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Illustrated portrait of Sergeant Kervinski

A character in The City and the Pillar

Sergeant Kervinski

An Army sergeant attracted to Jim while he and Jim navigate military secrecy.

What they want

Sexual contact without exposing himself inside military life.

The book

Cover of The City and the Pillar by Gore Vidal
The City and the PillarGore Vidal, 1948

A young man carries one attachment through a world determined to make him live as someone else.

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Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Kervinski is a sergeant at Jim’s Colorado base.

His attraction to Jim exists inside an institution officially organized around heterosexual masculinity.

He shows that same-sex desire remains present even where disclosure is dangerous.

How the book draws them

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • WatchfulSecrecy shapes the way he approaches other men.
  • MilitaryRank and discipline frame his behavior.
  • Attracted to JimHis interest is clearer than Jim’s interest in him.
  • Institutionally constrainedThe Army makes recognition risky rather than impossible.

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