Reed's characters in The Free-Lance Pallbearers are symbolic representations of the particular issue he is satirizing.

At times, the issue/character is gently rendered, as with Doopeyduk. His naivete and trusting nature make his early foibles easier to swallow, and the reader ends up feeling more sorry for Doopeyduk — and his real-life counterparts — than anything else. Much more often, however, Reed's characters are used to savagely attack what Reed sees as falsity and corruption. The "attack" characters' actions provide the novel with much of its vicious humor and relevancy.

Reed's critical views toward black leaders, for example, are portrayed by Elijah Raven, the muslim/black nationalist whose ideas of cultural and racial separation in the United States are contradicted by his actions again and again: You'd better get on the right side, brother, because when the deal goes down, all backsliding uncle toms are going to...