Simone Character Analysis

Simone is Jonathan Alkaitis’s new receptionist in late 2008 when the Ponzi scheme implodes. She is young, naïve, and struggling financially at the time of the collapse. The night before his arrest, Alkaitis orders Simone to start shredding incriminating papers, which she does, though she hasn’t worked there long enough to know about the firm’s illegal activities. Simone will later serve as a witness in Alkaitis’s trial. In the immediate aftermath of Alkaitis’s arrest, Alkaitis’s distraught daughter Claire tells Simone that Simone is lucky: she isn’t complicit in the Ponzi scheme, and she’ll always have a juicy story to tell at cocktail parties. Simone heeds Claire’s advice, and the end of the novel depicts Simone entertaining coworkers with the story at a party in 2029. That Simone uses the disaster and suffering of Alkaitis’s Ponzi scheme for entertainment and social points shows the small ways people can use others for personal gain.