Roderick Character Analysis

Roderick is a former boarding school classmate of Thomas and LaBatte who appears in the form of a ghost to both men throughout the novel. He died of tuberculosis, which he contracted after he was locked in a cellar multiple times as punishment at the boarding school. Thomas feels guilty for not doing more to help Roderick when he was locked in the cellar, but Roderick tells Thomas that he visits the jewel bearing plant to haunt LaBatte; he was locked in the cellar the first time, Roderick tells Thomas, because he took the blame for something that LaBatte did. He also says that he probably only contracted tuberculosis the second time he was locked in the cellar. LaBatte travels with Thomas to Washington, D.C. and prompts Thomas to try and win over Arthur Watkins with flattery. When Roderick misses the train back home, he decides to stay among the Native ghosts in Washington, D.C.