Metaphor - Adam representing humanity
Because of mistaken identity on Crowley’s part, Adam’s life never has any Satanic or ethereal influence, despite him being the Antichrist, the literal son of Satan. He grows up amongst humans, becoming a perfectly ordinary young boy, never wanting to corrupt or destroy. When Armageddon is underway, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse expect him to immediately side with them, as it is in his nature to side with Hell. However, Adam does not want a part in either good or bad and ultimately sides with humanity. Thus, he represents humanity, as he actively makes the choice to disagree with both sides. He is ‘the first of his kind’ in this respect, defying his upbringing and genetics by allowing himself to have the capacity to do both good and evil. This representation is also reflected in his name: he is Adam, the first human, because he is the first to have actually chosen to be human.
Simile - The Apocalypse
Page 195, “There were five billion people down there. What was going to happen soon would make barbarism look like a picnic ‒ hot, nasty, and eventually given over to the ants.”
This simile not only is a classically humorous turn-around, but also gives a hint at the horrors to come, at what Armageddon will really be like. Picnics tend to have a positive connotation, so to give them a negative one is a unique way to describe the upcoming doom of the Apocalypse.
Metaphor - The Them representing the Horsemen
The Them are a classic example of a four-temperament ensemble; Adam is optimistic, Pepper is hot-headed, Brian is peaceful, and Wensley is gloomy. A similar configuration is mirrored in the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and indeed one could say that the groups are reflections of each other. This idea is shown near the end of the novel when the Them and the Horsemen battle it out, one by one; each coinciding personality fighting each other. Pepper fights the hot-headed War, Brian fights the docile Pollution, Wensley fights the sadistic Famine, and Adam is left facing Death, before he escapes. While Adam and Death don’t have any particular personality traits in common, they still reflect each other in many aspects; they are both different from the rest of their respective groups, they both have the power to control their group and manipulate the world around them, and they are both ethereal/occult in some way. Thus, the Them are mirror images of the Horsemen, representing their attitudes and behaviors. However, their triumphant fights show the audience the ‘flaws’ in their personalities can be overcome, and even though their key traits are based on these deadly sins, they will not let them entirely take over.
Simile - Adam
Page 75, “To Anathema, sitting in a deck chair and halfway through a packet of Kleenex, [Adam] looked like the rise of a small, dishevelled sun.”
This sentence is the first objective look we get at Adam, from the perspective of Anathema. He is shown to be classically handsome even as a young boy, almost unreal or heavenly in his looks. This is ironic because despite being described as ‘heavenly’ or ‘angelic’, he is the complete opposite of such description, being the literal Antichrist.
Metaphor - Apple representing free will
Good Omens, being a novel based heavily on Christian theology, unsurprisingly contains many biblical references. The very beginning of the novel features Aziraphale and Crowley discussing the events of the garden of Eden just after they’d happened. Crowley is shown to be the snake that tempted the original Adam to eat the apple, thus making him truly ‘human’ by giving him free will. This biblical concept of the apple representing free will is later mirrored near the very end of the book, when Adam (the Antichrist) steals an apple from his neighbor’s backyard. Adam has chosen free will instead of good or evil by disagreeing with Armageddon, and his stealing of the apple shows this; again, like in the Bible, an apple is shown to represent free will.
