The Compound

Rex is an eccentric billionaire. He gives his kids everything, but also moves them into the Compound under false pretenses. He sees them and his wife as commodities to be exploited in his pressure-testing experiment below ground. He is brilliant and driven, but also cold and calculating. Late in the novel, he admits that he wanted his children to have more than what he could buy for them, but everyone is expendable in his experiments. 

Lexie is Eli’s adopted sister. She believes that she and Eli share the same worldview and temperament as Rex. She tells him: “Poor Eli, now you’re in the same boat as the rest of us. Guess what, you don’t want to hear it, but you’re like me. And me and you? We’re just like Dad. We don’t care about other people and we’re only out for ourselves” (96).

Eli has always seen Lexie as a materialist. When they enter the Compound, each new room excites her. Eli thinks: “Leave it to her to cheer up over material possessions” (6), forgetting that she may have come from impoverished circumstances.

Lexie will go to great lengths to win Rex’s approval. She agrees to become a host for Rex’s cloning experiment to make him happy and get his attention. Her affection for Rex extends into her disdain for her mother, whom she sees as ungrateful and whining. Eventually she turns on Rex with the rest of the family when he explains his reasons for bringing them to the Compound

Terese is one of Eli’s sisters. He calls her little Miss Perfect because he does not believe she can do anything wrong. She is a creature of routine, which she rarely deviates from. They have an antagonistic relationship for much of the novel. Early in the story she confides to Eli that she thinks Rex is lying about the Compound. She is first to voice such specific suspicions. She says, “I think I might hate him” (13), referring to Rex. She does not believe in the nuclear attack, and believes that Eddy and Gram are still alive. Late in the novel she confronts Eli and accuses him of never liking her. He admits that she reminds him too much of Eddy, and so he has kept her at a distance. Eddy is presented—through Eli’s perspective—as a wholly positive figure, so it can be assumed that if Terese reminds Eli of Eddy, she shares many of the same admirable traits. 

Clea is a world-class cellist and a loving parent. After marrying Rex, she surrenders a great deal of her independence and personal goals. Once she is in the Compound, she becomes a tool for him, producing extra children—against her former doctor’s orders—as part of Rex’s experiment. When she meets Rex, his grand gestures, relentless affection, and massive fortune win her over.

In the Compound, her initial resistance to Rex is passive aggressive: she begins letting the wheat spoil in the hopes that Rex would eventually get sick enough to listen to reason and let them out of the hatch. Her defiance becomes more overt when she realizes that her children will never be able to thrive in the Compound. She and Rex want the same goal for their children: to thrive, be resilient, and self-sufficient, but they go about their goals in different ways. Clea pursues her goal by loving her children equally and encouraging them in their individual goals and personalities.