Nathan Zuckerman
Zuckerman is the narrator of the book but not the protagonist. He attends a high school reunion where he learns that his former idol, Seymour "Swede" Levov has died. Broken up over the news, Zuckerman feels the need to learn everything about he life of his role model. He wants to figure out why the man's life fell apart and what that implies for his own life's course. Zuckerman is a one-track mind, almost obsessively committed to crafting an accurate narrative of the Swede's life.
Seymour "Swede" Levov
He is the protagonist of the story. The Swede grows up in a small town in New Jersey. He sets himself up to participate in idealized country life, happy with wife and kids. When life has other plans, he loses hope in humanity. As the Swede learns about the corrupt nature of the most trusted people in his life, he is also watching, along with the entire country, the upheaval of the Vietnam War and the resulting social and political chaos. He spirals into depression, losing all hope in happiness and humanity in general.
Meredith "Merry" Levov
She is Seymour's only daughter. Plagued by a persistent stutter, Merry is teased a lot by her peers. She's a mentally unstable teenager, just waiting for the right trigger to force her to do something drastic. When the Vietnam War breaks out and the racial violence in Newark skyrockets, she snaps. Merry gets involved with a bad crowd and sets off a bomb at the local post office. She lives in hiding for five years before her dad finds her again. Believing in the integrity of the radical group with which she's aligned herself, she insists that she was solely responsible for the bombing and several others perpetrated by the group.
Dawn Dwyer
Dawn is Seymour's wife. Hailing from a small town neighboring Weequahic, she shares his desire to capture the idyllic country life, at first. After Merry runs away, Dawn starts seeing an illustrious architect, William Orcutt III. They have an affair. Convinced she's in love with him, she has a facelift and promises to leave her husband for him.
Jerry Levov
Jerry is Seymour's younger brother. Although he shares his brother's upbringing, Jerry isn't destined to remain in rural New Jersey. Unlike Seymour, Jerry does not inherit his dad's glove factory. He determines to distance himself from his modest childhood, so he becomes a heart surgeon. As they grow, Jerry starts to increasingly resent his older brother so that when he attends the reunion he has little to say in terms of praise. He is, however, deeply saddened by his brother's death in 1995.
Sheila Salzman
She was Merry's speech therapist. Unable to help the girl with her stutter, Sheila felt a sort of obligation regarding Merry. When the bombing occurs, she and her husband hide Merry in their home for a while. For no explainable reason, Sheila later has an affair with Seymour. They don't last, but he is emotionally ruined by it all.
Rita Cohen
She is the woman whom Seymour credits with the bombings. If Merry set off the bombs, she did so at the urging of Cohen. Not much is revealed about her in the novel, except that she is probably operating as part of a larger consortium of radicals who oppose the Vietnam War.
Angela Davis
She is a renowned African-American leftist and political activist who contributed heavily to the upheavals in the 1960s.
Lou Levov
He is the father to the Swede and Jerry. Lou was the one who introduced the Swede to business and is responsible for all that he knows about the leather industry. He is a second generation American and founder of the Newark Maid Leatherware. Lou is a diligent man because he worked hard to build the business and consequently became a wealthy man. He is also a proud person because of his extensive achievements in life. The story also portrays him as a person with strong convictions and does not shy away from expressing her views. Much of his life is spent in the expression of compassion and antagonism, blindness and comprehension, and violent anger and intimacy. This is proved by his passionate rail against President Nixon because of the Watergate scandal. Moreover, Lou is very outraged by the tolerance of the American culture.
Sylvia Levov
He is the wife to Lou Levov and mother to Jerry and Swede. In the story, she portrayed as a conventional housewife and portrays reasonable levels of kindness and love. The narrator describes her as “a tidy housekeeper, impeccably well-mannered, a nice-looking woman, tremendously considerate of everyone’s feelings.” This can be proved by the fact that she endured the ill personality of Lou Levov and the fact that she is much concerned about the well-being of her son. However, she ages faster after her grandchild, Merry, is involved in an act of terrorism.
Joy Helpern
She is the high school girlfriend to Zuckerman and they met again during their class reunion.
Jim Dwyer
He is the father to the Swede’s wife, Dawn Dwyer. He worked as a plumber and died in 1959 from a heart attack. Moreover, it is revealed that Jim was a committed Catholic and used to connect well with Lou Levov, the father to her son-in-law. They would talk much about their boyhood experiences.
Dorothy Dwyer
She is the wife to Jim Dwyer and mother to Dawn Dwyer. In the story, she is portrayed as a very religious person and she was much involved in the Catholic Church throughout her life.
Mendy Gurlik
This is an old friend to Zuckerman and they met in high school. During the time in high school, Gurlik was always delinquent and used to influence Zuckerman to accompany him to music festivals in town. When they meet at the reunion, Zuckerman learns that Gurlik is a retired restaurateur.
Alan Meisner
He is also an old friend to Zuckerman. Alan’s father worked as a dry cleaner while Alan became a Pasadena superior court judge.
Jessie Orcutt
She is an heiress in Philadelphia and wife to Bill Orcutt. When she was young, Jessie was attractive, lively, and sociable. However, she became an alcoholic and looks much older when she appears in the novel that her real age. At the dinner party hosted by the Levov’s, she drinks, behaves foolishly, and stabs Lou with a fork.
Bill Orcutt
He is the husband to Jessie and comes from a very prominent legal family in Morris County. He is a neighbor to Levov’s family. Outstandingly, Bill is able to trace his ancestry in the region back to the time of the revolution. She graduated from Princeton but broke the traditions in the family and became a painter in Manhattan. He relocated back to Jersey after three years and enrolled in an architecture program at Princeton. He makes his living as an artist and occasionally organizes an exhibition of new paintings. Bill is very confident and gracious. He is the father of five children.
Vicky
She is an employee working at the business managed by the Swede. She is black and thirty years old. During the riots that took place in 1967, she exhibited great loyalty to her boss and stayed with her most of the times in the building.
Ira Posner
He is a former high school friend to Zuckerman. His family background was from a benighted family and his father bought him a shoe shine kit when he was graduating so as to shine shoes at newsstand. However, Ira advanced to become a psychiatrist.
Bucky Robinson
He is an optician who frequently joins the Swede and Bill for weekly football games. In the story, Bucky remembers the Swede and his prowess in athletics during high school. He tries to convince the Swede to join the Morristown Jewish community although it does not interest the Swede.
Marcia Umanoff
She is a renowned literature professor in New York. The book describes her as very argumentative and someone who enjoys shocking people. Marcia is “a militant nonconformist of staggering self-certainty much given to sarcasm and calculatedly apocalyptic pronouncements designed to bring discomfort to the lords of the earth.” She used to stay with Meredith on several occasions before the bombing occurred. She is married to Barry Umanoff.
Barry Umanoff
He is the husband to Marcia and a popular law professor in Colombia. Barry also played with the Swede at one time and was one of the closest friends to him. When Meredith disappears, the Swede consults Barry on the legal implications of the matter.
