Good Night, Irene

A dynamic character, Dorothy Dunford is Irene’s best friend and a fellow Clubmobile volunteer for the Red Cross. Dorothy is a tall, strong, blond-haired woman who joins the Red Cross because her family has died, including her brother, who was killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Dorothy feels enraged because of her grief and needs “an escape, a valve to release her helpless anger” (17). Although Dorothy knows that women cannot fight in the war, she resolves to find some way to avenge her brother’s death and resolves that she is not “going to the war only for men to tell her what to do” (21). Despite their differences, Dorothy and Irene become close friends and rely on each other to survive. While Irene retreats into her imagination to process her trauma, Dorothy processes trauma by becoming angry and jumping into impulsive action. These different reactions to trauma cause a measure of conflict between the two women because Dorothy does not know how to internalize her own suffering. The more suffering that Dorothy sees, the more extreme her actions become, for she desperately wants to help those around her. A crucial shift in Dorothy’s character development comes from her meeting with the Resistance fighter, Colette. Dorothy realizes that Colette carries a machine gun and kills German soldiers, just the same as any man. This interaction makes Dorothy realize that women can defy the gender roles that society has imposed upon them. She therefore decides that joining the Gray Ghosts will fulfill her in a way that serving doughnuts and coffee does not.

Instead of feeling fulfillment from her activities with the Gray Ghosts, killing a German officer causes Dorothy to feel additional sorrow and trauma. She starts to experience extreme symptoms of guilt like the soldiers around her and wants “to confess to Irene” (299), but she feels unable to confide in her friend on this matter. When Dorothy visits the concentration camp, her grief and anger propels her toward action again. She tells Irene that the concentration camp broke her because she knew there “was nothing [she] could do—that [she] could not help a single person” (336). Dorothy’s helplessness causes her to choose to save the baby she later finds, for she realizes that her part in the war “can’t be about killing. It has to be about living. Saving even one life” (336). Despite her certainty in the moment, Dorothy lives with the guilt of her choice after she believes Irene to be dead, realizing that she chose a baby over her best friend. However, Dorothy also experiences peace when she learns of Irene’s survival, knowing that she will no longer have to face the memories of her past alone.

Hans is a fighter pilot who becomes Irene’s lover during the war. Hans grew up in Oregon on a farm as a cowboy. He is a flat character who acts as both a mentor for Irene during the war and a guide in her memories after his death. Hans’s death in battle cuts their love affair short, but the brevity of the relationship makes it no less meaningful. Their love affair represents the hope that keeps them going even amidst war. Hans is a musician and writes Irene a song called “The Pearl of Great Price” (115). The title of the song is a reference to the biblical parable in which a man sells everything he owns to buy the Pearl of Great Price. Hans shows his commitment to Irene by calling her “Pearl” because he would do anything to be with her. Although Hans and Irene feel attracted to each other, their mutual trauma is what initially brings them together. Hans finds Irene in the streets during the London bombing and carries her to safety because he realizes that she is in shock. When Irene tries to talk about what she saw in the streets, he tells her what he tells himself after a battle, “You walked out of there. You get one more day. So you win” (125). Hans’s ability to understand Irene’s trauma and empathize with her causes them to fall in love quickly. Their week in Cannes gives them enough hope to persist in their own war efforts, and they both cling to the possibility that they will reunite after the war and spend their lives together. Even though Hans dies in battle, Irene refuses to say goodbye to him in Cannes in order to keep alive her hope of a possible future with Hans.

Hans has a different perspective on the war than the other soldiers that Irene meets. He does not like to talk about the number of people he has killed because, as he tells Irene, he is “just a guy driving around in the sky killing other poor guys who are trying to kill [him]” (102). Hans understands that circumstances are the only thing that separates him from the German soldiers he kills. Thus, he understands the nuances of war and tells Irene that in the sky, everyone is alone “and there is nothing friendly anywhere” (102). He knows that everyone in the war is desperately trying to survive, no matter what side they happen to be on, and he asserts that the killing of any human being is too much for a person to bear.