The Sisters Brothers

Charlie Sisters starts the novel as the more confident and cocksure of the two Sisters brothers; this is why the Commodore promotes him to “lead man” (7) on their new job over his younger brother Eli. Charlie’s gunslinging skill imbues him with fearlessness, arrogance, and a willingness to take what he wants: He remorselessly robs and kills numerous people who get in his way on their journey. Moreover, Charlie looks up to powerful men like the Commodore, and wishes to emulate them—Eli worries that in the debauched and corrupt Mayfield, “I was witnessing the earthly personification of Charlie’s future, or proposed future” (122).

However, Charlie’s desire for this type of life, and his previously unassailable self-assurance, are shaken by his encounter with Warm. Hearing about the man’s invention and the Commodore’s intent to steal it, leads Charlie to question for the first time an order to kill. This incipient doubts reach a crisis point when Charlie injures his shooting hand after spilling some of Warm’s formula on it—badly enough to have it amputated soon after. This loss of the source of his power, coupled with the realization about the Commodore’s true nature, leaves Charlie “wondering whom he might be for the rest of his life” (302).