Jack Boughton

Jack Boughton is the title character of the book. He is an older white man who considers himself to be “self-orphaned” and a “confirmed, inveterate bum” (7). He did not graduate from university and lives in boardinghouses. We know that he has a lot of debt because collectors come after him at multiple points throughout the novel. At the beginning of the novel, he is completely unemployed, but later decides to seek employment for Della’s sake, first at a shoe store and then at a dance studio. He calls himself disreputable and the “Prince of Darkness” (40). He has a drinking problem and often finds himself so drunk that he is unsure if certain events really happened. Physically, he has a scar under his eye and a shadow of a beard, as well as a crease across his forehead from drinking. While he tells people that he dodged...