Wool

Bernard, the head of IT, is the antagonist of Wool. His primary motivation is the preservation of order. He believes that “people like stasis, and he could maintain the illusion of it” (204). Part of maintaining this stasis entails a regard for strict hierarchies, which he shows when he tells Juliette: “I want people to be in their place” (175). This is also evident in his prejudice against the people of the down deep, whom he calls “grease monkeys, those uncivilized tinkerers” (203). Even though Bernard does not always agree with or know the reasoning behind the laws that govern the silo, he is bent on upholding them. When Juliette fails to clean, his thoughts reveal, “his mandate, second only to preserving the data on these machines, was to never let anyone out of sight. It was the highest order. He didn’t have to know why to tremble from the morning’s failure” (203).

Bernard is not entirely unsympathetic, as his ultimate goal is to preserve the lives of everyone in the silo. He has made the calculation that sacrificing individual lives is worth the safety of the entire society. His main failing, however, is his inability to depart from rules and tradition. Bernard represents the repressive structures inherited from the founders of the silo. Despite his hatred for those ancestors, he is a conservative, obsessed with maintaining order as mandated by them. Due to the immense burden placed on him as head of IT, Bernard is a lonely figure. As Lukas begins to share his terrible knowledge, he begins to trust him, only to feel betrayed when he finds Lukas questioning his unscrupulous killing of people who espouse dangerous ideas.

Bernard’s appearance is indicative of his status as elite knowledge worker and his removal from the practical, physical work that goes on in the down deep. He has small hands, glasses, a protruding gut, and a stooped posture. He represents high tech and is the steward of all of humanity’s knowledge for the future, yet his physical state suggests degeneration rather than progress.

Lukas is Juliette’s love interest and Bernard’s protégé. As such, his character represents a center between their worldviews and is subject to conflicting loyalties. Like Juliette, Lukas is curious and methodical, as shown by his project of mapping the stars and his reading in the bunkroom. Like Bernard, however, he has an inherent respect for rules, believing that some unquestioning obedience is necessary. His difference from Juliette is evident when they discuss unofficial relationships. Although he breaks with Bernard by the end of the book, he continues to be somewhat sympathetic to his views. His reluctance to fully adopt Juliette’s progressive agenda causes them to clash when talking about the uprising and the future of the silo. He prefers when they talk about their interests and memories. Lukas, who is 25, had an alcoholic father prone to violent rages, which explains his timidity before Bernard. He shows bravery, however, by defying Bernard and continuing his relationship with Juliette. She finds Lukas “quite handsome, in that clean, office like way” (140). 

At the start of the novel, Marie Jahns is the beloved and respected longtime mayor of the silo. A contemplative person, Jahns is deeply aware of the fragility of life in the silo in a way that she believes others are not. She is also uniquely bothered by what she views as the “barbaric” (54) ritual of cleaning. As an elderly woman, she is morally and physically burdened: “Jahns lived under the weight of this pressure, a burden brutal on more than her knees” (49).

Jahns is conflicted between upholding order in the silo as its mayor and giving in to her private doubts and desires. She must, for instance, send Allison and Holston to cleaning, though she regards them highly. She also suppresses her love for Marnes for many years out of a respect for proprietary. On her journey to the down deep, she changes, becoming more comfortable with being open with her feelings. Having long felt alienated from most of the silo, she is also filled with new enthusiasm for its governance before she is killed, presumably by Bernard.

Holston is the respected sheriff of the silo at the beginning of the novel. In his 30s, he feels that he has “an entire lifetime as sheriff weighing heavy”(4) on him. Haunted by his wife’s death and driven to near madness by his curiosity regarding her discoveries, he ends up volunteering for cleaning. He is the sheriff yet comes to regard life in the silo and its authority figures with bitter resentment.

Solo, or Jimmy, believes himself to be the last remaining survivor of Silo 17. He has been alone for 34 years. Juliette finds him to be “stuck with the mind of a teenager” (306) due to the trauma of the fighting that killed off his silo: “He was locked in the perpetual terror of his teenage ordeal. His body was simply growing old around the frozen husk of a frightened little boy” (300). Solo is lonely, naïve, and somewhat incompetent, though Juliette helps him gain responsibility and companionship by the end of the novel. His desire to be called Jimmy shows a renewed sense of humanity after his many years alone.

Longtime deputy to the sheriff, Marnes is known for always being content with being second-in-command. Jahns suspects he never became sheriff in the hopes that he could have a relationship with her, the mayor, without it being improper. Jahns’s death devastates Marnes, who commits suicide as a result. Juliette thinks of him: “He was an easy man to figure, one of those who had grown old everywhere but in his heart, that one organ he had never worn out because he’d never dared use it” (156). 

Knox, the foreman of Mechanical, is the leader of the uprising until he is killed in the first battle against IT. He shows leadership skills in his rousing speech to Supply, but he starts to doubt himself and feel the burden of command as he leads his people into danger. Knox is frustrated with McLain’s insistence on planning the battle, thinking: “They just needed to go up there and do it” (278). Knox is physically enormous and wears a thick beard. He projects a gruff exterior, yet he is also a sensitive, as he shows when he bonds with McLain’s dog and in his reaction to Juliette’s cleaning.

Walker is a mechanic who specializes in electronics. Knox describes him as “the oldest of us, the wisest of us[…] the weakest and most scared” (261). Highly introverted, he has not left his workshop for 40 years at the start of the uprising. He hates the violence that engulfs Mechanical and feels guilty about his role in starting the rebellion. Shirly looks after Walker, who is not good at caring for himself.

Peter is Bernard’s choice for replacement sheriff, as Peter is shadowing to become a judge. Until the end of the novel, Peter’s loyalties align with Bernard. After the deaths of Jahns and Marnes, Peter is appointed sheriff, and he swiftly charges Juliette with conspiracy because she had been investigating the circumstances surrounding Allison and Holston’s choice to clean. Armed, Peter participates in the ongoing battles against Mechanical and Supply. Following Bernard’s orders, Peter escorts Lukas to his death. When he overhears Bernard and Juliette discussing the true circumstances surrounding the silo, Bernard’s character demonstrates a change. Whereas he had previously been dismissive of notions of a grand plan, he now beings to think autonomously from Bernard about what is right and what is wrong. He therefore decides to free Lukas and instead send Bernard to die. 

Shirly worked closely with Juliette in Mechanical. She cares for Walker during the uprising and bravely helps him fix the radio. Her husband, Marck, also worked as a mechanic. He participated in the attack against IT and sacrificed himself so that Shirly may live. Grieving over the death of her husband, Shirly expects that she herself will soon die in the fighting.