Bill's Photograph
Much of the novel's plot revolves around Brita taking Bill's photograph after he spent years hiding from any media attention. The photograph brings the characters together, and can be connected to Bill's eventual death. The photo is a symbol on several levels. It is first a means for Bill to escape the confines of his home and his relationship with Scott and Karen. On a further level, it is also his attempt to find mortality. He believes that his novels will die with him, but a photograph is more permanent. The photograph is, in a sense, an attempt to capture his legacy.
Bill's Novel
Bill has spent years working on a novel. As he later admits, the novel is completed and he continually revises it; however, he suggests that the novel will never be published. He says it is of far worse quality than his other work. The novel torments him. He pictures an embodied version of the novel, disfigured, stalking him wherever he goes. Bill's attitude towards this project is symbolic of his death, first as a novelist, and later as a human. He intimates that writing is his purpose for living, and given that he is no longer capable of writing, he is no longer capable of living.
The Prisoner
Much of the novel revolves around a Swiss poet who is held hostage in Beirut by a Maoist terrorist organization. It is his plight that stirs Bill from obscurity. The prisoner narrates his time in captivity. He speaks of the abhorrent conditions, the torturing and starvation. The reader follows him as he loses his will to live, and his grasp with reality. The role of the prisoner is symbolic with the real, lived, effects of terrorism and fanaticism. With this character, DeLillo attempts to humanize the atrocities that are so often lost in numbers and distanced from any personal connections.
The Boat
After Bill is hit by a car, he begins to suffer pains in his abdomen. Speaking to a group of veterinarians, they suggest that his liver has been damaged. Despite this, he continues to drink heavily. Finally, when riding a boat to get to Beirut, Bill dies in his sleep. The setting of Bill's death, on a boat, has symbolic dimensions. Boats often play a prominent role in conceptions of the afterlife. For example, the ancient Greeks believed that the dead would travel over the River Styx to arrive in the afterlife. By dying on a boat, he is both physically and spiritually taken to a different location.
The Word Processor
Bill's interactions with George Haddad are curious. The man represents a terrorist group that has kidnapped a man. Still, him and Bill bond with one another. Haddad repeatedly suggests that Bill should being using an electric word processor to complete his work. Bill is not responsive to the idea but still Haddad continues. The electronic word processor is symbolic of the technology that Bill fears. It represents the advancement of conveniences that undermine and alter the role of the author. It is not a world that he feels comfortable in, and would sooner die than adjust.
