Emily and her sister represent how different their historical setting has made them. Emily was born at the start of the Great Depression: the father left because he could not find work and "did not want 'share their want.'" She is described as slow, not necessarily stupid but conscientious and over thinking of everything. Emily is pockmarked from a bout of chicken pox, and is also "dark, thin, and foreign-looking." This is used to repeatedly describe her in comparison to Susan.
Susan was born five years after Emily, at the start of most of the New Deal efforts. Their difference is highlighted at the end, where the narrator tells us, "her younger sister seemed all that she was not." Susan has the blonde curly hair, dimples, and chubbiness that endeared her to people and offered her a spot in the world. Susan's Shirley Temple like appearance and quick wit are highlighted again: at entertainment during dinner, at the prestige offered to her, at the ease in which it seems she has so far passed through life.
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