Character Clues

Character Analysis

Direct Characterization

What's better than reading someone's diary? Being able to read his mind, of course.

Our entire story is told from Slocum's point of view, so all of the characterization we get comes directly from his perspective. And this certainly colors the picture we get of everyone and everything at the office, at home, and in the past.

Slocum blatantly tells us how he feels about the people around him. "I don't like my wife," he'll frequently say, or, "I'm afraid of Green." He's brutally honest, and we find that we come to appreciate this trait in him. Let's take a closer look at how he feels about himself:

I am one of those many people, therefore, most of whom are much older than I, who are without ambition already and have no hope, although I do want to continue receiving my raise in salary each year, and a good cash bonus at Christmastime, and I do want very much to be allowed to take my place on the rostrum at the next company convention in Puerto Rico. (2.63)

Tell us how you really feel, Slocum.

While he has to bite his tongue in person, Slocum doesn't hold back his feelings at all in his direct characterizations, brought to you by his pages and pages of internal monologue.

Names

We don't get to learn most of the characters' names, just like we don't get to see any of the adults' faces in Charlie Brown. Womp womp.

In Something Happened, we learn just a handful of names, and those who are named seem to stand out for a particular purpose. Obviously, Slocum himself is named, because he is our narrator, and he's the only character whose mind we can read. His son Derek seems to be named because he is an anomaly in the Slocum household. Each of the people at the office is named, from Martha the crazy typist to Jane (dude's crushing on her) to Green, Kagle, and Baron. There are the people Slocum must interact with daily.

Other than these few named people and some from Slocum's past who have shaped him, no one else is named, including Slocum's wife and children. Do they stand for normal members of any other suburban family? Or do they play rather insignificant roles in Slocum's life? Are the people closest to him those he takes most for granted? There's no one right answer to this one, folks: it's just something Heller wants you to chew on.

Sex and Love

Sex and love play a huge role in Slocum's life. While he may not love his wife (or any of the other women he sleeps with, for that matter), he certainly enjoys doing…well, stuff with them. At least he sometimes enjoys it. Not always.

Slocum fills us in on all of his affairs, as well as those of the other men in his office. They won't ever leave their wives for the younger girls they pursue, so it's all sex and no love. From using Arthur Red's city apartment to hiring girls on business trips, affairs are routine, and we're desensitized to any shock value because we too become so used to hearing about it.

What does this say about the culture of businessmen in the 1960s? Is there too much temptation at the office? Or is there something wrong with their marriages that prompts them to keep shopping around? (That's probably what they would say.) Or are meaningful connections just impossible in a society where everyone is just a shell of a person living a meaningless life?