Dash

Mitsi Kashino is the protagonist, so the reader takes Mitsi’s side and roots for her as she tries to adjust to the miserable concentration camps. Though Mitsi is the main character, the story isn’t in her voice. Larson features a third-person subjective narrator. In other words, the voice belongs to a nameless narrator who has access to Mitsi’s thoughts and feelings and only Mitsi’s thoughts and feelings. Through the narrator’s special access to Mitsi’s interiority, the reader becomes close to Mitsi.

Mitsi has many positive traits. She’s loyal to Dash, thoughtful (she reads a lot of books), artistic, and empathetic. She doesn’t let the toxic environment break her principles. As she’s about to leave a mean note in Mags’s desk, the narrator reveals, “It gave Mitsi a stomachache to think of being that kind of mean to another person. She couldn’t do it” (40). Mitsi also gets sick when she catches Ted stealing at Camp Minidoka. Her physical revulsion to bullying and stealing demonstrates her integrity.

Furthering her admirable character, Mitsi, unlike Lefty, always delivers messages from people on the outside, and she gives her locket to Debbie to make her feel better.