Jim Nolan

The novel’s protagonist, Jim is a young man from a working class family that has been destroyed by the economic and social oppression of the capitalist system. Jim joins the Party searching for a sense of hopefulness and purpose and an end to the loneliness in his life. Under Mac’s tutelage, he comes to accept the Party philosophy embracing a love of mankind while viewing individual men as expendable if necessary for the achievement of the group’s goals. From Mac, Jim learns how to unite people and how to work toward a goal. He achieves a sense of fulfillment, and near the end of the novel he tells another character, “…I’m not lonely any more, and I can’t be licked, because I’m more than myself.”

Mac McLeod

Described as “a large man with the face of a scholarly prizefighter,” Mac has...