I am surprised by how little the character of Karen changes from beginning to end of DeLillo’s Mao II – in her final scene, she is still child-like and dependent, with no notable thoughts or beliefs apart from her faith in the Reverend Moon. I think it is significant that the Unification Church is cited as making its followers more child-like. “What does the church teach? Be children again” (80). Although endowed with an adult body, Karen is portrayed as a child at many points. For example, Scott observes a theme of underwear in Karen’s life in Chapter 6. If DeLillo wished to present Karen as a sexy young woman, nudity might be a more effective motif; underwear seems more appropriate for a child.
Karen is presented not as an adolescent nor as a growing girl, but rather as permanently child-like. Her final lines in the novel cement this impression: “They can own the house,” Karen said. “But they should let us live here. And we keep the manuscript and we keep the pictures” (223). Karen’s wishes are hopelessly naive and quixotic, and rather self-centered. Scott has speculated that the matter will ultimately be in the hands of lawyers, while his companion demonstrates her lack of a mature understanding of their situation. According to Rabinowitz’s “rules of notice” as described in Before Reading, the last sentence (and last appearance of a major character) are “privileged,” and a valid interpretation of the text should be able to account for those privileged elements. By this measure, any interpretation of the character of Karen ought to explain the ultimate simplicity of her thoughts.
Karen does not judge or evaluate, but rather accepts everything around her as equally important. She is the embodiment of a member of a crowd after the “discharge” has taken place, and all become equal and lose their fear of being touched, as described in Canetti’s Crowds and Power. In Karen’s case, not only is there no fear of being touched, but she practically must be touched to exist, to be experienced. She is constantly seeking to connect with other people.
Pictures play a large role in Mao II, and Karen emphasizes their importance in connecting with members of the crowd. Karen’s mind is mostly a blank slate. She rarely reads books, and did not come into Bill’s presence through any familiarity with his writing, unlike Scott and everyone else around the writer. Although she doesn’t read, she frequently watches television as a way of connecting with the crowd even while sitting in an isolated house. While watching TV, she seems to absorb the pictures, often with the sound turned off. Continuing this theme, in Karen’s final chapter she is looking at photographs of Bill, as she and Scott view contact sheets using a lightbox.
Karen seems to be a sort of hologram, unaffected by her surroundings, and untroubled by deep reflection. I am tempted to assert that Karen exists only when someone chooses to see her, which might account for her interactions with Bill and Scott, but would not explain her time among the homeless in New York City. Although it is stated in the novel that Karen is like a character out of Bill’s writing, she is left alive after his demise. At the end of the novel, she is a child of the future, completely dependent on the crowd, with no use for independent thought, or writers like Bill.