The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963

by

Christopher Paul Curtis

Larry Dunn Character Analysis

Larry Dunn is a bully who picks on Kenny and Rufus at school. Because Kenny is related to Byron, though, Larry doesn’t treat him quite as badly as he otherwise might. Still, though, he steals Kenny’s nice leather gloves and roughs him and Rufus up one day when it’s really cold. When Kenny and Rufus tell Byron, he tracks Larry down, takes back the gloves, hits him on the side of the head, and then starts pushing him around in front of a large crowd. As Byron shoves him against a fence time and again, Kenny sees that Larry’s jacket is nothing but a ripped windbreaker over a t-shirt—even though it’s freezing out! When Larry falls down, he sees that the bully’s shoes have large holes in them, suggesting that his family doesn’t have enough money to give him warm clothes for the winter. Although everyone else laughs at Larry, Kenny feels awful and decides to leave, thinking that only Byron could possibly make him feel bad for a bully like Larry Dunn.

Larry Dunn Quotes in The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963

The The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 quotes below are all either spoken by Larry Dunn or refer to Larry Dunn. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Change, Coming of Age, and Maturity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4 Quotes

Byron jerked Larry’s arms over his head three times. Larry Dunn was really tough! Not only because he wasn’t crying when By was going to mess him up, but also because when Byron jerked his arms over his head like that we all could see that Larry’s skinny little windbreaker was ripped under both arms and Larry just had on a T-shirt underneath it.

Related Characters: Kenny Watson (speaker), Byron Watson, Rufus, Larry Dunn
Related Symbols: Leather Gloves
Page Number: 61
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 PDF

Larry Dunn Quotes in The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963

The The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 quotes below are all either spoken by Larry Dunn or refer to Larry Dunn. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Change, Coming of Age, and Maturity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4 Quotes

Byron jerked Larry’s arms over his head three times. Larry Dunn was really tough! Not only because he wasn’t crying when By was going to mess him up, but also because when Byron jerked his arms over his head like that we all could see that Larry’s skinny little windbreaker was ripped under both arms and Larry just had on a T-shirt underneath it.

Related Characters: Kenny Watson (speaker), Byron Watson, Rufus, Larry Dunn
Related Symbols: Leather Gloves
Page Number: 61
Explanation and Analysis: