The Narrator (William Masen)

Masen is the novel's protagonist. Referred to by the other characters mostly as "Bill," he comes across, for the most part, as dispassionate, objective, over-intellectual, and somewhat reactive. This last aspect of his character is perhaps particularly important, in that it can be seen as a distillation of an aspect of the human condition the novel seems interested in exploring.

As Masen himself suggests in his narration, he occupied his childhood and adult life (up to the point at which the narrative begins) as a kind of observer. He makes choices in response to what he didn't want to be (i.e., an accountant like his father) and listening to other people's opinions (like those of Walter Lucknor) rather choosing according to his own ambitions and/or forming his own opinions. The blindness epidemic and the rise of the triffids forces him into a reluctant...