Full of Beans

Kermit is Beans’s younger brother who accompanies Beans most of the time when Beans leaves their home in the novel’s first half. Beans, as the oldest Curry brother, oversees Kermit in the summer. Kermit is pleasant and talkative; Beans believes Kermit is gullible because he is younger: “Kermit was only eight and didn’t understand how life worked. Maybe when he got to be ten, like me, he’d smarten up” (5). Beans has a point, as Kermit, in the opening scene, thinks a nickel instead of the agreed-upon dime from Winky is adequate: “Aw, he’s not that bad” (5). Later, when Jonny Cakes hires Beans and Kermit to deliver liquor in the wagon, Kermit comes remarkably close to revealing their illegal cargo to Mrs. Sweeting. He does this without thinking, whereas Beans instinctively and smoothly lies that baby brother Buddy is sleeping in the wagon. Kermit has the idea to peddle gum for money, which the gang agrees is a good plan; this is not profitable but leads Beans to the idea of cut-up fruit, which is.

Kermit is at the mercy of his physical ailments in the story; he gets worms (intestinal parasites) right in time for the planned movie Beans wanted to see using the fruit profit, and that cash goes to medicine for Kermit instead. When Beans finally goes to see a movie, Kermit is home sick with a bellyache from overindulging in ice cream. Kermit acquires a sore throat in Chapter 11, which Nana Philly treats with a dose of horseradish; he feels better, but soon the sore throat is back along with a high fever. Kermit comes down with rheumatic fever in Chapter 14 just as school starts. He recovers but must stay in bed to rest his heart. His absence from Beans’s exploits from that point on gives Beans more freedom to commit the second false alarm for Johnny Cakes and attend a night movie where he sees the “haint.”

Even six months later, Kermit must nap daily to rest his body. Kermit represents vulnerability in hard times in the story. Beans’s ability to lie to suit his needs juxtaposes against Kermit’s natural inclination to chatter away the truth, and Beans’s toughened attitude juxtaposes against Kermit’s illnesses and weakness.

While Full of Beans does not have a clearly defined Shadow archetypal character, Johnny Cakes is a negative influence and potential danger to Beans. Johnny Cakes is a local criminal who runs liquor from Cuba to the local bars on Key West and to Miami. When he wants help distributing the liquor, he seeks out Beans, inspired by how Beans keeps Buddy covered with a blanket in his wagon; Johnny Cakes wants Beans to deliver liquor in the wagon, covering with the story that the bottles are a sleeping baby. Later Johnny Cakes offers Beans significant cash for ringing false fire alarms, providing the distraction needed for Johnny to get his stashed liquor to his boat.

Beans feels extensive guilt for the lies and consequences of his deceit connected to Johnny’s jobs, especially when the false fire alarms result in the firefighters’ late arrival to the scene of Pork Chop’s family’s house fire. Beans opts for more honest work after this experience and turns down Johnny’s next offer. Johnny is a static character whose colorful image as a Panama-hat wearing “rum runner” with coffins on his boat’s deck adds to the tropical setting’s mystique. He shows some three-dimensionality when he donates unadorned cigar boxes to the town’s children to turn into seashell-covered tourist souvenirs.

Beans thinks of Dot as his nemesis most of the time. She is a bold girl his age who repeatedly challenges Beans and the Keepsies gang to a game of marbles; Beans always refuses on the principle that Keepsies do not play girls. Dot and Beans feud in the middle of the story when she tricks him out of pineapple, he tortures her with painted-on pink graffiti, and she bests him by pushing him into the turtle kraals on the waterfront. Most characters in the story are “round,” though, in that few have truly negative intentions, and Dot is a case in point; she demonstrates care and concern for Beans in the movie theater when she sees him in tears. Beans does not confess to Dot why he is crying, but she holds his hand throughout the film.

The character of Mr. Stone is based on a realistic historical figure. He works for the federal government as a New Deal administrator, given the task of reviving Key West. He believes tourism is the town’s best chance at economic recovery, but he struggles to convince townspeople that it is in their own best interest to help as volunteers (with no pay). His plans include ridding the streets of garbage, keeping the children from playing in the streets, rounding up the stray dogs, bringing artists to create images for brochures and posters, refurbishing the interesting cottages and lanes, and pressing the citizens of the town to react with positivity and welcoming spirits when tourists arrive.

Mr. Stone and Beans occasionally spar throughout the story; Mr. Stone always calls Beans “Peas,” for example, and Beans initially has little respect for Mr. Stone’s ideas. He accepts Beans’s help with less than a month before the beginning of the winter tourist season and eagerly takes advantage of the town’s children to clear the beach of seaweed. His plan for tourists to enjoy Key West is successful, and everyone looks forward to the second season as the town develops and thrives.