Cryptonomicon begins with Bobby Shaftoe—then a corporal—escorting a military vehicle through the streets of Shanghai. His contempt for his superiors, his dedication to his duty, and his high degree of capableness set the tone for the novel’s portrayal of Bobby as a military action hero. In this sense, he exists as the antithesis of Lawrence Waterhouse. Whereas Lawrence hopes to win the war through his intellect, Bobby tries to win the war through action. Only together, as part of Detachment 2702, are they able to achieve this goal together. Bobby is a complicated man, beset by his traumatic experiences on the Guadalcanal and working his way through a morphine dependency, but he never shies away from his duty.

In Manila, Bobby has a relationship with a local woman named Glory. He uses racial slurs but shows an interest in Japanese food and culture which leads to his unlikely friendship with Goto Deng. He may seem like the unthinking soldier that he presents himself as, but this performance is a shield against the more vulnerable, more curious Bobby, which feels threatened by the mounting violence in the world. His military persona is a means of protecting his softer side and his loved ones from danger.

The end of Bobby’s story is marked by tragedy. He is denied a reunion with Glory, since her leprosy means that he will never be able to get close to her. He is able to meet his son, but their meeting is decidedly brief. Knowing that he may soon die, Bobby dedicates these few hours to building significant memories in his son’s mind. His dangerous mission to destroy one last Japanese base ends with him dying a hero’s death, but his death is tragic and nuanced rather than played for pure spectacle.

Alongside Bobby Shaftoe and Lawrence Waterhouse, Randy is the third of the novel’s trio of protagonists. His story takes place in the 1990s, living in the world that his forebears helped to shape. He is directly connected to the earlier story since he is the grandson of Lawrence, but also due to his animosity with his ex-girlfriend’s colleague, Dr. G. E. B. Kivistik, the unacknowledged son of Bobby Shaftoe and Julia Kivistik.

In a narrative and a thematic sense, Randy is the continuation of the stories set in motion in the 1940s. In a family of intellectuals and academics, Randy is the true heir to his grandfather’s talents. Whereas Lawrence could direct his cryptographic efforts toward saving the world, Randy lacks any such morally virtuous project. He often feels listless and alienated because his life lacks purpose and direction, with his hacking exploits only providing intellectual stimulation without any real consequence. The Randy who is presented at the beginning of the novel thus takes on the challenge of his new business venture with a resigned curiosity which is a stark contrast to his grandfather’s desire to defeat the Nazis.

Gradually, however, Randy begins to develop a sense of purpose and drive. Through his connection to Bobby’s descendants, he uncovers a vast conspiracy which connects him to his own grandfather and to lost treasure. Through his partnership with Avi, he begins to understand that his attempts to recover the gold, to build the Crypt, and to launch a digital currency are exactly the kind of meaningful action that he has sought for so long. In reconnecting to his grandfather’s lost codes, then, Randy also reconnects with his grandfather’s sense of purpose and duty.

Randy’s relationship with Amy is perhaps the novel’s most fully realized romantic bond. Whereas Bobby and Glory are tragically kept apart and Lawrence and Mary quietly retire together, Randy and Amy are depicted finding happiness together. Amy inspires Randy to empathize with others, with Randy realizing that he was not able to offer Charlene what she wanted from a relationship, so he strives to change his attitude to offer Amy what he needs. Amy inspires change in Randy, evolving him as a character to such an extent that he risks his life for her at the novel’s climax. In spite of his life spent indoors in front of a computer screen, Randy shocks himself by risking everything for the woman he loves.

Enoch Root is a mysterious priest and doctor who serves with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during World War II, then as a chaplain in Detachment 2702. He is also an important figure in Societas Eruditorum, a mysterious secret society that features in other novels by Neal Stephenson. In other novels, Enoch Root is implied to possess a version of immortality which is evident (though unexplained) in Cryptonomicon, as he seems to die in the 1940s but is still alive in the 1990s.

With so many different facets to his identity, Root is a difficult character to pin down. He speaks many different languages and passes through many different cultures. He saves Bobby at the Guadalcanal, he works alongside Lawrence in Detachment 2702, and he occupies a jail cell beside Lawrence’s grandson, Randy, decades later. At each point, he provides insight and information which helps the characters move forward, showing himself to be well-versed in everything from combat to cryptography. At the same time, however, he is committed to the fight against the Nazis and the Japanese Imperial Army. In this sense, his multifaceted nature becomes a declaration of morality: Even the slippery, inscrutable Root can choose a side.

Root’s role in the novel is also to allude to the nature of conspiracies. As well as his involvement in the Societas Eruditorum, Root helps to establish a conspiracy with Rudy, Otto, and Bischoff, finding a way to extract the stolen gold from the hands of the Axis forces during World War II. This conspiracy threatens to vanish into the ether of history, but Root returns to Randy in the 1990s and pushes him toward uncovering the truth. In this way, Root’s role is to reveal the existence and function of conspiracies as mechanisms of history. Such societies and groups do exist—Root is part of several—but their role in history can be denied because they, much like cryptographic messages, are difficult to elucidate.

Amy Shaftoe is the novel’s most fully realized female character. While most other female characters exist as a point of fixation for male interest (Glory for Bobby, Mary for Lawrence), Amy inherits the forcefulness and independence of her father and grandfather. She refuses to live on anyone else’s terms, even in a romantic sense. Befitting her family history, she approaches her relationship with Randy with a militaristic pragmatism. She asserts herself with Randy and does not commit to him until he is ready to be serious about her.

