Ralphie Pillar

5 Pages 1345 Words

The Importance of Ralphie in Nights Below Station Street

Throughout David Adams Richards Nights Below Stations Street, Ralphie Pillar lives up to his name. In a chaotic community, Ralphie is honest and kind. He helps out so many people with his good heart and genuine personality, without even realizing it. By being himself, Ralphie emerges as the true hero in this novel.
Throughout the story Ralphie displays simple acts of kindness and humanity. His gentle presence and respect for people make others feel comfortable. His relationships with his sister, Vera, his girlfriend, Adele, and her father, Joe Walsh, specifically show us his character.
Vera is Ralphie’s older sister and is in her mid-twenties. Growing up she wasn’t very popular, “Vera always seemed to be alone. Ralphie would watch her coming up the lane, as a schoolgirl carrying her books in her arms, with her big round glasses fogged up and snow falling on her hair” (Richards, 92). Like many people in this novel, Vera never really felt like she fit in. She was an outsider without many friends, “she was always looking for new friends” (Richards, 92). During these years, she and Ralphie weren’t enemies, but they weren’t really close either.
Vera was teased not only by other kids as a child, but by her father, “She stayed at home. She never went out anywhere. Sometimes her father would get angry with her and tease her about being stuck in the mud” (Richards, 92). While at University, Vera’s relationship with her mother started to deteriorate. She wanted to bring her black boyfriend home for the holidays, which infuriated her mother. This is when Vera turned to Ralphie. Instead of writing letters home, she wrote to Ralphie, “Vera could only write to him” (Richards, 97). In these years of turmoil, Ralphie was loyal to both sides; he never argued with or against his mother or sister. He loved each of them and basically kept the family together.
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