The Corrections Characters

Before we continue with your regularly scheduled Shmoop character analysis, we request that you take this brief quiz. This test will determine your E.L.L, or Enid Lambert Level.Without any further...

Alfred is like the Wizard of Oz—he's not always directly involved in the plot but he's always the main motivator behind the other characters. But the similarities run deeper than that. Like the W...

Gary is a man caught between two women. If you're thinking that sounds like a good problem, though, then think again because the two lovely ladies in question are Enid and Caroline: his mother and...

Chip Lambert wants to the hippest hipster that ever lived. If you were to break down his desired personality into a math equation, it would be: one part literary intellectual + one part creative ge...

Denise is a melting pot. As the third and youngest child in the Lambert family, she had a much different experience growing up than her brothers. Unlike Chip, who tries on a new identity every day,...

Gary's whole mission in life is to not be his father, but he couldn't have failed any harder.It's not that he's unaware of their similarities. He knows that he has become a "shouter [...] like his...

Don Armour (yeah, real subtle with the symbolism there, Franzen) shapes the future of the Lambert family, but he probably has no idea. When we first meet Don in the Midpac Signals Department, it se...

Gitanas's bizarre journey illustrates The Corrections' take on the state of modern politics. The world that Gitanas grew up in was purely black-and-white. Lithuania had a clear enemy (the "big evil...

Melissa is everything that Chip wants. Actually, scratch that—Melissa is everything that Chip wants to be.Chip has been fascinated with girls since a young age. He's always wished that he could "...

Denise has very specific—but very different—tastes in lovers. On one hand, she often finds herself involved with older, emotionally detached men (we're looking at you, Don Armour). On the other...

While Enid represses her emotions like a fart on a first date, Sylvia is eager to tell Enid her most intimate struggles. Sylvia has gone through some tragic experiences over the past few years—sp...