The Goldfinch
Characters in The Goldfinch
10 characters, main characters first.Main characters
Theo Decker
Theodore Decker, thirteen when a museum bombing kills his mother; the novel's narrator, who carries a stolen painting into adulthood.
Supporting characters
Hobie
James 'Hobie' Hobart, a Greenwich Village furniture restorer and Welty Blackwell's partner, who becomes Theo's guardian and moral centre.
Boris Pavlikovsky
Theo's Ukrainian-born friend from Las Vegas — reckless, generous, and the engine of the novel's later plot.
Audrey Decker
Theo's mother, an art lover killed in the museum bombing that opens the novel.
Pippa Blackwell
Welty Blackwell's red-haired niece, injured in the same bombing; a flautist and the object of Theo's lifelong attachment.
Larry Decker
Theo's father, a failed actor and gambler who reappears after the bombing and takes Theo to Las Vegas.
Andy Barbour
Theo's studious school friend, whose wealthy Park Avenue family takes him in after his mother's death.
Welty Blackwell
Welton Blackwell, the antiques dealer Theo meets dying in the wreckage of the museum; Hobie's partner and Pippa's uncle.
Xandra (The Goldfinch)
Larry Decker's girlfriend, a Las Vegas bar worker who shares the house Theo is moved into.