Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions

William is Edward's middle-aged son who acts as the novel's narrator. He recounts the stories that he's been told about his father's life, just as they've been told to him. In the scenes that take place in the present, he expresses simultaneous frustration over his father's inability to take mortality seriously, and a sincere devotion to his dying father. He wishes that his father had been around their family more, and that they could have gotten to know each other better. At the novel's end, though, William comes to terms with Edward's unique lifestyle, and has assumed his father's role as storyteller. In the novel's final scenes, William agrees to carry out his father's final wishes by sneaking him out of the hospital and taking him to a nearby river.

Sandra is Edward's only wife, and William's mother. As a young woman, she is considered the most beautiful in the town of Auburn. Though she has many suitors, she denies all but two: Edward Bloom and Don Price. She's going steady with Don when Edward falls in love with her and makes his move. She seems to be a thoughtful woman, who considers her options before acting, as when she doesn't immediately accept Don's marriage proposal. She also doesn’t immediately fall in love with Edward, instead allowing him to woo her and getting to know him slowly. Later in life, she stays home, caring for William while Edward travels for work and comes home exhausted. They consider the idea of a separation, but forgo it. In her older years, as Edward is dying, she seems both resigned to and hurt by Edward's way of living, and William realizes that her life may not have been a fulfilling one.

Edward meets Jenny, a woman with black hair and bright blue eyes, twenty years his junior, in the swamp outside of Specter, the town Edward buys. He treks to find her secluded house after being told by Wiley, an old Specter resident, that it is the last piece of property in Specter which Edward does not own. When he arrives at her house, she refuses to sell it to him, but they fall immediately in love. Edward carries her out of the house and swamp to his car. He sets her up in the little house he keeps for himself in Specter and stays with her whenever he comes back to visit. As years go by, Edward stays away for longer periods of time, and this upsets Jenny. She retreats from town life, shutting herself up in the house, and waiting by the window day and night, her blue eyes seeming to glow in the dark. As she waits, a rainstorm floods her front yard, which has become overgrown. The combination creates a swamp around her house so impenetrable that when Edward finally does arrive, he can't get past it. He can only stand at its edge and watch her eyes.

Dr. Bennett is the Bloom family physician whom William describes as "older than old" (14).He's been working with the Blooms for so long that he delivered William and is now attending to Edward's final days. He is a kind man, who deeply regrets being unable to do more for Edward. William is surprised that he has outlived Edward.

Don Price is a student, along with Edward, at the college in Auburn, Alabama. He is the leader of a gang of boys who steal the glass eye of the elderly woman in whose boarding house Edward lives. After the incident with the eye, Don starts dating Sandra and asks her to marry him. She doesn't accept or deny his proposal, but starts seeing Edward, too. Don follows them on a date one night and nearly runs their car off the road. He and Edward get into a fight and, though he's slightly bigger than Edward, gets beaten badly. Edward drives them all back into town. He and Sandra never hear from Don again after this incident.