Since Randy is a protagonist in the novel, Amy is typically only seen from his perspective. In contrast to the other women that he knows, Amy’s directness and assertiveness is beguiling and confusing. Her actions can seem erratic and sporadic, but this is due in part to the narrative perspective. Since the narration conveys Amy’s actions from Randy’s perspective, his confusion colors the portrayal of Amy. As he becomes more aware of her personality and his feelings, her depiction becomes more fully realized. Ultimately, she becomes an essential part of Randy’s plan and is beside him as he executes the plan to melt the gold in Golgotha.

Goto Dengo is a Japanese man who, at least in the beginning, is enthusiastically supportive of the Japanese Imperial Army. In this sense, he offers a non-Western, non-Allied perspective on the events of the novel. Though he begins the story as a fervent supporter of his homeland, the long and arduous nature of his physical journey is matched by an equally difficult spiritual journey. As Goto Dengo witnesses the crimes of his fellow countrymen, he comes to suspect that his country may be in the wrong in a moral sense and becomes disillusioned.

For Goto Dengo, the construction of Golgotha is an act of repentance. By subtly altering the design, he produces a means of saving some of the enslaved workers on the site and undermining the efforts of the Japanese commanders to hide their treasure. He betrays his orders and hates himself for it, but this significant act foreshadows his later religious conversion on the battlefield. His engagement with Christianity is, in effect, an illustration of his wavering loyalties. The conversion builds on his earlier, unlikely friendship with Bobby, who later aids Goto’s conversion alongside MacArthur.

Through his friendship with MacArthur, Goto Dengo rises to become a powerful magnate in postwar Japan. He is then in a position to return the symbolic act of redemptive blessing by giving his support to Randy and Avi as they seek out Golgotha. Through Goto Dengo, the novel explores the concept of redemption from many different angles.

The Dentist is an early antagonist in the 1990s storyline of Cryptonomicon. Known for his ruthless business practices, he presents a capitalist counterweight to Avi’s ambitions. Gradually, through successive and aggressive lawsuits, the Dentist tries to gain a majority share in Epiphyte. For Randy, the Dentist’s business practices are as mysterious and unknowable as his hacking techniques seem to others. The Dentist, in this fashion, represents a threat to the technology company which is driven by traditional business practices and institutional knowhow. He is the specter of capitalistic greed which overshadows the loftier and more ideological of Randy’s ambitions, even if the goal of making money is shared by both.

Gradually, however, the Dentist is revealed to be a more complex character. As Randy learns, the Dentist is not necessarily acting of his own volition, as he is deeply intertwined with a criminal cartel. This involvement in criminal activity makes the Dentist more of a direct threat. Eventually, however, Avi convinces Randy that the Dentist’s interest in their company is actually a compliment. As the Dentist fades into the background of the plot, Randy learns to maneuver around the Dentist’s schemes while also accepting that the Dentist’s interest in acquiring Epiphyte is a validation of his ambitions.

Doug Shaftoe is the son of Bobby Shafoe and the continuation of his father’s spirit into the 1990s. Like his father, he is a Marine with a focus on action and directness that exists in contrast to the high-minded abstractness of the technologists around him. He operates his treasure- seeking operation under the cover of laying communication cables.

Though Doug’s primary role occurs in the 1990s storyline, he appears briefly in the 1940s when his father helps to liberate Manila. Their interaction is brief and provides a stark reminder of the tragic circumstances in which Doug was raised. While his mother fought against the Japanese invasion, she contracted leprosy, leaving Doug with his extended family. His father returned to him for one night, on which they spent a few hours together before Bobby died in a subsequent operation. Doug was raised without his parents, which colors his relationship with Amy to a certain degree, as he values remaining close to her. Doug may present himself as a hardened, unemotional figure, but the novel’s exploration of his past reveals a tragic relationship with his parents which deepens his bond to his daughter.

Avi is the business acumen behind Epiphyte. While he and Randy both emerged from the same fantasy role playing community, there is a clear division in labor in their current relationship. Randy handles the technology, while Avi handles the business.

Avi’s motivation is more than just making money. As he explains to Goto Dengo in their brief business meeting, his true desire is not to build his own personal wealth but to create a better world. Large parts of his family were killed in the Holocaust. As a consequence, he wishes to create the Holocaust Education and Avoidance Pod which he believes will educate people about the reality of genocide. Avi’s motivation adds a moral edge to his efforts, signaling that he and Randy are not working out of pure greed or self-interest. Avi has experienced family trauma, and, with the help of the Crypt and the recovered gold, he hopes to save others from this pain.

Alan Turing was a real mathematician who appears in the novel as a fictional version of himself. Much like his counterpart in Cryptonomicon, Turing was a British mathematician who worked at Bletchley Park to crack German codes during World War II. In the novel, Turing functions as a mentor for the young fictional Lawrence Waterhouse. They share many of the same intellectual interests, though Turing possesses a higher degree of social skills than his younger American counterpart. In this sense, Alan Turing provides a historical model for Lawrence, but one whose real-life achievements signify and validate the significance of cryptography in winning World War II.

The novel also alludes to Turing’s sexuality. The real Turing was a gay man whose sexuality was an open secret among colleagues. In 1952, he was convicted of “gross indecency” for a relationship with a man and chose chemical castration to avoid imprisonment. He died by suicide in 1954. In the novel, Turing carefully broaches the subject of his sexuality to the sheltered Lawrence, who politely declines while not recognizing the significance of his friend’s conduct. The novel also alludes to a romantic relationship between Turing and Rudy, suggesting that Turing—in spite of the oppressive nature of his society and the chaos of the war—managed to find some degree of solace in romantic relationships. The tragic fate of the real Turing casts a shadow over the novel, but is never explicitly addressed.