Kate de Vries

Character Analysis

I am Woman, Hear Me Roar

Kate is an inquisitive, smart, feisty young woman—but she'd hate that you would feel it necessary to emphasize her gender. She's first and foremost an aspiring scientist, and the fact that she's a girl is merely another obstacle she will have to encounter:

"That's not fair," she said hotly. "You think I'm being selfish, don't you? That I'm rich and have nothing but choices. I'm a girl, and girls don't get choices. No one's going to give me a chance unless I force them to. It's not enough to be smart and curious. It's just like you, being poor. You and I have to try harder and be better to get ahead. I have to have something amazing like this before they'll pay attention to me." (14.255)

This belief is one that drives Kate in all of her pursuits. A feminist in an age where it's obviously not a popular sentiment, Kate feels that it's her prerogative to prove that women can do the same things men can do, if not better—and that equality of the sexes should be pursued at all costs. For instance, upon the discovery of the cloud cat Kate is upset that both she and Matt automatically started calling it him. While it was merely a reflexive designation, to Kate it reflects the vast unfairness of society:

"Isn't it funny how we both started calling it HIM."

"I didn't even think about it."

"We have no way of knowing whether it's a he or a she. But of course we just call it him. Just another big important male of the species." She looked at me angrily, as if this were all my fault somehow.

"Let's call it SHE, then," I suggested.

Her frown disappeared. "All right. Good. She." (11.201-205)

Is it silly to debate what the cloud cat's gender is without having any definitive proof? A bit. But for Kate the important part is not making the misogynistic assumption that the animal is automatically male.

So if society is going to tell her that staying home and taking up knitting is what's expected of her, then she's bound and determined to do exactly the opposite. When her chaperone locks her into her stateroom for safekeeping, of course Kate drugs her, sneaks out, and doggedly pursues photographs of the living cloud cat with or without the help of Matt. After all, women can be jungle explorers and discoverers of new species without the help of a man.

But is this wise on Kate's part? Not really—she puts herself in danger because she (by her own admission) has zero sense of direction, and then risks the lives of Matt and Bruce when they are forced to find her. Oh, and she also risks being left behind if the Aurora took off, because they can't wait around and risk yet another catastrophe.

So while being determined against all odds is usually considered a positive trait, in Kate it can sometimes be a weakness because she doesn't stop to think about the ramifications her actions might have on others.

Hear Me Roar… at Your Own Risk

Although Kate is hardly an antagonist of the story, her role is to be a foil to Matt's character. In other words, her character's traits help show some of Matt's important character traits by emphasizing their differences. He's really poor, she's really rich. He has/had loving parents but lost one tragically, she has two parents who are mostly missing in action. Matt seems to always put the needs of others before his own, and Kate has a hard time even seeing what needs others might have. This last trait—her naïve blindness to other people's priorities—is another defining attribute as well as a major plot device.

For a small example, Matt's perambulations in the forest with Kate cause him to be late to two different shifts, which disappoints his hero a.k.a. Captain Walken. Had Matt not discovered the source of hydrium on one of these jaunts and saved the day, his reputation would've been forever tarnished on his beloved ship… but Kate barely even sees this consequence. Instead she only sees that Matt is more hesitant to help her in her quest. In fact, when Matt tries to convince her that another journey into the forest together is too risky, Kate only sees his hesitance to help, and doesn't stop to think that maybe Matt has a good reason for his resistance:

"Don't ask me to choose, please. It's not fair. You or the captain. You or the ship."

"It doesn't seem a very difficult choice to me," Kate said, her nostrils narrowing. "Anyway, I don't see what the ship's got to do with this."

"It's my home."

"It's not your home," she said impatiently. "It's where you work, that's all."

I looked at her, not trusting myself to speak. She didn't understand anything. (10.129-133)

This isn't Kate just being a big old meanie. Her privileged status in society probably hasn't given her many opportunities to think about anyone other than herself.

Her preoccupation with priority numero uno (finding a new species and proving it exists no matter what) leads her and her friends into many difficult—and super dangerous—situations. However, if it weren't for her driven nature, Kate and Matt might not have had such happy endings after all. It's a mixed bag with this girl.