Though there is no way to know quite what the characters were like before the war, it is obvious that they have been changed and scarred by it. Jake is clearly emotionally traumatized and physically damaged by the war. His physical loss in the war has made it so he cannot reasonably have a mate in life, isolating him from the only true comfort he seems to seek. Brett is a woman lost between tradition and freedom - she has a good upbringing, access to money, access to men, yet she cannot allow herself to stick in one place long enough to order a few drinks or have a short, strained conversation. Her struggle with Jake in loving him only because they cannot have each other is indicative of the struggle endured by many women after the war - once you've lived far from tradition, how do you find it again?

Jake's bitterness and need for quiet are something many can identify with, but they are magnified by his experiences and losses in the war. At night when settling to sleep, his mind races to thoughts of torment about all the things in life he cannot have. He lives a life of sorry repitition, moving from meaningless bar to meaningless bar, full of people and drinks that never seem to touch his core. He is a man living behind a shield of "not talking about it", constantly denying and ignoring the pain and emptiness in his daily life.