What does it mean and who is the character whose image refused to blend with that ancient picture of a boy in shorts and shirt?

Answer 1

Bill is the character. him and Ralph passed each other in the halls at school, and this is not that Bill that Ralph knows. This is a boy who has unleashed the beast within and does not know how to gain control of it. Which is what is happening with all of the boys.

Answer 2

This is a reference to the essay "A Post-Colonial Oedipus" by Chinua Achebe. The character is the narrator who struggles to see his modern, post-colonial self in the context of a colonial-era photograph. He feels disconnected and alienated from the image, highlighting the cultural and historical tensions between past and present.