There’s no LOST (TV series) until 2008, and some of us are going through withdrawal. I have a few LOST posts saved up or planned for posting on Wednesday or Thursday —when I was posting my LOST Rehash, an analysis of the most recent episode. Maybe I can get through this dearth of LOST with a little help from my (blog) friends. 🙂
The names of the characters on the TV series LOST seem to have been chosen with an eye to symbolism and significance. I’m sure with all the LOST fanatics out there someone has done quite a bit more work than I have on this subject, but I think it’s fascinating to see what I can come up with on my own. I do a little LOST reading at Thinklings, where the guys live-blog the program almost every Wednesday, and at Powell’s where J. Wood, who is I’m sure some famous guy that I should know all about but don’t, blogs about the previous night’s episode on Thursdays. He particularly notes the symbols and literary allusions in the program. So, some of these guys probably have contributed to the ideas here, but otherwise I thunk it all up myself. And I may be reading way too much into the names or be way off base. But I’m having fun.
Jack Shephard: Jack does become the shepherd of these lost sheep survivors. He’s also forced to become, not just a doctor, but a jack-of-all-trades, doing whatever needs to be done to ensure the survival of the Losties. Jack’s father is Christian Shephard, but his father doesn’t live up to his name. In one recent episode, Jack said the only thing his father ever taught him how to do was drink. Nevertheless, Jack is the Christian “shepherd” that the LOST survivors need, in spite of his self-described lack of faith, and he seems to be able to do whatever needs to be done from carpentry to ping-pong to shooting a gun to negotiating a hostage release. Somebody must have taught him to be a shepherd and a doctor in spite of his father, or maybe his father wasn’t all bad after all. Now in the light of the third season finale, I think Jack’s going to shepherd the Losties all back to the island.
James Ford “Sawyer”: A sawyer is a wood worker, but Sawyer isn’t James’s real name. And Sawyer isn’t much of a worker of any kind. He stole his name from the con man that caused his parents’ deaths, and he became the con man that he hated. His real name “James Ford” sounds like a typical Southern good ol’ boy name, just who Sawyer pretends to be. But no one ever calls him Jim or Jimmy, do they? Not even in his back-story.
Katherine “Kate” Austen: Not much connection with the only Austen that comes to mind, Jane Austen. I guess Kate is attracted to both a “bad guy,” Sawyer, and a “good guy,” Jack, just like Elizabeth Bennett is attracted to Wickham and to the distant Mr. Darcy. Jack’s a little distant, too, got some pride going there.
Boone Carlyle: The LOST writers like philosophers’ names. Carlyle wrote a book called Heroes and Hero Worship, and of course, Boone had a bad case of hero worship with Locke. Boone also wanted to be a hero, but that didn’t work out too well.
Shannon Rutherford: Shannon sounds like a cheerleader name, and sure enough she’s a self-absorbed cheerleader type. Poor little rich girl.
Sayid Jarrah
Michael Dawson: What happened to Michael anyway? Part of his name is “son,” and of course, Michael’s overriding concern was his son.
Walt Lloyd (Dawson)
Vincent, the dog: What happened to Vincent? Is he still on the beach?
Claire Littleton: Claire’s almost a Madonna figure, but her name is Claire, not Mary. I am reminded of Clare of Assissi, who founded the female counterpart to St. Francis’s Franciscans.
Baby Aaron: Aaron was Moses’s older brother in the Bible, the spokesman for the speech impaired leader of the Exodus. Is Aaron the forerunner of Sun’s baby, and will Sun’s baby be the Moses who will lead them out of bondage, off the island?
Charles Hieronymus “Charlie” Pace: Hieronymous Bosch was the guy who did all those wierd pictures, like the one I’ve posted here. It looks like bad drug trip, doesn’t it? But it’s called The Garden of Earthly Delights. What kind of mother would name her son Hieronymus, even as a middle name. Then, too, Charlie is just a “good-time Charlie,” always following, along for the ride, out to have a good time. Until the final episode. Then we find out there’s more to Charlie than meets the eye.
Hugo “Hurley” Reyes: Hugo is, obviously, huge. He’s also the King, the richest man on the island, the luckiest, the wisest. I think Hurley is the Wise Fool whose backstage managing has done as much if not more to save the LOST survivors as Jack’s more up-front leadership. Hurley’s the king in disguise, alway managing things behind the scenes, always cutting through the complicated bull with a salient statement of common sense —or a van in overdrive.
John Locke: Locke was another philosopher. He wrote stuff that influenced the founding fathers of the American Revolution. He was an Enlightenment kind of guy, big on reason, but John Locke sees himself as a “man of faith.”
Jin-Soo Kwon
Sun-Soo Kwon
Danielle Rousseau: Another philosopher name. She lives in the wild, like Rouseau advocated. She’s untamed, a child of the jungle.
Eko Tunde
Juliet Burke: Juliet, as in Romeo and Juliet? Burke is another philosopher, but I don’t know anything about him.
Benjamin Linus: Benjamin means “Son of my Right Hand,” changed from Ben-oni, Son of my Sorrow because the Biblical Benjamin’s mother, Rachel, died giving birth to him. Benjamin was Joseph’s younger brother in the Bible; he caused his mother Rachel’s death in childbirth. Ben says he was born on the island; at least he’s lived there most of his life. Yet now the Island people can’t give birth, and the mothers die, too. Ben’s mother died, and he somehow survived. Linus reminds me of lying, something at which Ben is quite adept despite his protestations to the contrary. Linus is also the Charlie Brown character, and Ben resembles him with his beady eyes, glasses, and diminutive stature. No security blanket, though, that I can see.
Mikhail Bakunin: Mikhail Bakunin was a philosopher also, an anarchist philosopher. The name could relate to Island Mikhail’s fondness for guns, violence, grenades and shooting at people. Island Mikhail seems like a bit of an anarchist, a wild card at the very least.
Ana-Lucia Cortez
Desmond David Hume: Hume was a Scottish philosopher. He was a skeptic, and Desmond’s an ex-monk who thinks he’s being led/tested by a Higher Power. Desmond is something of a mystic; he has visions.
Alex Rousseau or Linus: Alexandra. She has a Russian princess name, or is it French like Danielle? Alex is a sort of a rebellious princess. She’s probably not Ben’s daughter, but she doesn’t know who she is.
Nikki Fernandez
Paolo
Rose Henderson Nadler
Bernard Nadler: He’s kind of like a St. Bernard, isn’t he? Faithful, bumbling, and loveable.
Elizabeth “Libby”
Penelope Widmore: Obviously, she plays Penelope to Desmond’s Odysseus. She’s waiting for him to come back from his trip around the world. But she’s a bit more proactive than the classical Penelope, looking for the lost Desmond rather than weaving and unweaving.
Naomi Dorrit: I’ve never read Little Dorrit by Dickens, but surely her last name is a reference to that book.
Jacob: Jacob in the Bible is a twin (Esau’s twin), a conniver and con artist; the name means “supplanter.” Is Jacob someone’s twin? Has he supplanted someone to become the dictator on the island?
G.K. Chesterton, b. 1874.
