Quitters Inc.

Content Warning: This section refers to addiction.

Named after the real-world tobacco company Philip Morris, Richard Morrison is “Quitters, Inc.’s” passive protagonist. Morrison doesn’t drive the plot through active decisions so much as he falls into a situation and fails to escape from it. The story arc follows his gradual transformation at the hands of the titular organization from a sad man struggling with addiction to a fully recovered program graduate, making him a dynamic character. This transformation embodies the story’s thematic interest in Learned Helplessness as Morrison changes from a defiant and resistant participant to one of Quitters, Inc.’s success stories and proponents.

As the point-of-view character, he is characterized primarily through the reader’s access to his perspective on people and events. In the story’s inciting incident, he is presented as jealous, career-minded, body-conscious, and constantly thinking about when he can have his next cigarette. Much of the first half of the story is devoted to his need to smoke. In fact, Morrison’s relationship to cigarettes is the defining characteristic of his inner monologue. As the story evolves, though, his love for his family and his genuine desire to protect them from harm emerge.