Character studies

We are already into our third week. In this time you have completed background work on Vietnam; completed character studies on both John and Kathy Wade and are examining a range of themes in preparation for essay writing. Over the next few days I will publish a range of student contributions in relation to John and Kathy Wade. This first one was completed by Marnie and Leah. Thank you for your insight!

Kathy Wade – The perceptions of others

We learn about Kathy Wade’s character more through the perceptions of others rather than through Kathy herself as she disappears so early in the novel.

Tony Carbo

“..even his wife, I don’t think she knew the first damn thing about... well, about any of it...” – Tony Carbo. This quote by Carbo suggests that John preferred to keep Kathy in the dark about certain matters.

Patricia Hood

Kathy’s true feelings remain a mystery to John and after her disappearance her sister Patricia Hood plays a large part of revealing her real perspective on her life. “My sister seemed almost scared of him sometimes...” Maybe Kathy was afraid to tell John what she was really thinking which showed that perhaps she wasn’t as strong as she made out to be.

Kathy was not really the kind to share what she felt with John but preferred to confide in her sister about what she was going through “I remember Kathy telling me how he’d wake up screaming”. Through these glimpses of what we are told by Kathy’s sister Pat we see that she was hesitant to share her inner most feelings with John.

Pat also thinks that Kathy was deluding herself her whole life by shutting out the bad things that would happen to her. Instead of dealing with things Kathy would avoid them and think about or do something else. Kathy preferred to disconnect from reality, to trick herself with “…pixie dust. Sprinkle on the love,” and by doing that she fooled herself showing how naïve she could be.

Bethany Kee

Another person who sheds new perspective on Kathy is her friend Bethany Kee. Kathy was also thought to have shared secrets with Bethany that she may not have told any one else. Bethany could see that “Kathy knew he had these secrets, things he wouldn’t talk about. She knew about the spying. Maybe [Bethany] was wrong but it was like [Kathy] needed to be part of it.” Although Kathy may have been scared of John it shows that she still loved him and needed him. The comments made by others show that Kathy was very much in love with John and although love wasn’t enough to make her happy Kathy wasn’t strong enough to leave him.

“After work we used to do laps together, over at the Y every night. She’d just swim and swim, like a fish almost, so I’m not worried about… Well, I think she’s fine...” – Bethany Kee. This quote shows that Bethany believes that Kathy’s ability to swim was a saving grace if she was in a boating accident. Perhaps it also showed an inner strength she possessed, which was the ability to push herself. This could also be showing another side of Kath’s personality which was to try and forget things and put them behind her so she could relax and pretend to be happy.

“I’ll bet she’s on a greyhound bus somewhere. Married to that creep, that’s where I’d be. She liked buses.” – Bethany Kee. Throughout the novel it is suggested that Kathy was unfaithful to John, and had an affair with her dentist. I believe Bethany is trying to say she thinks that Kathy may have run off with the dentist to start a new life, escaping the dramas that plagued her existing one.

Bethany also gives us a glimpse into the ambitious side of Kathy, the side that had hopes and dreams and had her whole life mapped out. “She wanted to travel, see the world… She used to talk about Verona all the time” but her relationship with John denied her all of her dreams, not only just her plans of travel she was too
weak to push what she wanted on to John and instead became his doormat and lost all hopes of the life she wanted.

John Wade

John thought Kathy to be a “beautiful woman … [but] her face was tired, with the lax darkening that accompanies age, but still he found much to admire. The green eyes, brown summer skin, slim legs and shapely little fingers…” To him Kathy was the most beautiful woman in the world and he couldn’t live without her.

John always believed that Kathy was happy to oblige to what he wanted. As long as he was happy he thought Kathy would be too. He remembered when “Kathy’s green eyes were wet and happy and full of the light that was only Kathy’s and could be no one else’s.” Perhaps whenever John thought that Kathy was unhappy he remembered these things and fooled himself that she really was happy and she didn’t tell him otherwise.

Through these perceptions from other people about Kathy we see that she is not really the person that she lets on. It could be perceived that Kathy’s true personality was overshadowed by John and only through other people’s memories and views we learn about the true Kathy Wade.

The Narrator
He presents with a range of different hypotheses as to what Kathy may have thought and how she may have acted. But we'll leave this for someone else to discuss.