Johnny Got His Gun

by

Dalton Trumbo

Kareen Character Analysis

Kareen is Joe’s girlfriend before he goes to fight in World War I. One of Joe’s formative memories is spending the whole night in Kareen’s arms before he ships off the next day. Long after the last time Joe sees Kareen, he continues to imagine her, sometimes picturing that she might even come to see him in the hospital (although he knows it’s highly unlikely this would ever happen, given that the hospital staff don’t know Joe’s identity). The thought of seeing Kareen both excites Joe and horrifies him because he doesn’t want her to see him in his current condition. Kareen represents one of the many things that Joe left behind and lost when going to war.

Kareen Quotes in Johnny Got His Gun

The Johnny Got His Gun quotes below are all either spoken by Kareen or refer to Kareen. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Horrors of War Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

They didn’t sleep very much. Sometimes they dozed off and awakened and found that they were apart and came back to each other and held one another tight very tight as if they had been lost forever and had just found each other all over again.

Related Characters: Joe, Kareen, Old Mike Birkman
Related Symbols: Arms
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:
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Kareen Quotes in Johnny Got His Gun

The Johnny Got His Gun quotes below are all either spoken by Kareen or refer to Kareen. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Horrors of War Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

They didn’t sleep very much. Sometimes they dozed off and awakened and found that they were apart and came back to each other and held one another tight very tight as if they had been lost forever and had just found each other all over again.

Related Characters: Joe, Kareen, Old Mike Birkman
Related Symbols: Arms
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis: