NEAL
Totally existential; spiritually so. He doesn't live so much as BE. His cab is the locus of his praxis (á la Sartre), while it is simultaneously the locus of his rebellion (á la Camus). The cab is his praxis in that it is literally and figuratively the vehicle of his life's meaning: it is his nexus point on the grid from which he derives his economic as well as social sustenance, yes, but more than that it is the project to which he has dedicated his mortality and with which he confronts eternity. The cab is his rebellion in that, once again, it is the literal and figurative vehicle by means of which he carries his inner moral vision out into both the material and historical world. Neal lives to drive his cab, and drives his cab to live. Should he find himself in any situation in which no relation to his cab is present, his being devolves into a mere existence until a link with his cab can be reestablished.Neal lives thoroughly and completely, but the obvious fragility of an existence so totally dependent on an external object lends an edge of desperation to his character. It is this specific aspect of his character-- the desperation engendered by dependency on an external object-- that will be central to Neal's actions as it is the aspect of his character that Neal himself deeply, if unconsciously, wishes to resolve.
As a result of his work, Neal comes into contact with practically the entire population of Fairvale. And those few rare souls with whom he has no contact, he inevitably learns about from those who do. If there's one person who's up on what's going down in town, it's Neal. That said, Neal likes to hang out at Marvel Hardware during his idle moments. And if there's one person he like's steppin' out with, it's Zora.