's so mean that he even pushes a black kid down in the road because she's bumped into his white daughter (5.91-92).
He's the father of the Simms clan, and we can totally see where they get their mean streaks. Like father, like son—and daughter.
R.W. and Melvin Simms
The Simms brothers are eighteen and nineteen years old, and are the older brothers of Lillian Jean and Jeremy. They manipulate T.J. into believing they're his friends and get him to undertake criminal activities for them, like breaking into the Barnett Mercantile and stealing a gun. Like the Wallaces, they're stock racist characters rather than well developed characters—but we hate them just the same.