King Rat | Characters & Character Analysis

King Rat Characters

Flt. Lt. Peter Marlowe

The novel's protagonist, Marlowe is a dark-skinned, craggy-faced, muscular British POW with wide shoulders and slim hips. He wears a sarong gracefully, squats on his heels, native-style, and is fluent in Malay, which first attracts the King, an American corporal who dominates the black market in the Changi POW Camp. Marlowe is a rebel at heart, refusing to wear the regulation arm band and hating the Provost Marshal, Lt. Grey, as representing the authority of the Japanese. Marlowe admits to a bad temper and thrills at danger, be it flying a Spitfire or lying to Grey.

Marlowe is originally from Portchester, a little hamlet on the south coast of Hampshire, England. He enters the British Army as have his male ancestors back to 1720, gets his wings in 1940 (age 19), and shoots down four German planes in the Battle of Britain and three Japanese planes over Java before 1942,...
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