Ethan Hawley is the protagonist and first-person narrator of The Winter of Our Discontent. He is a man who has fallen from familial wealth and power but is satisfied with his life until he notices other people pushing him to realize what they consider to be his full potential. While wondering what his full potential is, Ethan explores options to change his moral code and earn wealth and prestige for himself and for his family. His relative poverty frightens the town because he is the proof that a wealthy white family can experience poverty and diminished social status, and that birthright does not guarantee perpetual wealth. The novel follows his character development from apathetic to ambitious until he ultimately decides that his negation of his own moral code is not worth the guilt and the wealth he acquires. Ethan is easily swayed by other people, but he learns that only he can manifest his own destiny. Ethan also struggles with issues of masculinity. Feeling disconnected from his wife, Ethan turns to richer men to understand how to become greedy and therefore worthy of his wife and family. Ethan’s ultimate redemption is that, despite the immoral things he has done, he resolves to live for a more hopeful future.