Whatshisface

Roddy’s full name is Roderick Barnabas Northrop, but he asks Cooper to call him Roddy for short. Roddy did not have a privileged life. His mother died when he was seven, authorities executed his father for being a warlock, and Roddy worked long hours at an abusive printing shop, Mannering and Brown. He was romantically interested in Mannering’s daughter, Ursula, and he wrote a play, Barnabas and Ursula, to commemorate their love. Roddy struggled with belonging, and he viewed writing plays as a way to belong. Summarizing Roddy’s story, the narrator says, “That became Roddy’s plan, his obsession, his path out of this dreary and miserable life: He would become a famous playwright” (59).

As Shakespeare stole Roddy’s play and got the fame that Roddy craved, Shakespeare turns into Roddy’s antagonist. Roddy frequently insults Shakespeare, whom he considers his absolute enemy. These disses showcase Roddy’s sharp tongue and give the story notable irony. In fact, its primary narrative twist is that Roddy sees the canonized playwright as a treacherous villain. He exclaims, “William Shakespeare, thou art a monster! Thou hast taken my poetry and turned it into a massacre! Were we two not dead, I should murder thee for this crime!” (76).

Working with Cooper, Roddy gets recognition and a sense of belonging. The crowd cheers him (or his spectral form) after hearing Cooper’s revelation that Roddy is the true author of Romeo and Juliet. After “taking an elaborate bow” (220) before the audience, Roddy vanishes. Mission complete, he and his manuscript can now rest in peace.

While Cooper helps Roddy, Roddy also helps Cooper. Thus, he serves as Cooper’s sidekick or mentor. Though Cooper is hesitant to use Roddy’s exact 16th-century diction, Roddy pushes Cooper to stand up to Brock, speak to Jolie, and assert himself. He also mentors Cooper on Romeo and Juliet, helping him secure the part of Romeo after he attacks Brock. The assault suggests Roddy has a faulty conscience, but Roddy sees it differently. He didn’t do anything with irrevocable consequences, and he acted out of loyalty to Cooper, telling him, “I did it to please thee” (150). Moreover, Roddy thinks that Cooper is the character lacking scruples. He tells Cooper, “Thou hast betrayed my trust after I meant thee nothing but good” (177). By hurting Brock, a bully with no redeemable qualities, Roddy helped his friend. For Roddy, this wasn’t a shameful deed.

Roddy is a rather static character. While Cooper changes, Roddy does not, even after modern life exposes him to new experiences, like vending machines. Much of the humor in the book comes from Roddy’s ironic (unexpected) embrace of things that contemporary people take for granted, like smartphones or television, or do not want to contemplate, like dogs peeing on red posts. What is ordinary to people in the 21st century is extraordinary to Roddy.

Jolie Solomon is a romantic interest for Brock and Cooper. At times, the boys compete for her attention. After the three of them ride the rollercoasters together and Jolie returns to her family, Brock, referring to Jolie, tells Cooper, “Don’t even think about it, kid” (98). Such have the effect of making Jolie seem, at moments, more like a possession than a person. Yet Cooper works to disrupt others’ attempts to frame her in terms of objectification and ownership. When Veronica refers to Jolie as “Brock’s girl,” Cooper counters, “[S]he isn’t Brock’s girl. She isn’t anybody’s girl” (170). Yet Cooper is also possessive of her and worries that her on-stage romance with Brock will carry over into real life. The narrator reinforces this possessiveness in the epilogue, by emphasizing that Jolie becomes Cooper’s girlfriend. To this end, the narrator celebrates that Cooper “And [Cooper] has a girlfriend—Roddy never got his Ursula, but he sure was right about Jolie” (231). It’s as if girls belong to boys: they’re the boys’ trophies.

Romantic drama aside, Jolie is an independent person. She has a strong sense of self and doesn’t struggle with belonging. She tells Cooper, “I know people around here think I’m weird because I rock climb and bungee and parkour. But that’s being honest too—honest with myself. I love the thrill I get from extreme sports” (89). She wears t-shirts that broadcast her love of extreme sports, and she complains about how her parents try to stop her from participating in extreme sports.

