Content Warning: This section of the guide includes references to graphic violence, death, horror themes, religious fanaticism, and domestic violence.

Burt is a dynamic protagonist whose character development and internal conflict drive the story forward. From the story’s opening lines, Burt’s perspective—alternately sarcastic, determined, and darkly comic—defines the tone of the story. Although initially desperate to preserve his marriage to Vicky, Burt’s feelings for her change throughout the story. Comparing the fight for his marriage to the destruction of the Vietnam War, Burt vacillates between wanting to improve their marriage and wanting to give up. His actions toward Vicky are those of someone stuck in a cycle of distrust and resentment.

The conflicts between Burt’s love and hate for Vicky and his sanity and the supernatural are vital to his characterization, through which the reader experiences the action. Burt sees himself as a good man; he was a medic in the war and thus sees himself as someone who saves lives instead of taking them. However, he also behaves violently toward Vicky on multiple occasions and displays selfish and insensitive behavior in his thoughts and actions toward others.