In the words of author Janet Fitch, “Art distills meaning from experience, which is often hard to do in reality.” (Author Interview: Janet Fitch) In other words, it is the job of the author to interpret the motives behind people’s actions, and this Franzen does with a sterling accuracy. Such accuracy is necessary in a work portraying an antihero, because in order to objectively portray the strengths and flaws of a character, the author needs to be brutally honest in describing the character.
The Corrections is essentially a book about the flaws of modern society; its characters are representative of American society today, in all its flaws and virtues. In this sense, all of the characters in the novel can be seen as antiheroes; specifically Chip Lambert, the main character, is the best example of a classic antihero. Chip goes throughout life with the best of intentions, yet somehow always ends up with the short end of the stick. For instance, Chip writes a script which he thinks is brilliant, and ends up actually getting it noticed by a script reader named Eden. Eden strings him along until one day he accidentally finds out that she had no intention of ever reading the script, and had in fact given the script to her daughter to use as drawing paper. 
Unlike Holden Caulfield and Yossarian, Chip Lambert does not go crazy upon realizing that the world itself is crazy. He tries to make the best of things, and ends up managing to somehow survive it all. However, there are some defining moments in his dialogues with his sister Denise in which he echoes some of the sentiments expressed by Holden Caulfield:
“ ‘I’m saying the structure of the entire culture is flawed,’ Chip said. ‘I’m saying the bureaucracy has arrogated the right to define certain states of mind as ‘diseased’…The very definition of mental ‘health’ is the ability to participate in the consumer economy. When you buy into therapy, you’re buying into buying. And I’m saying that I personally am losing the battle with a commercialized, medicalized, totalitarian modernity right this instant.’ ” (Franzen 31)
Reviewer Katie French characterizes The Corrections as a blend of  social satire and remarkable characters. The way in which the book is written allows one to see inside the minds of each character, and as a result, all of the character’s flaws are left gaping out in the open. Take, for example, this passage from the book, in which Chip’s brother Gary Lambert—a normally conservative guy--gets very drunk and tries to justify it to himself:
“He needed to sleep well tonight for at least six hours. He upended the vodka bottle over a shaker of ice and brazenly let it glug and glug, because he, a veep at Centrust, had nothing to be ashamed of in relaxing after a hard day’s work…he now made a second [martini]…and officially considered it his first…In plain view of his entire family he made a third (officially: a second) martini and drank it down.