Hawaii

Marama is Teroro’s wife. She is mature and intelligent, which is why her husband frequently depends on her advice. As the expedition prepares to leave Bora Bora, Marama is told she must remain behind because the canoe can only carry women who are likely to become pregnant, and Marama hasn’t produced any children yet. She calmly accepts this news and allows her husband to leave with a younger wife. A year later, Teroro returns, finding that he can’t do without Maram’s counsel. In the interval, she has given birth to a son, proving her fertility. She assembles a group of additional women and children to travel to the new land. Once there, she partners with her husband as the tribe’s seer.

In the 1820s, Abner is a lanky, unattractive young Congregational minister from Massachusetts. He feels a religious calling to travel to Hawaii as a missionary. While he has a fervent conviction in his beliefs, his lack of tact and insistence that he is always right is offensive to everyone. He sincerely tries to help educate the Hawaiians, but his intolerance for other viewpoints alienates him from his small congregation, who eventually embrace alternative beliefs. Abner is also opposed to ordaining any Hawaiian ministers, which further alienates him from the people. After his wife dies, Abner becomes estranged from his children, whose moral infractions he refuses to forgive. In later years, Abner becomes mentally unbalanced and refuses to leave Maui. He dies while tending to his wife’s grave.

Jerusha is Abner’s long-suffering and self-sacrificing wife. She tempers his judgmental behavior and teaches the Hawaiians about a god of love. She was once engaged to volatile Captain Rafer Hoxworth but, believing he had forgotten her, married Abner instead. Jerusha spends decades toiling as a wife, mother, and missionary. Eventually, worn out by poverty and hard work, she dies in her 30s. Her demise is a symbol of the destruction brought by the missionaries’ zealotry and refusal to compromise. The Hawaiians venerate her memory as the mother of the missionary effort in the islands.

John Whipple is Abner’s charismatic classmate at Yale. He also becomes a missionary but, over time, becomes disillusioned by how little good the mission is accomplishing for the natives. Tired of perpetual poverty and lack of support from the missionary society in New England, he resigns his post and goes into business with Captain Janders. Whipple becomes a prosperous merchant in Honolulu as one of the founders of Janders & Whipple. His descendants will constitute the upper class that rules Hawaii’s economy and politics.

Janders is the captain of the Thetis. This is the ship that transports the missionaries to Hawaii. A seasoned sailor, he manages to bring them safely through a perilous journey. While at sea, Janders is irritated by Abner’s constant attempts to convert his crew to Calvinist Christianity. A few years later, Janders decides to settle down in Honolulu as a merchant and sends for his family. He takes Whipple on as a partner, and his business prospers.

Rafer is the captain of the Carthaginian—a whaler from New Bedford, Massachusetts. He has a boisterous nature and a violent streak but falls in love with Jerusha. Although he writes repeatedly to declare his intention to marry her, the letters are never received, and Jerusha marries Abner instead. Rafer is furious at his rival and beats him on more than one occasion. Regretting his behavior, he arranges for a new house to be built for Jerusha. Then, he proposes to Noelani and proves to be a devoted husband. Their daughter marries Abner’s son Micah, who then becomes a partner in the H & H shipping line. Rafer’s descendants go on to create a business empire in Hawaii. Though Rafer is posed as the moral opposite to Abner, their bloodlines merge in an example of Cultural Crossroads.

In the 1820s, Malama is the Alii Nui, the supreme ruler of Maui. She is over six feet tall and weighs 300 pounds. These majestic proportions are in keeping with the ancient Hawaiian ruling class. When the missionaries arrive, Malama welcomes them and is eager to learn not only their religion but also their civilized ways. Under Abner’s influence, she curtails the sexually free lifestyle of the Hawaiians, which angers the sailors who make port at Lahaina. Eventually, the old Hawaiian traditions and the incursions of Americans create a state of conflict that Malama can no longer resolve. Over time, her health declines. She grows sick from some unknown illness and dies, leaving her people bereft.

Kelolo is Malama’s principal husband and is also her brother. He is a powerful chief in his own right with the title of Guardian of the King’s Estates. He frequently comes into conflict with Abner by refusing to give up his worship of the volcano goddess Pele. Although he doesn’t resist the missionary’s efforts, he still keeps to his old beliefs. When Malama dies, he is heartbroken, dashing out his front teeth and gouging out an eye. Later, realizing that the old ways are dying, he takes his sacred relics and sets sail for Bora Bora.

Keoki is the son of Malama and Kelolo. He is also the younger brother of Noelani and becomes her principal husband when she ascends to the rank of Alii Nui. Keoki is torn between his respect for the old ways and his desire to embrace Christianity. It is he who speaks at Yale, inviting missionaries to come to Hawaii. Initially, he is Abner’s most eager convert. However, over the years, he learns that the white missionary will never ordain him because of his race. Becoming disillusioned, Keoki reverts to old religious practices by marrying his sister and fathering children with her. He succumbs to a measles epidemic and repudiates Christianity. He is also an example of how progress will fail when there is no compromise.

