List five of your hero’s nonphysical characteristics – both good and bad!
In the Reunion Duology (Reunion: A Story and Reunion: Coda), we journey alongside our protagonist/narrator through two pivotal phases of his life: his teenage years during high school (spanning January 1981 to June 1983) and his mid-30s, right after he turns 35 in early 2000. Though Teen Jim and Professor Jim retain some consistent traits throughout their lives, each version exhibits unique qualities exclusive to their respective stages.
James Kevin Garraty is….
Intelligent
Jim exhibits intelligence across the entire duology and his life. During high school, he is on a path to college, enrolling in Advanced Placement classes and choosing to attend summer school voluntarily to complete some required courses. This allows him space in his schedule for electives like Mixed Chorus, Art, and Newspaper Reporting and Editing. By his 35th birthday, he has written three successful books on military history, and he is a popular and respected professor of history at Columbia University in New York.
Compassionate
This is another enduring quality in Jim’s character, even though Teen Jim often grapples with a lurking fear of getting hurt or betrayed. Below is a snippet from Reunion: Coda that highlights Jim’s natural chivalry:
Bruce was about to say something, but then there was a gentle, almost hesitant knocking at the door.
Mrs. Quincy called out, “Come in!” in a calm, pleasant, even welcoming tone.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the heavy door to the chorus room creaked open. We all looked to see who was entering the room.
It was a girl. She was of average height, clad in new “first day of the semester” jeans, a white blouse that peeked out from under a navy-blue jacket, and clean new Keds girls’ sneakers. Her chestnut-colored hair was pulled up into a ponytail, and her cheeks were rosy against her pale skin, partly because it was cold outside, partly because she thought she was interrupting the class.
“Can I help you?” Mrs. Quincy asked.
The girl hesitated at the door, clutching her backpack tightly. She looked at Mrs. Quincy nervously and fumbled for a piece of paper in her pocket. She walked up to the teacher, holding out the class schedule change form with both hope and a bit of fear. She bit her lip and waited for Mrs. Quincy’s reaction, hoping she wouldn’t be turned away or scolded.
Mrs. Quincy reached for the form and, in that grandmotherly way of hers, said, “Oh, don’t worry, young lady. These gentlemen and I are done for the period. First day’s not too busy.”
The girl let out a sigh of relief and gave Mrs. Quincy a shy smile but said nothing.
Mrs. Quincy scanned the form, nodded a couple of times as she read it, and reached into her jacket pocket for a pen to sign it – and came up empty-handed.
“Quick,” she said as she snapped her fingers. “Any of you men have a pen?”
“I do, Mrs. Quincy,” I said, holding up the Bic pen I’d had in my jacket pocket as if it were the torch held by the Statue of Liberty. Without being prompted, I got up from my chair, walked over to Mrs. Quincy, and handed her the pen.
“See?” Mrs. Quincy said to the girl as she marked the schedule change form as approved and signed it with a flourish, “Chivalry isn’t quite dead in 1981.”
Reserved
Haunted by a failed romance from junior high, Jim is reluctant to let his guard down when he encounters Marty and starts to harbor feelings for her in their sophomore year at South Miami High. Initially, Marty is involved with a JV football player after she joins the choral department, but she soon ends that relationship, signaling her availability. Yet, despite this chance, Jim’s lingering emotional scars keep him from chasing a possible love story with Marty.
Humorous
Jim, much like his mother Sarah, navigates life with a good dose of humor. In stressful moments or when he’s feeling down, he often turns to his wit as a reliable coping mechanism to lighten the mood.
I had just closed the front door and was taking off my heavy backpack, stuffed with my 1983 De Capello yearbook and a copy of A Bridge Too Far that I had taken to school to read in the library after my final exam, when I heard my mom calling from the kitchen. “Jim, is that you?”
I thought about saying something silly like, “No ma’am, it’s President Reagan and I’m here to ask if you want to fly to Washington DC with Nancy and me for dinner at the White House!” But I was too tired for jokes, so I settled for “Yeah, Mom, c’est moi.”
Sentimentalist
Much like Richard Blaine from Casablanca, Jim is a “rank sentimentalist.” However, unlike Humphrey Bogart’s legendary club owner and ex-gunrunner who hides behind a façade of cynicism, Jim masks his nature by adopting the persona of a polished author and scholar. He adds a sprinkle of pop culture with his snap-brim fedora, reminiscent of Indiana Jones’ famous hat from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Even in romantic successes, such as his post-divorce relationship with colleague Nicole Boisvert in 1998, Jim cautiously guards his emotions, fearing potential heartbreak.
But when Jim encounters Maddie at the Moonglow Club in February 2000, his focus shifts from maintaining a carefree façade about love to embracing a spirit of adventure and openness. This newfound willingness to be vulnerable lets him genuinely fall in love once more, following his poignant (and self-sabotaged) teenage romance with Marty.
A Certain Point of View, Too 
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