Dr. Robert Kerans

Kerans, the novel's protagonist, is complex and serious, a man propelled forward by his commitment to science as much as he is by his love for Beatrice and his inexorable instinct to move southward. At the beginning of the novel, Kerans is rational and measured, maintaining a strong working relationship with both the military commander Colonel Riggs and his two research peers, Alan Bodkin and Beatrice Dahl. He pushes Beatrice to leave the lagoon with Riggs' men, aware that lingering will lead to their deaths. And he is skeptical of Bodkin's research, which involves the provocation of dreams in a soldier named Hardman whose tether to reality appears to be fraying.

As time goes on, however, Kerans becomes increasingly enthralled by the possibility of staying in the lagoon. Though he continues to assist Riggs, his interests become more and more separate from the military ones that...