Arnie Kott, the corrupt union boss who tries to use Manfred Steiner's precognitive abilities to make a fortune in land speculation, is really a stereotype, and he himself embodies many racial stereotypes about the Bleekmen.

He fills the big protagonist slot in Dick's typology. Bohlen, the little protagonist, works for Kott in trying to get at Manfred, and yet has profoundly different, simple caring values. It is he who survives his encounter with madness (Kott does not) and ends up by becoming the most well-rounded character in the book — if only because he is the sanest and therefore Dick's spokesman — who views madness as a kind of brave voyage in which the feeling function is restored. All of the women are presented more sympathetically in this novel than in most of Dick's work, which contributes to the book's balance.