The Passenger

Alicia Western is Bobby’s brilliant younger sister, and her death by suicide begins the book and informs much of its present. Alicia experiences schizophrenia and has frequent hallucinations in which The Thalidomide Kid and a minstrel gang of other characters appear. Alicia’s mental illness begins at the onset of puberty, and much of the narrative sequences that describe her life take place during her adolescence. Each chapter in the novel, except the final chapter, begins with Alicia’s story, and these sections are set off from the main narrative by the use of italics. This technique indicates the secondary plotline and signals that it takes place outside the time frame of Bobby’s story. Alicia is a one-of-a-kind mathematical genius, and her intellect imposes on Bobby.

Significantly, throughout her ordeal, which includes occasional residencies in a psychiatric hospital, Alicia understands what is happening to her. For example, when The Kid makes his first appearance in her life, Alicia is somewhat startled and intrigued, but once she realizes that The Kid is not real in the objective sense, Alicia understands what is happening. Because she is so intelligent, she recognizes that her mental condition is complicated. This creates in her a hopelessness. She comes to view herself as “broken.” She loses faith in God, who she says “is not interested in our theology but only in our silence” (116). Alicia is an accurate manifestation of John Sheddan’s claim that “a life without grief is no life at all” (14). Her life is a continuous anguish that is only sometimes relieved by the love she feels toward Bobby. Alicia tries unsuccessfully throughout her short life to overcome her challenges.

The Thalidomide Kid, as he is referred to in the novel, is a hallucination of Alicia’s. His most prominent behavioral trait is his antagonism toward Alicia. In every scene where The Kid appears, some kind of argument usually ensues between them. As a manifestation of Alicia’s mind, The Kid is ostensibly her self-critical voice, and The Kid is often harsh and unforgiving.

The Thalidomide Kid is named after a medicine that was widely prescribed in the 1950s. It was soon discovered that Thalidomide taken by pregnant women caused congenital disorders. The Kid’s physical characteristics are best understood when considering the history of this medicine. He has no fingers, and his hands are described as “flippers”; he is also short, an indication that his growth was impacted in his physical development.

The Kid speaks some of the novel’s most complex and important truths. However, much of what he says is obfuscated by his tendency to be clever. At times, he speaks in riddles, and his messages can be obscured by layers of sarcasm and ridicule. In this way, The Kid serves a similar role as William Shakespeare’s clowns, except that The Kid is no fool. As a manifestation of Alicia’s mind, The Kid is highly intelligent, and though he often derides Alicia, he also does not want to see her follow through on her intentions to die by suicide.

“Long” John Sheddan is a friend of Bobby’s, an intellectual and a criminal whose outlook on life tends toward cynicism. John is a talker, and in the scenes where he appears, he does a vast majority of the talking.

The details of John’s own history are somewhat limited. He is English and not American and highly educated in the classical sense, but also wise to the ways of the world. He is both book smart and street smart. John’s observations offer the most information about Bobby and his current state of mind. John’s function in the novel is to draw out Bobby’s inner identity. It is John who suggests that Bobby was in love with his sister, and it is John who most concretely addresses Bobby’s feelings of guilt, saying, “Grief is the stuff of life. A life without grief is no life at all. But regret is a prison. Some part of you which you deeply value lies forever impaled at a crossroads you can no longer find and never forget” (14). John seems to echo a Buddhist sentiment in these comments, namely that suffering is unavoidable and a necessary component to living. John also articulates remorse in a way that Bobby understands and seems to recognize. Finally, John points out that the simple recognition of past pain does not lead Bobby to the ability to break free of his regrets.

Debussy Fields is a close friend of Bobby’s and has known both Bobby and Alicia for a long time. Debussy is a transgender woman and in her primary scene in Chapter 2, she details what her life was like trying to be herself in spite of blatant unacceptance by her family and all who knew her, with the exception of her younger sister. Debussy recalls the first time she returned home after her transition. She visited her mother, and she had to identify herself by her prior name, William, so that her mother could recognize her. Debussy then describes her father, who “loathed the sight” (68) of her until he died when she was 14 years old. Debussy is a close personal confidante of Bobby’s, and when Bobby receives a final, previously unknown letter from Alicia, he calls upon Debussy to read it and only share with Bobby whether it contains specific details about a rare violin or money. Debussy aligns more with Bobby’s and Alicia’s grandmother Granellen in her outlook on life. She says, “If there is no higher power then I’m it. And that just scared the sh** out of me” (69). Almost as though by default, she adopts the position that God must exist, and believes that if one “sounds [life] to its source,” one might see a providential design in humanity’s existence.

Bobby’s coworker as a salvage diver, Oiler is killed while on a salvage dive in Venezuela. Oiler is a Vietnam War veteran, and he reveals some of his experiences while serving in that war. Oiler is also alongside Bobby toward the beginning of the novel when they search the underwater plane wreck that Bobby later discovers has a passenger missing from it. Because of the mystery surrounding the plane wreck, Bobby presumes that Oiler was not killed in a workplace incident; instead, he believes Oiler was murdered and his death was made to look like an accident. Oiler is another character who recognizes that Bobby is stuck in the past, and he reminds Bobby of that fact on multiple occasions. A rough-around-the-edges, blue-collar kind of person, Oiler recognizes and admires Bobby’s intellectual capacity; however, his unadorned, common-sense outlook on life is something Bobby values.

Granellen is Bobby’s and Alicia’s maternal grandmother. When Bobby visits Granellen for a few days, in some ways it’s an actual trip into the past. Granellen is a source of care and comfort and is generous with her love. She looks after the ailing Uncle Royal and gives of herself in large quantities. Granellen lives in rural Tennessee, and her Appalachian roots are apparent in how she lives her life: simply and in concert with her environment. This straightforward approach to living is the antithesis to how Bobby lives his life. Like Oiler’s, Granellen’s worldview is built on common sense and a willingness to accept life on its own terms. She believes in God, but like Debussy, it is almost by default. She believes that people are generally good and that one must believe in their own capacity to do good in order to live a good life. Granellen does not judge Bobby and does not hold Bobby responsible for Alicia’s death.