A Chance in the World

Betty and Willie are Steve’s abusive foster parents for the majority of Part 1. They take every chance to abuse him and the other children under their care. They are ignorant, cruel, insecure, and Willie is illiterate. They represent the biggest obstacle to Steve’s growth, happiness, and intellectual success until he escapes them. Even after he leaves them, the memory of Willie and Betty haunts him. A Chance in the World highlights some of the problematic aspects of the social work and foster care systems. The fact that Willie and Betty could take stewardship of nearly 40 children during their time as foster parents is an indictment of the lack of oversight and power given to the social agencies.  

Kenny is Steve’s biological father. He dies at age 26 when Steve is five years old but never has any involvement with him. Kenny was a promising boxer whose life was filled with loss, and his proclivities for heroin and violence lead to his murder. Although Kenny does not appear in the book, other than in people’s memories, and in Steve’s dream in Chapter 42, the idea of him underwrites Steve’s entire search.

Steve’s idea of Kenny goes from one of hope—he will come and save me—to disillusionment and anger. Once Steve learns that Kenny knew about him but left him at the Robinsons anyway, he becomes someone that Steve struggles to understand and forgive. Steve also wonders if he might share some of Kenny’s undesirable traits.

In Steve’s dream, Kenny tells him that he thought he would have more time. Kenny becomes a symbol of the preciousness of time and helps Steve commit to making the most of his life. 

Marian is Steve’s mother. She died when she was 40 years old, after many false starts with relationships and substance addictions. She abandoned Steve to the foster care system. Even though reclaiming her children was one of her stated motivations for trying to get sober, she always left Steve out of the equation. Like Kenny, she becomes someone that he struggles to forgive. By the end of the book, he is saddened by her story but no longer feels the same animosity towards her as he does through the majority of Part 2.

Mrs. Levin is a Jewish woman who gives Steve books when he is a child. She sees that he likes to read and that he needs an escape from the life at the Robinsons. She does not know it until much later, but she starts him on the path that leads him to literature, his exploratory instinct, and helps him develop the tools necessary to search for his family.