Dick Humbird Character Analysis

Dick Humbird is a classmate and friend of Amory’s at Princeton. Dick comes to Princeton from St. Paul’s, another elite New England prep school, and Amory initially desires his friendship. Amory tries to model his behavior after Dick’s, believing that everything Dick does seems proper and effortless. Amory is eventually shocked and disappointed to learn that Dick does not come from old money—Dick’s father had been poor and became wealthy through real estate in Tacoma. When Dick dies in a car crash while driving drunk near Princeton, Amory is horrified and realizes that Dick’s wealth did not prevent him from dying a gruesome, “unaristocratic” death. Later in the novel, when running from what he thinks is the devil, Amory sees an apparition of Dick’s face.