The novel’s protagonist and narrator, Jack Gladney is the chairman and progenitor of the Hitler studies department at College-on-the-hill. At 50 years old, Jack suffers from a severe phobia of dying that intensifies as the book progresses. Throughout the first third of the book, Jack leans heavily on his wife Babette as a source of comfort in the face of his ever-present dread. After four other marriages to three different wives, all of them connected in some way to the intelligence community, he favors Babette because of her apparent lack of guile and refusal to participate in “plots,” domestic or otherwise. Jack’s distaste for plots is strong yet at times vaguely rendered. During a lecture, Jack comments on the plot to kill Hitler by declaring, “All plots tend to move deathward” (26), revealing that his hatred of plots relates to his fear of death. Jack also finds solace in the rituals of American consumerism. Trips to the ATM or supermarket cause in him “a fullness of being that is not known to people who need less, expect less, who plan their lives around lonely walks in the evening” (20).