George

George is the protagonist of Isherwood's "A Single Man." An Britsh ex-patriate living in California in the 1960s, George teaches English literature at the San Bernardino College — a community school of modest renown. Though he presents himself as a masculine intellectual, this facade hides George's deepest secret: that he is gay. At a time when being a gay man meant social death at best, and trial and imprisonment at worst, George keeps this part of himself beneath lock and key, and as a result is riddled with melancholic thoughts.

Prior to the start of the novel, George loses the love of his life, Jim, in a car accident. His heart is broken and he feels here is no point in living, and as a result his days are monotonous and itinerant. We meet him on a day like any other — filled with school, hospital visits, and the minutiae...