Karen Michaelis

Karen Michaelis is one of the last of the novel's major characters to be introduced, at least by name. She is referred to a couple of times in the early chapters, but only as Leopold's mother. In spite of that fact, she is clearly the novel's protagonist, or central character. It is her journey of transformation - her choices, her actions and reactions, her perspectives and feelings - that drives both the narrative's thematic explorations and its two main plots ... the present plot involving what's going to happen to Leopold and the past plot—the love triangle between Karen, Naomi Fisher, and Max. It is Karen's exploration of her true feelings and of the actions she takes as a result of that exploration and her growing trust in the belief that feelings illuminate truth that define the narrative's incidents and all four of its principal themes...