Doctor Fred Garth Character Analysis

Doctor Fred Garth is the manager of the Buffalo Works. Garth is an older man whom everyone views as “steady and reliable,” even if he isn’t particularly innovative. Kroner tells Paul that the decision about the manager job at the Pittsburgh Works has come down to Garth and Paul. However, Kroner also admits that Garth doesn’t have Paul’s “technical imagination,” even if he’s a great manager. The thing he does have, though, is an unflagging sense of commitment to the company and the entire corporate system—something Paul clearly lacks. All the same, Kroner would rather give Paul the job. When the company holds its yearly retreat at the Meadows (a nearby island), Paul and Garth are put in the same tent, but they don’t viciously compete with each other, as one might expect. Instead, they maintain a friendly relationship, as Garth tells Paul that his eldest son failed the General Classification Test (which determines if someone is qualified for college) and will be retaking it. Later, when Garth finds out that his son failed the test once again, he destroys the oak tree on the island—a tree that symbolizes the company’s strength and vitality. Although this isn’t much of a crime, he’s arrested and thrown in jail, where Paul eventually encounters him once again when he himself gets arrested.