Amerika’s protagonist, 15-year-old Karl, is a naive boy from Prague. Despite the advantages given to him from birth, he is meek, naive, and self-doubting. He constantly questions his decisions and ignores his instincts, which contributes to some of the disastrous situations he finds himself in. He is embarrassed by the cause of his exile to America: He was “seduced” (3) by a maid named Johanna Brummer and fathered a child. When Karl thinks about Johanna, he admits to having no feelings for her and describes their relationship as a one-night stand.

However, Karl is generally a moral character who wants to do the right thing and holds himself to high standards of conduct. He tries his best to learn English to impress his uncle. When he gets a job as a lift-boy, he wants to start right away: He laments having to stop his career training in Europe “without anything to show for it” (95) and wants to avoid a similar fate in America.

In terms of work, Karl wishes to use his engineering training but never has a chance to do so until the novel’s end. He is disappointed to learn that lift boys don’t need to know anything about how elevators work.