As the protagonist and unreliable first-person narrator of the novel, Georges is approximately 12 years old and is in the seventh grade. He is characterized by his meekness, his quiet reserve, and his tendency to detach from unpleasant or painful situations. Georges is an only child and comes from a happy, loving family. He is very isolated at school and begins the novel friendless, with no one to support him as he deals with Dallas and Carter’s bullying. Georges’s one real friend, Jason, has also abandoned him in favor of joining the “cool” kids, which include Georges’s bullies. As the novel develops, Georges begins to make social connections. His confidence builds, and he becomes a unifying force amongst the outcasts and bullying victims of his school.

Georges’s friendship with Safer, an unusual boy who lives in the apartment building, helps Georges to accept his own quirks and to value and respect the quirks of others. When he goes to school, Georges thinks of himself as a “hard G”—someone who can’t be touched or bothered by anything that happens. In reality, he spends a lot of time making himself small so that he will not draw the attention of the bullies.