Noelani is the daughter of Malama and Kelolo. She is also the sister of Keoki. Although she is a student at the mission school, after her mother’s death, she takes on the role of Alii Nui. Honoring the old religion of the island, she marries Keoki and has twins with him, only one of whom lives. After Keoki’s death, Noelani realizes that the world has changed, and she must change with it. She marries Rafer Hoxworth and travels the world with him before returning to Honolulu in later years.

Micah is Abner Hale’s eldest son. He is groomed to become a missionary like his father and is sent to Yale for his education. Upon returning to the islands, he impresses Rafer with his keen intellect and ability to see the big picture. Micah marries the daughter of Rafer and Noelani and becomes a partner with his father-in-law in the H & H shipping business. His descendants will go on to control the economy and politics of Hawaii for several generations.

In the 1860s, Nyuk Tsin is a peasant girl who is abducted from her village to be sold to a brothel owner in America. Her guard for the journey is Mun Ki, who decides to keep her for himself. Since he already has an official wife in China, Nyuk Tsin is always considered secondary even though she gives birth to five of his children. When Mun Ki develops leprosy, Nyuk Tsin goes to Molokai and tends to him until he dies. Afterward, she returns to Oahu and becomes the matriarch of her family, leading them to become wealthy and influential members of the Chinese community on the island. Always quick to grasp future trends, Nyuk Tsin positions her family so that they can take advantage of changes on the horizon. After winning her citizenship at the age of 106, Nyuk Tsin dies and passes the torch to Hong Kong Kee. Overcoming multiple obstacles and still living a long, successful life, Nyuk Tsin is the figure who arguably most represents the theme of Adapting to Survive in the novel.

Mun Ki is an ambitious pimp and gambler when his story opens in the 1860s. He envisions great opportunities in America and eagerly makes the ocean voyage with Nyuk Tsin in tow. He manages to earn a decent living until he is stricken with leprosy and sent to Molokai. His greatest legacy is the five sons he has with Nyuk Tsin, who go on to make the Kee family a driving force in Hawaii.

In 1902, Kamejiro emigrates from his rural Japanese village to Hawaii, where he finds work on a sugar plantation. His toughness impresses Whip Hoxworth, who gives him additional work and a generous sum of money. Kamejiro is intensely nationalistic and wants to instill this same pride in his four sons. All of them serve in the American army during World War II, and two die in the conflict. His remaining sons, Goro and Shigeo, work to bring unions and the Democratic party to Hawaii. When offered citizenship late in life, Kamejiro turns it down, preferring to define himself as Japanese.

Whip is the grandson of Rafer and shares many of his grandfather’s hell-raising traits. He is a womanizer and an adventurer. When he returns to the islands after a short career as a seaman, Whip introduces new strains of pineapple to Hawaii that are responsible for stimulating the island economy. While he is relatively benevolent toward the immigrant workers who toil on his plantations, Whip can also be a bully who is opposed to both unions and Democrats. Even though he is disliked by his peers, he takes over control of H & H Shipping and grows the business for everyone’s benefit. When he dies at the age of 70, he leaves control of the company to his grand-nephew, Hoxworth Hale. Instrumental in the coup to overthrow Queen Liliuokalani, Whip helps seal the fate of Hawaii as an annexed territory of the United States.

Hoxworth is a Yale graduate who is more of an intellectual than the other young missionary descendants of his generation. He takes over the reins of H & H in 1927 and is able to anticipate trends and capitalize on them. His one great failing is his desire to keep Hawaii exactly as it is. Like the other leading members who constitute The Fort, he believes that only this cabal can know what is good for the island and its people. Over time, Hoxworth is forced to accept the arrival of unions, the Democratic party, mainland businesses, and the involvement of Asians in local politics. He is wise enough to recognize the inevitability of change even as he longs for the safe familiarity of the past. In the book’s final pages, he discloses that he is the work’s narrator.

Hong Kong is Nyuk Tsin’s grandson. He grows up to be an influential banker in the Chinese community. Under his grandmother’s instructions, he quietly buys up real estate to position the Kees advantageously for the post-war boom. Later, he is enlisted by mainland interests to secure locations for businesses that have wanted to break into the Hawaiian markets over the opposition of The Fort. He also recognizes the need to form alliances with the Japanese residents of the island and backs the Sakagawa family as they rise to prominence, too. After Nyuk Tsin’s death, Hong Kong becomes the head of the Kee family. He is counted among the “Golden Men.”

Shigeo is the most notable of Kamejiro’s sons since he is a war hero and earns a law degree from Harvard. When he returns to the islands after World War II, he helps his brother establish unions for the plantation workers. He will also win an election as a territorial senator. As the book ends, his crowning achievement is when Hoxworth, one of the old guard, asks him to sit on the board of Whipple Oil. He is counted among the “Golden Men.”