.
Later on, as George tries to convince Chris that the later's father is the real culprit, Chris refuses to believe his accusations against his father:.
Chris: on his [Steve Deveer] own. And because he is a frightened mouse this is another thing he"d done through the blame on somebody else because he's not man enough to take it himself. He tried it in the court, but it did not work, but with fools like you [George] it works. .
Matter-of-fact, Chris idealistic streak is indeed the key feature towards a clear-cut revelation of his character. This idealism has been manifested in more than one occasion. First, as he was explaining to Ann the reason why he has delayed his confession of Love for her, he attribute it to his own feeling of guilt at the thought that all the men under his command had died when he himself survived. He even feels even guiltier when he finds that the world has not changed as a consequence of the War, as it retains its very selfish and callous attitudes as it used to be before the War:.
Chris: they [the young soldiers under his command] didn't die; they killed themselves for each other. I mean that exactly; a little more selfish and they"d've been here today And then I came home and it was incredible. I - there was no meaning in it here; the whole thing to them [the American society] was a kind of a-bus accident Because no body was changed at all I felt wrong to be alive, to open a bank-book, to drive the new car-.
Elsewhere, Chris idealism finds expression in his feeling surprised and shocked by the revelation that his father was the real culprit in the matter of supplying defective cylinder heads to the air force, after his confrontation with his mother about Ann's stay in their house, which has developed to its peak that Kate affirms him that his father had really been guilty: .
Kate: your brother is alive, darling, because if he's dead, your father killed him.
