Ross Maloy is the narrator and protagonist. He is in seventh grade and receiving radiation treatment for cancer when he commences his narrative. The tagline on the novel’s front cover, “Surviving Middle School With One Eye Open,” is key to understanding Ross’s narrative choices and his character arc: He literally has one eye open, but he also sees his life in middle school from a skewed perspective, so he sometimes misses the big picture. He’s a frightened child whose mother died of breast cancer when he was very young and now has an aggressive type of eye cancer himself; his worries revolve around his longing to be normal. The events of the fall semester alter his perspective until he’s a confident survivor who embraces imperfections and finds happiness in doing what he loves, spending time with people he loves, and appreciating what really matters.

The nonlinear plot structure in Wink demonstrates the progression of Ross’s character development because he’s the narrator—i.e., he chooses how he tells the story. There are two plots in Ross’s narrative: the main plot, which takes place within the timeframe of his radiation treatments, and the historical plot, which consists of flashbacks to events that elucidate the main plot.