Randy Lenz Character Analysis in Infinite Jest

Randy is a cocaine addict and former dealer who ends up as a resident of Ennet House. He violates the house’s strict no-Substance policy and continues doing small amounts of cocaine. At the same time, he takes to compulsively and violently attacking animals in the neighborhood, which ends up getting him beaten up by a group of Quebecois men.

Randy Lenz Character Timeline in Infinite Jest

The timeline below shows where the character Randy Lenz appears in Infinite Jest. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Addiction, Mental Illness, and Suicide Theme Icon

Institutional Control vs. Rebellion Theme Icon

...the MILDRED BONK tattoo, has even worse insomnia than the average Ennet House resident. Randy Lenz is a “seedily handsome” low-level cocaine dealer. Charlotte Treat is a former sex worker who... (full context)

Randy Lenz, who is still in his first months of sobriety, always walks back to Ennet House... (full context)

One night after a White Flag meeting, Bruce Green asks Lenz if he can join him on his walk home. Green then starts doing this regularly,... (full context)

Reality as Corporate Dystopia Theme Icon

Wednesday 11 November Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment. Randy Lenz and Bruce Green are walking together. Lenz has realized that he likes Green, which gives... (full context)

Lenz chews gum in order to hide the fact that he is grinding his teeth together.... (full context)

...Gately advises her to avoid him at all costs, before realizing she’s referring to Randy Lenz, though Yolanda refuses to confirm if this is true. (full context)

...there, and reflects that this man and the Swiss model had the same accent. Meanwhile, Lenz continues to chatter away to Green, telling excessively detailed stories about his obese mother and... (full context)

It is a very misty night, and Green keeps losing sight of Lenz before finding him again. Green recalls a Hawaiian beach-themed party that he and Mildred Bonk... (full context)

...call out to stop him but is strangely suffocated and can’t say anything at all. Lenz then stabs the dog with what Green can now see is a knife. People gather... (full context)

...and Gately concludes from their body language that they may be conducting a forbidden relationship. Lenz slips in moments before Gately locks the door for the night, and by 11:30 Amy... (full context)

...to intervene. He assembles a group of car-owning residents, and in doing so notices that Lenz is clearly high. (full context)

...on by diverticulitis, a condition suffered by alcoholics new to sobriety. Stepping outside, Gately sees Lenz being chased in a circle by two men with “vaguely non-U.S. beards.” A third man... (full context)

...Gately, frantically discussing whether they should call Pat, an ambulance, or someone else. Gately asks Lenz and Green to carry him inside and insists that nobody call anyone until this is... (full context)

...and that he was sure he knew her from somewhere. Joelle squeezes Gately’s arm, and Lenz and Green lift him up. (full context)

Talent, Precociousness, and Fame Theme Icon

At Ennet House, Geoffrey Day is surprised to find himself missing Randy Lenz. Meanwhile, Kate, like many psychiatric patients, knows that there are different kinds of depression. There’s... (full context)

14 November Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment. Randy Lenz, freezing cold and high on cocaine, is following two Chinese women up Mass Ave between... (full context)

Randy Lenz has successfully seized the bags of the Chinese women and escaped. Unbeknownst to him, he... (full context)

...providing more information on what happened in the aftermath of the fight. Calvin had told Lenz that he would need to submit a urine test on the spot or else voluntarily... (full context)

...on the notebook. However, it comes out as a largely indecipherable scribble. Francis observes that Lenz had been “going around cutting up people’s pets,” and that this is how the fight... (full context)

...used to shoot him still hasn’t shown up, and that it is now believed that Lenz ran off with it. However, Lenz may have been spotted blind drunk somewhere near Kenmore... (full context)