The Passage

Brad Wolgast is a 44-year-old FBI agent whose role in Part 1 is to gather signatures from the death row inmates. Thematically, his function is to rescue and love Amy, making her less vulnerable to viral transformation. Wolgast is good at his job, which is why Sykes wants him to help with the death row subjects: “He was just too damned good at this, too good at finding the one gesture, the one right thing to say” (52). He is kind and empathetic to Anthony Carter, even though he doesn’t have to be.

Wolgast deals with constant grief over his dead daughter, Eva, as well as the end of his marriage. When he finds Amy, he is compassionate and conflicted. Ultimately, he refuses to deliver her to testing. Their interlude in the woods is one of the book’s most peaceful scenes, until Wolgast dies of radiation poisoning after witnessing a nuclear explosion. Unbeknownst to Amy, Wolgast remains trapped between worlds because he misses her too much to move on. He continues to exist in limbo, but without any evidence of having his body or his autonomy.

Wolgast evolves from a grieving, jaded FBI agent into a fugitive who will do anything to protect Amy, his surrogate daughter. After his death, he lingers, waiting for Amy to release him. Near the end of the novel, Amy feels his presence. She describes him, before setting him free, as “The one who loved me” (759). In a novel replete with characters who are stricken by guilt, grief, and a sense of false identities, Wolgast represents the possibility for humankind to overcome the frailties of its nature not through eternal life, but death.

Sister Lacey Antoinette Kudoto is a sister at a Memphis convent. Born in Sierra Leone, she often relives the childhood trauma of civil war. When she sees the brief note Amy’s mother left in her knapsack, “It was nearly the saddest thing she’d ever seen in her life” (56). She loves Amy instantly and helps Wolgast escape with her at the Colorado compound. Carter bites her but doesn’t kill her because of the compassion she shows him. This makes her a being like Amy. Lacey waits for her in Colorado for nearly a century as she falls in love with Jonas Lear, who eventually dies. She even saves Amy’s backpack and stuffed rabbit.

After Lear’s death, Lacey’s existence is lonely: She tells Peter that her long life “has been very lonely. It surprises me how much” (709). She still believes in God, but Lear’s companionship gives her immediate and tangible joy and comfort. Lacey always believed in God. Even as a child during rare times when she cannot feel God’s presence, “She believed that this was how the world felt to most people, even those closest to her […]; they lived their whole lives in a prison of drab silence, a world without a voice. Knowing this made her so sad that sometimes she couldn’t stop crying for days” (55). This empathy for others makes her an ideal nun, partner, and teacher, but also causes her frequent pain.

At the end of her narrative arc, Lacey sacrifices herself to destroy Babcock. She has served as a guide and tutor for Amy as best as she is able, and now she makes her own passage.

Peter Jaxon is the main character of the Colony sections of the novel. He is the son of Demo Jaxon, a man who was famous for the Long Rides. Peter is the younger brother of Theo Jaxon, whom he believes is dead for most of the story.

Peter is brave, kind, and battles a constant melancholy. He broods, which gives him an enigmatic, irresistible quality to Sara Fisher, a young woman who has always loved him. She thinks, “It was the broken thing inside him she loved most of all, the unreachable place where he kept his sadness” (323). Later, Peter is confused about why he ever rejected Sara’s love, as “[t]his was the gift she had offered him, had always offered him. And yet he had refused it” (625). Instead, Peter is in love with Alicia Donadio, a woman whom he cannot be with. As events progress, Peter gains more responsibility, which burdens him. Although he is ultimately mistaken, he has never felt equal to Theo. His insecurity is unwarranted, as Theo shows him after Babcock’s death. When they reunite, Theo tells Peter that he is the one who was always better suited to adventure, danger, and matters of faith. Peter’s restless nature and uneasiness with domestic stagnation make him more like their father than Theo ever was.

After the final confrontation with Babcock’s virals, Peter decides to drink a vial of the serum. Even though Amy destroys the serum before he can follow through, this is a brave choice. It is also a compassionate act of potential sacrifice because he doesn’t know if he will survive. However, he can accept the risk as long as he thinks his friends may benefit from his choice.

Theo Jaxon is Peter’s older brother. He spends most of the novel presumed dead, while he is actually a captive at the Haven. He vanishes during the viral attack in the mall, during the incident when Amy saves Peter. Theo is the son they expect to emulate his father, but he prefers a peaceful, quiet life, which he doesn’t realize until he settles down with Mausami, who is pregnant with his child. When he reunites with Peter, Theo senses his insecurity. He tells Peter that he is capable of great things that Theo isn’t: “I don’t envy you, and I know I’m going to worry about you every day of my life. But I am proud of you” (748).

Theo doubts himself after being freed from Babcock’s captivity. He worries that he has become something “tainted.” He knows how close he was to betraying principles and morals he held dear: “He would have killed the woman, killed anyone. He would have done whatever they wanted. And once you knew that about yourself, he said, you could never unknow it. Whoever you thought you were, you were somebody else entirely” (637). Over the course of the novel, Theo transitions from a symbol of Peter’s guilt and insecurity to a man consumed with guilt over his perceived failings. Finally, he is content with his family and wishes for nothing more than a simple life of tranquility with his wife and son.