The Leftovers

Kevin Garvey is described as a handsome man and a dedicated father, and he is well-liked in Mapleton. After being elected Mayor at the request of the town’s residents, Kevin often puts on “his best impersonation of a small-town politician” (13). This impersonation directly contrasts with his wife’s hatred of the illusion of normalcy that many people adopted following the rapture. Kevin and Laurie are antagonists to each other but separate protagonists in the novel, as they symbolize the coping needs of different people in times of grief.

Kevin is a generally upbeat, positive character, regardless of the absence of Laurie and Tom in his life. He believes strongly in humanity’s collective need to move on from tragedy by resuming normal life. Kevin values stability, habits, and a sense of duty, all of which he finds through his mayoral and fatherly duties. Following Laurie’s decision to join the Guilty Remnant, Kevin attempts to find physical and emotional company with several women before finding himself in a relationship with Nora Durst. Again, Kevin’s need to move on contrasts with Nora’s inability to do so. Kevin is a predictable character who fulfills the role of small-town mayor and single, lonely father, going so far as to become attracted to his teenage daughter’s friend, Aimee. He remains relatively static throughout the novel, never swaying from his belief in normalcy. Therefore, he mainly functions as a contrast to the dynamic female characters in his life.

Seventeen-year-old Jill Garvey is introduced as an eyewitness, or someone who personally witnessed a disappearance on October 14. Following the disappearance of her friend Jen Sussman, Jill Garvey struggles to cope with her role as eyewitness and the new uncertainty of her life. When she meets Aimee, the two become close friends, and Jill allows herself to be influenced by Aimee's lifestyle. Without her mother, and with her father unable to connect with her, Jill matures through her teen years while having to figure everything out on her own.

Jill shaves her head at the suggestion of her friend, attends parties, skips school, and mourns the absence of her mother after Laurie joins the Guilty Remnant. While she is with Aimee, Jill feels “as if she possessed no will of her own” (38), which foils Laurie’s need for complete surrender to the Guilty Remnant. However, Jill regains her sense of identity and purpose when she takes time apart from Aimee. As she refocuses on school, Jill takes on the responsibility of creating a future for herself despite the ambiguous threat of another rapture-like event. Kevin resolutely maintains a sense of normalcy without confronting the absences in his life, and Laurie refuses to return to a normal life, but Jill’s character arc models a healthy process of grieving losses and moving on. This is evident in her final scene with Aimee when both friends acknowledge how important they were to each other in a time of crisis yet amicably take their lives in different directions.

Tom Garvey is a former college freshman who joined Holy Wayne Gilchrest’s Healing Hug Movement as an answer to his uncertainty, questioning, and anxiety following the rapture. Though Tom did not lose anyone close to him, he becomes fixated on the loss of Verbecki, an acquaintance from elementary school. He is unable to understand both why he is obsessed and why Verbecki disappeared. Tom finds answers in Holy Wayne’s supposed ability to heal pain through hugging, though this idyll is destroyed when he realizes that Holy Wayne is nothing more than a cult leader who takes sexual advantage of underage girls.

As a protagonist of the novel, Tom begins as a young man uncertain of his identity and ends as a man in love, willing to risk his beliefs for Christine. Only he is willing to care for Christine’s female baby, as he both loves Christine and feels pity for the infant. His love for Christine largely defines his character, as Tom is willing to follow her even after she abandons him and the baby. Like Laurie, Tom seeks membership in communities—the Healing Hug Movement and the Barefoot People—as a way to divest himself of responsibility, agency, and emotional involvement with his family.