Ed is the protagonist and first-person narrator of Deliverance. His inner monologues frame the novel’s depictions of people and places, and it is principally through his character that the author explores the work’s themes. Ed is a round character who is self-aware and flawed. At the time of the novel’s opening, Ed is experiencing a midlife crisis. He longs to escape his routine existence as a family man and manager at a graphic design firm to live a more physical life in the wilderness. He is close to his wife, yet he also feels intense though unfulfilled sexual attraction to other women—feelings that represent another kind of escape into raw physicality. His identity crisis and longing to escape drives the narrative and helps to shape its events.

Ed’s character embodies The Relationship Between Images and Reality. He is a manager in a graphic design firm, and his thoughts about film, television, artwork, and photographs are key motifs that express the theme. Ed’s company designs advertisements, and he views this work as derivative and unoriginal. Ed is obsessed with finding the source of true artistic inspiration, which he feels comes from some unconstrained place inside himself that he cannot access.