Tyler, Arthur’s son who grows up to be the prophet and the antagonist of the novel, struggles to make meaning of the fall of civilization. Under his mother’s influence, Tyler comes to believe that the flu happened for a divine reason and that those who were spared from death are the moral chosen few. While Kirsten believes there is salvation in art and beauty, Tyler finds his meaning in a dogmatic religious faith that divides the world into a strict binary of good and bad. When Clark encounters the early seeds of this belief in Tyler as a child, he recognizes it as a kind of lunacy that can be particularly contagious in times of peril. This effectively foreshadows the prophet’s ability to amass acolytes who follow him and his punitive, self-serving worldview. In many ways, Kirsten and Tyler are like diametrically opposed siblings, just as Arthur was a father to Kirsten in the play and serves as a father figure to her throughout her life. As such, their two worldviews represent tendencies in Arthur. While Kirsten represents a love of art and beauty, Tyler represents the kind of self-obsession that he shared with his father. While his father led a cult of personality as a celebrity, Tyler becomes a literal cult leader. As in Arthur’s death, art triumphs over ego. And so in the end, Kirsten wins the battle with the prophet. Tyler dies at the hands of one of his followers, fervent in his dangerous beliefs until the end of his life.

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