The Second Coming

Will Barrett is the protagonist of The Second Coming. He is a middle-aged lawyer who was born in Mississippi, but he spent most of his career working in New York City. While his career was successful, he become extremely wealthy by marrying Marion Peabody, a woman with disabilities who was heiress to a large family fortune. As a result, Will has retired early to North Carolina, where he plays golf and engages in charitable endeavors with the Episcopalian church. His daughter, Leslie, is about to marry a man named Jason. Despite all this apparent success and contentment, Will finds himself falling into a severe depression and existential crisis after he begins to suffer from falls and vivid memories of his past.

Will’s appearance suggests both his prosperous lifestyle and his unravelling mental state, marking his role in the novel’s exploration of The Absurdity of Modern Life. When Allison encounters him in the woods, she cannot tell if his brown hair is greying or if it has been bleached by the sun: “[W]as it turning gray or was it burnished and bleached by the sun? was he gray-haired or platinum blond?” (106). This ambiguity suggests either Will’s fading vitality or his vigorous and healthy lifestyle as a golfer.