Harvey Merrick is the main protagonist of the story. He is described as an artistic genius, his mind “an exhaustless gallery of beautiful impressions” (333). His artistic ability and gentle spirit are associated with imagery that gives him a Christlike quality. At one point, his former student notes that “[w]hatever he touched, he revealed its holiest secret” (333). Within a motif of Christian allusions and symbolism, Merrick becomes a martyr who is metaphorically crucified for his love of beauty and art by the materialistic and utilitarian townspeople.

Though Merrick is the main protagonist, the story is not told from his point of view. Rather than a typical homecoming, his return to Sand City and the Western frontier is only after his death; it is an event filled with a sense of grief and bitterness that sets the tone of the story rather than the victory that the palm leaf on his coffin symbolizes. Except for a single memory—in which Steavens describes a conversation with Merrick just before his death—the artist’s

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