The War to End Slavery
The protagonist and central character of the story is Enoch Wallace. Although Enoch’s story partially takes place among references to television and rockets lifting off from Cape Canaveral, Enoch is a veteran of the war to end slavery. Even so, it is the shadow and specter of the Civil War which lingers over the narrative and this significance is indicated in the second paragraph of the novel, which consists of basically nothing but imagery:
“For endless time, it seemed, there had been belching thunder rolling from horizon to horizon and the gouted earth that had spouted in the sky and the screams of horses and the hoarse bellowing of men; the whistling of metal and the thud when the whistle ended; the flash of searing fire and the brightness of the steel; the bravery of the colors snapping in the battle wind. Then it all had ended and there was a silence.”
Enoch’s House
Setting is integral to this story. Enoch is entrusted by beings not of this world with a sacred assignment that requires full and absolute secrecy. A lot of stories could be moved in dramatic ways without any impact whatever. This is a story that would have to be completely different if it were relocated to an apartment in New York City or a retirement village in Florida or, for that matter, almost anywhere that didn’t replicate its actual setting in some way:
“It was the kind of house one did not see too often in these days. It was rectangular, long and narrow and high, with old-fashioned gingerbread along the eaves and gables. It had a certain gauntness that had nothing to do with age; it had been gaunt the day it had been built-gaunt and plain and strong, like the people that it sheltered. But gaunt as it might be, it stood prim and neat, with no peeling paint, with no sign of weathering, and no hint of decay.”
Part of Mary
Enoch eventually stops having contact with the only humans who know he exists—his neighbors—and thus most of his discourse that is not with any alien life—is with two companions who do not really exist all. One of them he calls Mary, but she is actually a composite figure comprised mostly of a woman he knew named Sally. The other exists herself mostly as imagery and imagination:
“She was as well that tall, stately daughter of the South, the woman he had seen for a few moments only as he marched a dusty road in the hot Virginia sun. There had been a mansion, one of those great plantation houses, set back from the road, and she had been standing on the portico, beside one of the great white pillars, watching the enemy march past. Her hair was black and her complexion whiter than the pillar and she had stood so straight and proud, so defiant and imperious, that he had remembered her and thought of her and dreamed of her-although he never knew her name-through all the dusty, sweaty, bloody days of war.”
Dangerous Aliens
Most of the alien life which passes through the way station appear to be neither particularly malevolent or benevolent. The whole point of the book is that they just are. Toward the end, however, in the name of conflict, little malevolence does come knocking at Enoch’s door:
“The stench was thick, so thick that one could almost see it, and Enoch gagged on it as he shook the creature. And suddenly it was worse, much worse, like a fire raging in one's throat and a hammer in one's head. It was like a physical blow that hit one in the belly and shoved against the chest. Enoch let go his hold upon the creature and staggered back, doubled up and retching. He lifted his hands to his face and tried to push the stench away, to clear his nostrils and his mouth, to rub it from his eyes.”
