They often use fantasy in their struggle with insecurity, with either painful or healing results. Mother Hicks, perhaps the most complex and ambiguous of all Zeder's adult characters, discovers both suffering and new strength in her trial. She is definitely an outsider, forced out of town due to the fear and prejudice of those who use her as a scapegoat. Her wisdom grows out of her connection to the earth, to nature, and to its healing powers. The pain of being ostracized and of losing her child has taught her some of nature's most difficult lessons about the importance of letting go and not claiming ownership of other people.
Girl is also an outsider, left alone as an orphan.
But Girl goes on to discover something that eludes most adults and certainly eludes the townspeople in this play. She learns that one must search for and create one's own identity, that identity cannot be completely defined by being part of a family, or having a particular job, or through owning material possessions. Girl realizes she must find her own name. The most unusual of the major characters in Mother Hicks is Tuc, the storyteller who links the audience with the world of the play. Tuc is considered an outsider because of his deafness, but what others consider his weakness he truthfully considers his strength, an integral part of his identity.