The Second Coming: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Second Coming: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the intricate lives of several key figures, primarily focusing on Will Barrett, a retired Wall Street lawyer grappling with existential discontent and a troubled past. Following the death of his wealthy, pious wife, Will seeks clarity and meaning, ultimately retreating into a cave under a golf course, hoping for divine intervention. His mental struggles are compounded by physical ailments and disorientation, suggesting deep-seated emotional and religious conflicts.
Allison Huger, a young woman who has escaped from a mental institution, serves as a poignant counterpoint to Will. Struggling with the effects of electroshock therapy and parental control, she possesses a unique ability to understand complex situations despite her speech challenges. Their dynamic reveals themes of alienation and connection, as they rely on each other for understanding and support. Other notable characters include Allison's parents, Kitty and Alistair, who represent societal pressures and familial control, and Dr. Duk, her psychiatrist with questionable methods. Together, these characters navigate issues of identity, mental health, and the search for meaning in an increasingly chaotic world.
The Second Coming: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Walker Percy
First published: 1980
Genre: Novel
Locale: Linwood, North Carolina
Plot: Philosophical
Time: The late 1970's
William (Will) Barrett, a middle-aged Wall Street lawyer, now retired and living in North Carolina, playing a considerable amount of golf. He seems to have spent his life trying to escape the memory of his bitter, neurotic father, who committed suicide and once tried to kill Will in a hunting “accident.” Will is recently widowed, having married a rich, pious, and crippled woman who was devoted to good works. He is vaguely dissatisfied with his financial success, sensing that everything has been a mistake. Only in moments of distress or emergency does he feel that he knows exactly what he should be doing. He has periods of disorientation, sometimes falling down like someone having a mild epileptic seizure. Eventually, he “goes mad” and crawls into an obscure cave under the golf course to wait until God gives him an unambiguous sign of His existence—or to die of starvation if God does not make Himself known. He finds, however, that an acute toothache effectively renders his search for truth irrelevant. In his rush to escape from the cave, he loses his way, falls precipitously through a side tunnel, and crashes through a ventilator shaft into an old greenhouse occupied by a disturbed young woman who shares his alienation from society. Although his mysterious malady eventually is diagnosed in quasi-scientific terms, it still seems to be a psychological ailment rooted in unsatisfied emotional and religious needs.
Allison (Allie) Huger, a young woman who escapes from a mental institution where she was confined by her parents because she stopped talking. Although her memory has been partially wiped out by repeated electroshock treatments, she is intelligent and quite capable of solving complex problems, especially when they do not require communication with other people. She has been intimidated by her opinionated father and a mother who reinterprets anything she says to fit her own notions of reality. Allie's ability to listen sympathetically endeared her to an old woman who subsequently died and left her some property, including the greenhouse into which Will falls and a small island that the Arabs want to buy. This puts her in danger of being found and declared incompetent by her greedy parents, in collusion with her psychiatrist, so that the parents can manage her financial affairs. Allie has a peculiar but uniquely expressive manner of speech that puzzles most people. Will, however, is charmed by her direct, yet poetic, language. They seem to complement each other: He is her interpreter and she his “hoister”; that is, she manages to pick him up (with the help of a block and tackle) when he is wounded or unconscious and take care of him. She remembers too little about the past, and he remembers too much.
Katherine (Kitty) Vaught Huger and Alistair Huger, Allison's parents. Alistair is a dentist. Kitty knew Will briefly in their college days and implies that they had a love affair. She wants to enlist him as a lawyer to help her to declare Allison incompetent. She is horrified and self-righteous when she finds out that Will spent some time with her daughter in Allison's greenhouse. She still seems receptive to going to bed with Will herself.
Dr. Duk, Allie's foreign-born psychiatrist. He is inadequately trained (possibly in Pakistan), having an imperfect understanding of American psychology and using outmoded shock treatments as a kind of cure-all.
Jack Curl, a chaplain in an old folks' home. Knowing little about religion, he is ambitious to manage the charities endowed by Will's deceased wife.
Lewis Peckham, an unhappy golf pro who writes poetry in secret and thinks that Great Books can tell him how to live. Lewis says that he and Will suffer because they are once-born in a society of the twice-born. He shows Will the secret entrance to the cave.
Ewell McBee, a swinish country lout turned small-time businessman. He bullied Will as a child. In Will's somewhat unbalanced mental condition, he seems like a dark alter ego representing the lustful, materialistic common denominator of fallen man—or perhaps Mephistopheles, the spirit that denies that human goodness is possible.
Leslie Barrett, Will's self-righteous, Fundamentalist daughter, who tries to get her father committed to a sanatorium to “save him” from his involvement with Allison and to acquire control of her mother's money.