Jack Character Analysis in Trust

Jack is Ida’s sometimes boyfriend. When Ida begins working for Andrew, Jack has recently returned to New York from Chicago, where he left college after two years. Jack and Ida have also recently begun seeing each other again. Jack is an aspiring journalist, and when he learns that Ida is working for the famous Andrew Bevel, he develops a scheme to blackmail her into handing over the manuscript she’s been working on for him. Jack plans to sell that manuscript to a newspaper and secure himself a job in the process. Ida finds out Jack is behind the scheme and threatens him using Andrew’s name so that he’ll leave town. As a character, Jack represents the way that Andrew’s wealth alters everything in its orbit, as Jack acts completely differently toward Ida, and eventually betrays her, when he knows that she works for Andrew. Jack also represents the desperation that people feel during the Great Depression, as Jack feels unable to get a job through honest means and resorts to blackmailing Ida to try and get ahead in a world that he feels is rigged against him.

Jack Character Timeline in Trust

The timeline below shows where the character Jack appears in Trust. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Self-Interest vs. the Common Good Theme Icon

Jack, a family friend and Ida’s sometime boyfriend, is eating with Ida’s father when Ida returns... (full context)

Ida asks Jack to help her buy a typewriter. She thinks that from his work as a journalist,... (full context)

Jack brings Ida flowers to apologize for the argument they had the last time they spoke.... (full context)

...feelings about her father signal that she has momentarily embraced Andrew’s view of the world. Jack finds some of the pages Ida has written for Andrew on the floor and tries... (full context)

As Ida diligently works, the apartment she shares with her father becomes messier and messier. Jack comes over and the two discuss the argument they had the last time they met.... (full context)

...working for. He says he won’t do it. Ida walks away, and the man says, “Jack.” Ida seethes with rage. (full context)

The man explains that Jack followed Ida one day because he doesn’t like the idea of her being alone with... (full context)

When Ida returns home, she finds her father flustered. Jack has just been by to grab some papers before departing for a new job in... (full context)

...one of her father’s drawers, she sees the missing pages she wrote that she thought Jack had taken. (full context)