Paul Browne

Paul Browne is Maribeth Robertson’s high-school date and the father of her child. Their encounter is brief, but its consequences shape Maribeth’s life: she becomes pregnant, while Paul resumes his relationship with Debbie and plans a future with her. Through Paul, the novel connects teenage intimacy to the unequal burdens of an unplanned pregnancy, and contrasts his ability to move on with Maribeth’s lasting responsibilities and choices.

Identity and Introduction

Paul enters Maribeth’s story at a school dance where she has withdrawn from the crowd and her disappointing date. A senior and football star, he notices her sitting alone and strikes up a conversation despite not knowing who she is. Their shared dislike of the crowd creates an immediate opening between them, and he offers to take her home rather than leave her on her own.

His appearance and car contribute to the impression he makes. He helps Maribeth into an impeccably kept 1951 Bel Air with new chrome trim and red leather seats. After she gives him her address, he suggests a hamburger and a milkshake, turning a ride home into an invitation to spend more time together. For Maribeth, who has felt overlooked and unhappy at the dance, his attention is flattering and exciting.

Relationship with Maribeth

The encounter develops quickly into a sexual relationship. Maribeth is inexperienced and uncertain about what the intimacy means, while Paul behaves as though it will continue: afterward, he suggests that she visit when his parents are out of town. His assumption contrasts with her confusion. She wonders whether she loves him, whether he loves her, and whether she is now his steady girlfriend; the encounter has changed her sense of her future without giving her a clear understanding of their relationship.

Paul’s remorse after their first sexual encounter does not resolve that uncertainty. He tells Maribeth that he is sorry, and she reassures him, but his apology is followed by the expectation of another meeting. Maribeth, by contrast, is left trying to interpret both the intimacy and the promise that there will be a next time. The episode establishes a disparity between Paul’s confidence about continuing and her unsettled grasp of what has happened.

Pregnancy and Paul’s Choices

Six weeks after the encounter, in early May, Paul and Debbie announce that they are engaged and will marry after graduation in July. On the same day, Maribeth discovers she is pregnant. She eventually seeks confirmation from her mother’s doctor, who verifies that she is two months pregnant. The timing makes the contrast between Paul’s announced plans and Maribeth’s sudden predicament especially stark.

When Maribeth later asks Paul whether their evening together meant anything, he acknowledges that it did at the time. He says he had thought she was terrific, but explains that Debbie cried and accused him of treating her badly after their three-year relationship, so he agreed to marry her after graduation. He does not present the decision as a considered commitment to Maribeth; instead, his account places her encounter with him alongside his return to Debbie and his choice to marry her. Asked what he wants, he says he does not know, but does know that he does not want a baby.

Maribeth also tells Tommy Whittaker that Paul had said she could not become pregnant from one encounter and had suggested that she could get rid of the pregnancy. She is unsure what an abortion entails and has heard that it is dangerous and expensive. This account reinforces the distance between Paul’s earlier assurances and the reality Maribeth faces. The narrative does not establish whether he knowingly misled her; Maribeth herself wonders whether he was lying or simply ignorant.

Consequences for Maribeth

Paul’s absence from the practical consequences of the pregnancy is part of his significance in the story. Maribeth’s father learns of the pregnancy and reacts with anger, treating it as a family disgrace. He orders her to leave home, have the baby, and place the child for adoption, and forbids her from seeing or contacting her mother and sister until then. Paul’s choices do not cause the family’s punitive response by themselves, but his marriage plans and rejection of the baby leave Maribeth confronting that response without a shared future with him.

Away from her family, Maribeth manages the stigma by telling people at Jimmy D’s that she is a widow whose husband was killed in Korea. The story helps her obtain work and lets her colleagues accept the pregnancy without suspicion, but it also conceals the child’s actual father. When the waitresses later imagine the baby as a final gift from her supposed dead husband, Maribeth cannot correct them or explain that the father is Paul, who has married someone else and, as the narrative observes, does not care about the baby.

Narrative Significance

Paul’s role is concentrated in a short relationship, but the consequences persist beyond his appearances. For Maribeth, the pregnancy is not simply a private memory of a date: it changes her relationship with her family, forces her to build an independent life, and shapes her decision about the child. Her choice to give the baby up is grounded in her recognition that she is young, cannot yet provide a stable life, and does not want to marry Paul merely to avoid relinquishment. She considers the child’s needs as well as her own future.

The contrast between Paul’s movement toward marriage with Debbie and Maribeth’s isolation underscores how differently the two teenagers experience the aftermath of their encounter. Paul can describe the evening as something that meant something at the time and then proceed with another relationship. Maribeth must continue to live with the pregnancy and its social consequences, while keeping up her studies and imagining a future beyond the immediate crisis. The novel gives Paul importance less through sustained development than through the enduring effects of his brief involvement with her.