Mr. Pearson

Pearson is the "state draft investigator" in "The Tall Men" (45). A man of "better than average intelligence," he has developed an arrogant, stereotypical way of thinking about country people (48). His previous relief agency work has taught him to expect the worst from such groups, but his encounter with Mr. Gombault and the McCallum family is "different from what he had expected" (48). Over the course of the story, he learns how wrong his assumptions can be.