Captain Chen Character Analysis

The captain of the submarine that defects from China during the war. His story is narrated by Admiral Xu Zhicai, who clearly admires Chen’s principles and leadership skills. When Captain Chen saw that China was led by an ineffective army that was rapidly losing against the zombies, he believed the nation wouldn’t survive the war. So, he planned on escaping into the sea in a submarine, with his crew, in order to protect a tiny part of their nation. He did his best to smuggle his crew’s families on board, too—a kind gesture that Xu admires. At one point, their submarine was attacked by a Chinese loyalist submarine and Captain Chen thought that his beloved son, Commander Chen, was leading the attack. He fired at the other submarine and destroyed it in order to protect his crew, even though it broke his heart to kill his son. However, he later found out that his son had joined the rebellion against China’s politburo, and, he, too, joined the rebels. Captain Chen decided to fire a nuclear warhead on the politburo’s bunker, and took on full responsibility for the action. He wanted to spare everyone else the weight and guilt of firing on their countrymen. He thought this was the only way forward for China, which went on to implement their version of the Redeker plan under the rebels and finally won the war against the zombies. The novel emphasizes that Captain Chen was a true leader whose patriotism didn’t blind him to the faults of his nation’s leaders, and he took every step he could to save his nation.