From Here to Eternity Study Guide

From Here to Eternity

From Here to Eternity by James Jones

From Here to Eternity is a the story of G Company, a United States military detachment stationed in Hawaii in 1941. The novel tracks the progress of strife, boredom, and abuse within the company as its constituent members engage in hazing, affairs, formal and informal competitions, and other clashes. The novel is concerned mainly with military culture and its impact on the human mind as expressed through the actions of soldiers in peaceful environments.

From Here to Eternity Characters

Table of Contents
  • Private Robert E. Lee "Prew" Prewitt — A career soldier with six years' service at 23. After the disintegration of his poor mining family in Kentucky, he was a teenage hobo during the Great Depression before enlisting in the US Army at 17. In the Army, he learned to box and play the bugle skillfully.
  • First Sergeant Milton Anthony "Milt" Warden — At 34, he has already served in several different countries and is an efficient administrator who takes care of the day-to-day operations of G Company. He is tough but fair and understanding with his enlisted men. He is skeptical about the abilities of commissioned officers. He has an affair with Karen Holmes and falls in love with her. Near the end of the novel, he becomes a commissioned officer himself, when he receives his commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Reserve Corps.
  • Captain Dana "Dynamite" Holmes — The commanding officer of G Company and regimental boxing coach, he hopes to get a promotion and so pushes his men to perform well in boxing and spends time ingratiating himself with his superiors. He leaves Warden to do the actual work of running the company. He is married to Karen but cheats on her and neglects her. He is eventually promoted to Major and transferred out of G Company.
  • Karen Holmes — Captain Holmes' beautiful wife, who was forced to have a hysterectomy as treatment for gonorrhea she got from her husband. As a result, her marriage is strained, and she has affairs, including with Stark and Warden with whom she falls in love.
  • Lorene/ Alma Schmidt — A beautiful prostitute who came to Hawaii from Oregon, having turned to prostitution after her rich hometown boyfriend dumped her and married someone of a higher social class. She plans to make enough money in Hawaii to establish herself in a higher social class back home and eventually marry aman of impeccable reputation so that no one would ever suspect she had been a prostitute. She falls in love with Prew but will not marry him because of his low social status.
  • Private Angelo Maggio — A young, hotheaded and outspoken Italian new recruit, originally from Brooklyn, who becomes Prew's good friend. To supplement his paycheck, he is a paid companion (and sometimes partner in the restored version of the novel) to homosexuals although he appears to be heterosexual. He fights with military police while drunk and is sentenced to the Stockade, where he endures beatings and abuse by "Fatso" Judson before finally getting a Section 8 discharge.
  • Private First Class Isaac Bloom — A Jewish infantryman who, unlike Prewitt, joins Captain Holmes' boxing team in hopes of advancing his military career. He gets into fights with both Maggio and Prewitt, and feels that people dislike him for being Jewish, among other things. Later, he is promoted to corporal, but when he is sentto noncommissioned officer training school, he gets kicked out. He secretly fears that he is homosexual and ends up committing suicide.
  • Mess Sergeant Maylon Stark — The company's head cook, he was previously with Capt. Holmes' troop at Fort Bliss, where he had an affair with Karen Holmes.
  • Sergeant/ Platoon Guide "Old Ike" Galovitch — An older soldier of Yugoslav background who gives Prew "The Treatment" when he refuses to box. He attacks Prew with a knife, causing Prew to fight back with his fists and then be sentenced to the Stockade.
  • Staff Sergeant "Fatso" Judson — The sadistic second-in-command of the Stockade, Judson beats and tortures prisoners for minor infractions or insubordination and kills Blues Berry. Judson is later killed by Prew.
  • Jack Malloy — A charismatic prisoner in the Stockade, who was previously a labor organizer and seaman. He eventually escapes and is suspected of killing Judson.
  • Blues Berry — Prew and Maggio's friend and fellow prisoner in the Stockade, who is tortured to death by Judson.

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