Addie has all the characteristics of an excessively terrible person. She likes beating children: “I would look forward to the times when they faulted, so I could whip them” (170). She cheated on her husband. She even hates spring (every sane person’s favorite season and you can fight me on that); she goes down to a stream after school “especially in the early spring, for it was the worst then” (169). And yet I found her one of the most sympathetic characters in the book? So how could such a terrible person be sympathetic? Well for one thing, a lot of the terrible things she does have some sort of justification. Addie hates her job and the children she has to work with but as a single woman without any family to support her, she has to work and she wouldn’t really have any options besides teaching. There’s no excuse for beating kids but at least it doesn’t just bring her joy because she’s a sadist, it brings her joy because she is able to hurt the people s