The Time of Your Life Study Guide

The Time of Your Life

The Time of Your Life by William Saroyan

Main characters

  • Joe, a loafer with money and a good heart
  • Tom, his admirer, disciple, errand boy, stooge and friend
  • Kitty Duval, a young streetwalker who longs for a better life
  • Nick, owner of Nick's Pacific Street Saloon, Restaurant and Entertainment Palace
  • Arab, an Eastern philosopher and harmonica-player
  • Kit Carson, an old Indian-fighter
  • McCarthy, an intelligent and well-read longshoreman
  • Krupp, his boyhood friend, a waterfront cop who hates his job but doesn't know what else to do instead
  • Harry, a natural born hoofer who wants to make people laugh but can't
  • Wesley, a colored boy who plays a mean and melancholy boogie-woogie piano
  • Willie, a marble-game maniac
  • Dudley, a young man in love
  • Elsie, a nurse, the one he loves
  • Lorene, an unattractive woman
  • Mary L., an unhappy woman of quality and great beauty
  • Blick, a heel

Minor characters

  • A Newsboy
  • A Drunkard
  • Nick's Ma
  • Sailor
  • Killer, a streetwalker
  • Killer's sidekick
  • Society Gentleman
  • Society Lady
  • Cops

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