The Pelican Brief

Gray Grantham is a journalist at a prestigious newspaper who reports on in the events surrounding the murders of two Supreme Court Justices and the pelican brief written by Darby Shaw. At the beginning of the novel, he is a dedicated professional. He works long hours, has the trust of his editors, and his name is famous enough to ensure that he gets inside access to the White House. Though his personal life is a string of disappointments and divorces, his professional life is providing him with all the satisfaction he needs. However, the time Grantham spends with Darby reveals to him the hollowness of his existence.

As he grows closer to Darby, Grantham begins to see his industry in a different light. His editors push him to finish a story quicker even it puts lives in danger; he uses sleazy tricks to gather information. Grantham realizes that when reporters and the newspaper staff act as immorally as the people in their stories, they sully the news business. Grantham becomes disillusioned with the industry and loses the arrogance that was once his trademark.

Grantham also falls in love with Darby. The positivity of this burgeoning romance and his insight into journalism’s flaws convince him to leave success behind to follow his heart. Rather than bask in the praise for uncovering the conspiracy, he leaves America behind and joins Darby in the Caribbean, leaving the corrupt world and tentatively embracing a happier future.

Thomas Callahan is a law professor who is murdered for his association with the pelican brief. Callahan is a flawed figure. Though he is a respected law professor, he is an alcoholic who sleeps with his students: Darby is only the latest in a long line of young women he’s had relationships with. Callahan is also notable for what he has given up. While he is has a brilliant legal mind, he has no interest in being a lawyer—he doesn’t want to sacrifice his morality like his less-skilled colleagues who work for high-powered law firms. Callahan would rather have a job that allows him to drink heavily, sleep late, and live a comfortable life: He values his own happiness more than money.

Callahan has the capacity to overcome his flaws. His relationship with Darby is not like his earlier affairs with students—Callahan reluctantly admits to Verheek that he is falling in love. Darby’s presence also helps Callahan to drastically reduce the amount of alcohol he consumes, indicating that he can overcome both his alcoholism and his debauchery. The tragedy of Callahan’s death is that he never got the chance to fully embrace his capacity for improvement. Darby mourns both the man she loved and the man he could have been.

Khamel is a notorious and feared assassin. As a young man, he worked on terrorist plots because he believed in the causes for which he was fighting. As he grew older, he discovered that his skill set meant that he could charge a fortune to kill people. He is responsible for a string of famous murders, though his subtlety means that few people know definitively which assassinations he carried out. Though the intelligence agencies do not know a great deal about his life, the name Khamel is enough to scare them.

In a novel full of people who excel at their jobs, Khamel is a highly skilled artisan. The care and delicacy he applies to murdering people suggests that he is far from a brutal psychopath. Similarly, he has boundaries: He has turned down jobs because he refuses to kill friends. Khamel operates along a specific and unique set of moral parameters, which favor skill, precision, artistry, and loyalty over everything else.

Denton Voyles is the director of the FBI and a devious but principled man. He feels protective of the organization that he has spent decades molding into his own image. Voyles has outlasted numerous presidents from both sides of the political divide, so is not intimidated by Coal or the current president. Though Voyles might not be liked by many people, he always believes that he is acting with the country’s best interests at heart. Voyles wants to achieve justice, so will cut deals, make secret recordings, and stray close to the limits of what is permitted by the law if he believes that he and his organization will endure, thus being able to help keep the country safe for longer. Voyles may not be a good man, but he believes that he works for a good cause. This belief becomes his justification for all of his actions, including those which might technically break the laws he is trusted to enforce.

Fletcher Coal is the slick, unscrupulous Chief of Staff for the current president. Whereas the President is more focused on playing golf and maintaining his political allies, Coal rules over the White House with an iron first. He is feared by colleagues, employees, and political rivals because they know that Coal has the capacity to destroy them by any means necessary. Coal’s cynical politics are seemingly devoid of actual ideology. He is self-centered and ambitious, determined to win at any cost, but with no apparent political goal in mind other than maintaining his power. As a result of this, the President and Coal are not actually close. The President is a vehicle for Coal’s cold-hearted lust for power, while the President views Coal as a useful tool to maintain his political career. Though neither man plots the killing of the Supreme Court justices, their reactions reveal their characters. The President seeks to establish his political legacy, while Coal sees a way to triumph over his allies in the coming election. Coal does not care about politics, he only cares about winning, so even the most despicable and tragic events are seen as an opportunity to be manipulated to his advantage.

The President of the United States is a Republican politician who sees the death of the Supreme Court Justices as an opportunity to secure his legacy. As a man serving his first term as president, with eyes on winning re-election, he not only wants to demonstrate to his voters why they should support him, but also secure his place in history. By appointing two new Justices, he will dictate the ideological future of the country for decades to come. The President may not have been involved in the murders of the Justices, but he struggles to even appear upset about the deaths of both men. He criticizes Rosenberg for his liberal views and criticizes Jensen for being gay. The President is so delighted by their deaths that he has to be convinced to even attend the funerals, rather than play golf. The self-serving, narcissistic attitude of the President becomes his downfall. He wants to safeguard his donors (such as Victor Mattiece) and ensure that those who support him are protected, but in doing so he ends his political career. The President may not have ordered the assassinations, but he tries to cover up any links between him and Mattiece. Rather than having an opportunity to secure a positive legacy in the history books, the opposite occurs. The President ruins his reputation, and his legacy will be one of corruption and crime by association.

Victor Mattiece is defined by his absence. Though he stands to make so much money from an oil field that he is willing to kill two important Supreme Court Justices, he barely appears in the novel. Likewise, Mattiece barely spends any time in America. Mattiece is a shadowy, untrustworthy figure who leads a conspiracy. He does not need to be present in either America or the narrative, because his money allows him to influence everything from afar. Though Mattiece is presented as the mastermind behind the assassinations, his absence from the story shows that he is not the real villain. Rather, Mattiece simply represents the corruption at the heart of the American legal system. His money and his influence allow him to escape responsibility while still expanding his fortune. Mattiece is not caught or punished by the end of the novel, but the corruption is exposed. The system is revealed to the world, showing how the problem is much bigger than a single individual. Though Mattiece does not suffer from the consequences of his actions, the institutions which allowed him to emerge are broken down and repaired.