Jack Bricker Character Analysis

Bricker is a first-year graduate student at MIT when John Nash becomes an instructor there, a “self-deprecating” yet engaging, “undeniably bright” student who becomes fast friends with Nash. Nash and Bricker make “no secret of their affection” for each other, often kissing in front of other people; Nash would later describe his relationship with Bricker as one of three “special friendships” he had had in his life. Bricker and Nash’s relationship becomes troubled when Nash reveals that Eleanor Stier is pregnant with his child; Nash also behaves erratically and jealously around Bricker, and in the late 1960s, after the onset of his mental illness, Nash begins to send Bricker “disturbing” letters. Nasar suggests that the strain of his relationship with Nash causes Bricker to drop out of graduate school.