Challenger Deep

Caden’s parents are presented as fallible, loving, and relatively ordinary. They are helpless before Caden’s illness, with no clear understanding of what is happening to him or how they might help him. They know that what Caden says is false, but they have no way to convince him.

Caden sees them as people wearing masks for much of the novel, only pretending to be his parents. During his hospital stay, he realizes how much his behaviors and conditions affect them and how miserable their experience has been. When the novel ends, his newfound appreciation for them is one of his greatest sources of hope.

The Captain is both a literal character and a symbol. In the book’s final chapters, the reader learns that Caden once saw a homeless man in New York wearing a box of Captain Crunch cereal on his head. Although that experience was brief, the figure of the man gave birth to the Captain, who follows Caden and becomes a symbol of Caden’s illness.

The Captain tries to influence Caden’s choices, to convince him that everyone conspires against him, and to tell Caden that he has more importance than he does, all the while discouraging any hope of escaping from the ship. The Captain alternates between punishments and rewards, threats and flattery, and at the end of the book, he is still there, inviting Caden onto the yacht. 

Hal, another patient at the hospital who becomes Caden’s roommate, provides a useful counterpoint to Caden. Initially, Caden feels that he has found a kindred spirit; he and Hal both believe that they are focal points of a universal conspiracy. As Caden starts to feel more grounded in reality, Hal remains defiant and wants to stop taking his medication. He deteriorates to the point of slashing his wrists, claiming that death is worth the cost of immortality.

It is never clear whether Hal died, but Caden assumes that the suicide attempt was successful. After Hal’s incident, Caden becomes more committed to his recovery. He knows that he and Hal were similar enough that they could share the same fate if he does not handle his recovery well. 

Callie is a teenage patient in the hospital. She and Caden form a friendship that becomes affectionate and then later has romantic potential. Callie is an example of someone who is aware that she has mental problems, unlike Hal, who never seems to see through his delusions, even momentarily. She represents hope for Caden, so it makes sense that on the ship, she presents as the figurehead—Calliope—who helps guide the ship. The Captain sees her as a danger because he knows that she could be instrumental to Caden’s recovery.

Even though Caden doesn’t want her to leave the hospital, he helps her free her legs from the ship. Callie’s reluctance to leave the hospital frightens her. She knows that her mind may never be normal but that her parents and siblings expect her to be “fixed” once she ends her hospitalization.