The Day of - NaNoPrep Assignments

Character: Antagonist Profile - "Murray Fester Lacaste"

Who is my antagonist? Murray Fester Lacaste is 40 years old. He had a job as a college professor, which is how he met Solomon. (Solomon was one of his students.)

However, after awhile he no longer enjoyed building people up. He bought a big ol' tow truck so he could take cars from people when they got behind on their monthly payments. Destroying people's lives (or at least being a nuisance and an irritation) brought him much more "joy."

Murray is a bald & fat little tub of lard, who doesn't care what folks think about the way he looks. "I love to eat. The extra pounds of fat make for good body armor. Har. Har. Har."

Murray is just like his names. He is Murray, "a settlement by the sea." He likes to be near movement, and is inconstant in friendship. Fester shows, that he keeps things in his heart, stewing over these things until the bile of bitterness flows out of his mouth. Lacaste has a double meaning in Murray's life. A "cast" is a manmade hard exterior, which keeps a broken bone in place. Murray has a hard, rough exterior, which belies the brokenness of his past. Secondly, Lacaste said with an accent sounds like "locusts," which clear-cut crops, just like Murray clear-cuts the hopes of those, who hang around him. Solomon is his favorite target when it comes to crushing hopes, and goals for the future.

Culturally, Murray is a man without a hometown or home area of the country because his dad was in the military when Murray was a child. As a result, his family moved around a lot. After growing up he moved to New York City and fell in love with the fast-paced lifestyle, which gave him an excuse for treating people roughly, not ever getting too close to anybody, and valuing money in the highest way, rather than caring a whit about anything or anybody, that didn't fatten his wallet.

Murray moved to the Deep South because he was convinced, that Southerners were "nothing, but goobers. I'll rake in the money 'hand over fist,' fleecing these idiots. It'll be a great gig."

Murray is agnostic. "God can exist for all I care, and I don't care."

Personality-wise, Murray is loud-mouthed, raucous, and self-assured. He spent all of his childhood, moving from post to post, and without any moorings, he does whatever pleases himself. "'Feel it, enjoy it, and stay alive.' That's my motto," Murray often boasts.

He likes icecream, and a lot of it.
He is particularly partial to Southern Comfort, which is a mark The South made on him.
He eats pizza every night for supper "because it's quick, and easy, like making a buck."

He really doesn't wait around to be "the butt of somebody else's joke." He does that to others before they can do it to him.

He hates people, but he makes them like him, so he can get in close enough to make money off of them.

He has a strong mind, but he uses it in the realm of wickedness, showing that he is the fool of Psalm 14:1 & Psalm 53:1.

Murray is a great candidate for being incorrigible as a totally worthless, and hopeless wretch, but since the Lord saved the Pharisee, Saul, who became the Apostle Paul, we must hold out hope for, and pray for even souls, who spend too many years like Murray is now.

"1 And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,

"2 And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

"3 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:

"4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

"5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

"6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

"7 And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.

"8 And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.

"9 And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink."
(Acts 9:1-9, KJV)

by Jay O'Toole
on October 12th, 2022