George's Marvelous Medicine

George Kranky is the eight-year-old protagonist of George’s Marvelous Medicine. As a small but growing child, George demonstrates the naïveté of youth as well as surprising resourcefulness and restraint. Described as “a brave little boy” (10), George takes initiative that sets the plot in motion when he decides to create a new and unusual medicine for his domineering grandmother. George is innocent enough to believe that mixing household ingredients together could produce a viable medicine, but he’s also old enough to know and respect certain boundaries, such as those his parents place on the medicine cabinet. Although George “couldn’t help disliking Grandma” (2), he stops short of wanting to seriously injure her, and he genuinely hopes the medicine will help her. When she gets stuck, he speaks in favor of arranging for a crane to remove her from the house so that she can move freely. At the story’s climax, George continues to show compassion for Grandma when he urges her not to drink the contents of the cup. Thus, George doesn’t fight or attack Grandma in a traditional sense; instead, he takes on the role of a concerned relative who makes an intervention.