Christine Monahan Character Analysis in The Dharma Bums

Christine is Sean Monahan’s dedicated, hardworking wife who cooks, cleans, and cares for their two children while Sean works in nearby Sausalito. She also feeds and takes care of Ray Smith when Sean isn’t around, and she enthusiastically attends the numerous parties that Sean throws on their property. Happy at home and willing to make do with very little money, Christine represents an idealized version of a 1950s American housewife, at the same time as she participates in the Beat Generation’s Buddhist counterculture. This suggests that, in all his rebelliousness, Kerouac might have failed to move beyond the rigid gender roles that limited women’s prospects in his time. Christine’s real name is Valerie McCorkle, and she was Locke McCorkle (Sean Monahan)’s real first wife.

Christine Monahan Character Timeline in The Dharma Bums

The timeline below shows where the character Christine Monahan appears in The Dharma Bums. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...works as a carpenter and meditates in the shack up the hill. Meanwhile, his wife, Christine, does housework and makes food from scratch, and their two young daughters wander around and... (full context)

When Ray arrives, he meets Christine, who feeds him and explains that Sean and Japhy are working. Ray praises Sean as... (full context)

...attendees are three couples: Japhy and Polly Whitmore, a beautiful, recently divorced mountain-climber; Sean and Christine; and Christine’s brother Whitey Jones and Patsy, his fiancée. The odd men out are Ray... (full context)

The next day, Sean and Christine get plenty of visitors, including Princess, Alvah Goldbrook, and Warren Coughlin, who come to visit... (full context)

...makes fun of Ray for doing nothing all day, chops wood, and chases girls. Even Christine is in love with Japhy. Japhy is also seeing another beautiful girl named Psyche, but... (full context)

...to stay, but she ends up backing into a ditch and having to stay with Christine and Sean anyway. Everyone sets up to sleep on various parts of the property, and... (full context)

Later, Sean and Christine visit to say goodbye to Japhy, and Ray compares Japhy to the Gautama Buddha leaving... (full context)

On June 18, 1956, Ray says goodbye to Christine and starts hitchhiking north. A teacher brings him to Cloverdale, where he buys food, and... (full context)