Carlyle
Carlyle's character is a metaphor for the black man in America being marginalized in day to day life, to the degree that he is forced to fight with violence in order to be heard.
Richie
The character of Richie is a metaphor for living passively. He grew up wealthy, never having to truly make a decision for himself, never having to fight for anything in his life. Thus, instead of attempting to make a way for himself, he instead does whatever is being done around him; he chooses to go with his feelings rather than to allow discipline to teach him who he is.
Rooney and Cokes
Rooney and Cokes are characters that create a metaphor for how war breaks a man down. So far that all that is left of their soul is tormented day in and day out, leaving them to seek solace in a bottle. Thus they are a metaphor for the never ending horror of war, even after the cannons have stopped firing.
Streamers
The play itself is a metaphor for the fact that we are willing to fight wars in foreign countries for our country, but we are less able to fight the wars that are happening everyday in our lives. That the conflict that lies within our hearts is the greater war that exists beyond the bullets and bloodshed of war.
Martin
Martin is only seen in the beginning of the play. He has cut his wrist in an attempt to kill himself so as to not have to go to war. His character is a metaphor for how opposed men, and more specifically a black man was to going to Vietnam. They are being asked, no demanded to fight a war that a majority of the country believed was not our fight, for a nation that hasn't protected them with the same rights since the inception of the United States.
