Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days

Cameron Williams is a fair-haired, 30-year-old reporter for the Global Weekly. His nickname, Buck, was given because people see him as “always bucking tradition and authority” (6). He is very successful, particularly for his age, and feels that he lives a charmed life. He is one of the protagonists of the novel, and his character trajectory also centers around his conversion experience. One of the important events related to Buck’s progression from skepticism to faith is the uncanny destruction of the Russian air corps when they attempt to attack Israel. He has come to believe in God due to the inexplicable event, but he was not yet prepared to “take the next step and believe in Christ, now that he was so clearly spiritually attuned” (15). He is aware that he has acquired a view that anything is possible since that event.

Buck is able to wake on command without setting an alarm and is an energetic character. He has always focused on his career, having attended an Ivy League school before achieving a reputation as a successful reporter. Like Rayford, his primary trajectory as a character is putting aside his preconceived notions about “born-again” Christians and accepting the gospel message. He experiences inverse trajectories with his perceptions on Carpathia and Jesus. That is, he evolves from believing in Carpathia and disbelieving in Jesus, to becoming increasingly suspicious of the former and accepting the salvation message of the latter.

Rayford’s daughter, Chloe, is a student at Stanford. Left behind like him, she finds that her primary spiritual trajectory is a path from disbelief to becoming a “born-again Christian.” Her internal struggle as a character centers around her increasing belief in the Rapture and in Jesus, and this transformation is at odds with how she thinks of herself: a skeptical and intelligent critical thinker. Chloe is very similar to her father, enough so that the newly converted Rayford wonders, “What had he done in his raising of Chloe that could make her so cautious, so careful, that she might look down her nose at what was so obvious to him?” (207). The similarity between Rayford and Chloe inspires their closeness and enhances the conflict between them during the period when Rayford has converted but Chloe has not. Similarly, he describes her as pseudo-sophisticated and suggests that he recently held a similar mindset.

Chloe’s conversion is similar to Rayford’s, although it happens later in the text. A differentiating factor in hers, however, is that she asks God for proof. She has just prayed for a sign when Buck surprises her by sitting next to her on the flight to Chicago, and she interprets this occurrence as an answer to her prayer. Therefore, she is characterized as being more evidence-driven than her father. She is also described as witty, making several jokes to lighten the mood in difficult circumstances, and her banter with Buck also foreshadows the potential beginning of a romantic relationship between the two characters.

Hattie is a senior flight attendant who works with Rayford. He describes her as “drop-dead gorgeous,” and she is prone to initiating innocent but alluring physical touch. At the beginning of the novel, Hattie and Rayford have been flirting and he has been considering an affair, but they have not yet acted upon their mutual attraction. Rayford sees Hattie as being ditzy and superficial, and this impression is meant to foreshadow the fact that she becomes Carpathia’s personal assistant and is clearly under the influence of the Antichrist by the conclusion of the novel.

Nicolae Carpathia is a 33-year-old politician and businessman who was born in Cluj, Romania. While he begins as a lower-house politician, he becomes president of Romania, then secretary general of the UN. Physically, he is described as being blonde and blue-eyed, “an inch or two over six feet tall, broad shouldered, thick chested, trim, athletic, tanned” with a “Roman and strong” jaw and nose (241). His attire is “exquisitely conservative” (241), and Buck observes that he carries himself “with a sense of humility and purpose, and seems to dominate the room” (241). Carpathia cultivates an impression of being a reluctant leader through his political machinations. An important aspect of his rise to power is his ability to make it appear as though tremendous power is being thrust upon him. His real identity as the Antichrist is revealed near the end of the novel, when he is unequivocally characterized as evil through his actions of murdering Todd-Cothran and Stonagal. He is also characterized as persuasive, even supernaturally so. For example, after these murders, he convinces everyone in the room (except the now-converted Buck) that Stonagal was the perpetrator of the deaths.

Bruce Barnes is the visitation pastor of New Hope Village Church and one of very few church members left behind. He is “short and slightly pudgy, with curly hair and wire-rimmed glasses” (188) and appears to Rayford to be in his early 30s. He is initially characterized as unpretentious and repentant, and he experiences deep grief over the loss of his wife and children and his failure to be taken to heaven with them.

Although he functions as a secondary character within this novel, he is set up to become a more prominent character later in the series. His transformation to a devout believer precedes his meeting Rayford, for he immediately realized that the Rapture had occurred and renounced his remaining doubts before entering the plot of the novel. He describes having believed that he could have faith both ways, appearing to be a real Christian but not letting his faith affect his actions in life. As the narrative progresses, he begins to take on a more active role. He is energized by the fact that he has risen to a position of authority and is now determined to relay the Christian message to as many people as possible. He is characterized as action-driven by deciding to form the Tribulation Force and developing plans for actively fighting the Antichrist.

An elderly Israeli chemical engineer, Chaim Rosenzweig is the inventor of a “synthetic fertilizer that caused the desert sands of Israel to bloom like a greenhouse” (8). Rosenzweig is portrayed as a likable and brilliant figure who has clear affection for Buck. Later in the novel, he is characterized by his closeness to Carpathia. His role in the novel is primarily as an important instigator of plot events, given his invention. He is also represented as one of the first individuals to fall under Carpathia’s spell.