Vic Lang is a character that is driven by an obsession with things he can’t understand. As a young man, he experienced two significant losses: the death of his younger sister to meningitis, and the disappearance of his father. Even before that, though, he is a young man who is wracked with anxiety about the world around him, particularly his hometown of Angelus, which is slipping into drugs and crime after the whaling industry dries up. As his father recedes into alcoholism and disappears altogether, he becomes convinced that he must be the protector of the family, a belief that stays with him through adulthood.

In his early adult years, this manifests in trying to protect his mother’s honor as she works as a house cleaner to support them, and it drives his desire to become a public defender and stand up for “the little bloke” (228). This extends to his marriage to Gail, who had a difficult childhood in her own right—Vic has a history of obsession with “damaged goods,” and Gail wonders if their relationship is built out of the same pattern that includes his relationships with Melanie (who has a severed ring finger) and Strawberry Alison (who has a prominent birthmark on her face).