Jolie isn’t a dynamic character. She is unchanging: she’s a stable, empowering presence. Though her name means “pretty” in French, Jolie’s goals go beyond looks. She wants to be an astronaut or a serious actor. She’s a hard worker, declaring, “I’ve been studying the play since last summer. I know all Juliet’s lines by heart” (21).

Jolie is also conscientious. In Chapter 1, she is the sole young person who asks for Cooper’s name. By doing so, she gives Cooper a place in Stratford.

Brock Bumgartner is an antagonist and a bully. While other kids refer to Cooper as “kid” or “Whatshisface,” Brock taunts Cooper about Jolie and physically attacks him on the bus. He is a flat and static character, lacking redeemable traits. He’s immature and attention-seeking, saying things like, “Farting is such sweet sorrow” (104), and repeating “Wherefore art me?” throughout the story. He repeats the latter line after the seventh graders watch a video in Wolfson’s Shakespeare museum, which leads him to be “[h]e’s shushed not just by the teachers but also a handful of students, including Jolie” (173). No one seems to like Brock, and Roddy doesn’t feel guilty about assaulting him. Brock comes across as a caricature of a problematic boy. He lacks depth and complexity—though, arguably, he’s insecure about who he is and how he belongs, so he acts out.

Like Brock, Wolfson is a bully and an antagonist. He bullies the town of Three Rivers to change its name to Stratford in exchange for him agreeing to buy expensive property there. He antagonizes Roddy by keeping his manuscript a secret and letting people believe that William Shakespeare created Romeo and Juliet on his own. As Cooper and Roddy are a team—and Roddy is technically a ghost, about whom only Cooper knows—Wolfson becomes Cooper’s antagonist.

Wolfson’s name reinforces his predatory character. He’s a metaphorical wolf, and the students intuitively recognize this by nicknaming him The Wolf. Even Marchese admits that “everyone assumes” that some of Wolfson’s Shakespearian items “were acquired illegally” (36). Roddy certifies this illegality when he notices the library and museum labels on the items in the secret room.

Though Korman doesn’t extensively develop the billionaire character Wolfson, he is never portrayed as a flat or a static character. His passion for Shakespeare makes him mysterious and intriguing. His insistence on routinely funding educational and artistic opportunities for local students also imbues his otherwise villainous and exploitative character with a measure of benevolence. Similarly, although his choice to take back the charges against Cooper is partly self-interested—it guarantees that police won’t further examine his suspicious collection, and allows the reputation of his beloved Shakespeare to remain intact—it also reveals some level of conscience. His previous compliments for Cooper’s performance indicate that Wolfson appreciates the boy’s intelligence and creative gifts. Dropping charges allows him to ensure that Cooper can continue living a normal life and education. Such examples suggest that Wolfson, while still an antagonist, is portrayed as a complex three-dimensional person.

Veronica is Cooper’s 16-year-old sister, as well as Cooper’s foil. In other words, Veronica embodies everything that Cooper is not. While Cooper struggles with belonging, Veronica fits in right away. The narrator gushes, “Three weeks in this town, and it’s like Veronica was born here. She has a happening social life, a boyfriend; she’s on the volleyball team, the pep squad, the yearbook staff” (11). Her boyfriend is Brock’s older brother, Chad, which means that she is near Cooper on a regular basis. When Cooper and Jolie visit Brock after Roddy causes the “accident,” Veronica and Chad appear, and Veronica confronts Cooper about what happened. Though Veronica isn’t a well-developed character, she senses something mysterious is afoot. Similarly, she notices Cooper’s peculiar relationship with his phone and questions him about it. Her questions never lead to discoveries, but they indicate that she is a perceptive person. They also add an element of narrative tension, because Veronica is always on the verge of finding out about Cooper’s relationship with the ghostly Roddy.