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.