The Leavers

Deming Guo/Daniel Wilkinson is the protagonist of The Leavers. He is born in Manhattan but is sent to his mother’s village of Minjiang, China, when he is less than 1 year old to live with his grandfather. Polly describes him as heavy as a child with “bushy eyebrows” (198). His grandfather dies when he's 6-years-old, and he returns to his mother, eventually living with her; her boyfriend, Leon; Leon’s sister Vivian; and Vivian's son, Michael. Deming is happy with his family although they are poor. He admires Leon and is fascinated by subway musicians. When his mother leaves unexpectedly, Deming passes the spring and summer in heartbroken uncertainty, thinking he had done something to make his mother leave. His distress is compounded when Leon leaves and Vivian gives him up for adoption because she cannot afford to take care of him. Deming gets fostered and then adopted by Peter and Kay Wilkinson, who take him to live with them at Ridgeborough. They rename him “Daniel” and seek to mold him after them. Daniel finds it difficult to latch onto the Wilkinsons due to both his feelings of abandonment from his previous family and the cultural alienation he feels from the Wilkinsons and his new environment.