Character Analysis
Of the original five from the Jellicoe Road, Fitz McKenzie is simultaneously the group's hero and resident psycho. He smokes cigarettes, drinks bad whiskey, constantly gets expelled from school, and makes a lot of inappropriate sexual remarks. And yet there's something about his "feverish madness" (8.29) that draws the rest of the gang to him. It might be because he's just as troubled and dysfunctional as they are so it's easy for them to relate—or it could be because he saved their lives.
As the story goes, Fitz rode by the scene of the accident on a stolen bike and not only rescued Narnie, Tate, and Webb, but went back in "four more times" (18.7) to get the bodies of their parents and Tate's sister out of the cars before they exploded. By saving their lives, Fitz becomes bound to the survivors by something stronger than blood that gives his existence meaning. As Taylor tells Jessa:
"All his life he'd been treated like crap to the point that he believed he was crap. He'd never done anything good and nobody had ever said anything positive about him. But that night, on the Jellicoe Road, it was like he was reborn. The lives he saved gave him purpose and he loved those kids more than anything." (18.12)
Unfortunately, the sense of "purpose" Fitz gets from saving his friends is ripped from his hands when he accidentally shoots Webb while going back for the last tin target he missed one day while practicing. We get the sense from Hannah's book that Fitz isn't exactly a stable person, but when Webb dies, he seems to totally lose it and becomes obsessed with reenacting Webb's death. "He was a bit mad," Santangelo describes. "Like obsessive compulsive, you know. He'd stand on a tree branch and dive into the river in the same spot all the time" (8.123). Poor guy.
We wish we could say the tragedy stops for Fitz after that point, but it doesn't. Just when he gets married and has a daughter, his wife dies of cancer. Thinking "that everything he touched died" (24.211), Fitz responds by going into exile in the wilderness, becoming the Hermit of Jellicoe lore who eventually whispers into Taylor's ear before shooting himself in the head and telling her to take care of his daughter—Jessa.
A Kenny Rogers fan (so much so that he carved it in the Prayer Tree), Fitz's character is often related in the story to the Gambler's 1980 hit "Coward of the County." In the song, a boy from a small town grows up being called a coward and told he'll never amount to anything, but in the end, he avenges his girlfriend after the town's resident gang of thugs assaults her. Go ahead and take a listen—it's obvious why Fitz would relate to it.
In the end, Fitz's tragic suicide lends a sad layer of irony to his association with the song. Does Fitz ultimately become too fearful of "the demons in his head" (24.211)? Does his role in Webb's death make him less of a hero? The verdict's still out, so feel free to decide for yourself.