He is representative of society’s lowest class – destitute, blacklisted, and left to suffocate in the egregious pollution of the fictional Co-Op City.
That also happens to be a terrifically small lens with which to look at the character, though.
As originally created by Stephen King/Richard Bachman, he is an ordinary man in his late 20s living in abject poverty with his wife and sick baby.
While the 1987 includes a backstory involving a career as a pilot refusing orders and being incarcerated in a military prison, Richards’ story comes from a much more simple and dark place in the novel.