Character Analysis
Alice's dad is the Dean of Political Science at the University That Shall Remain Nameless. We picture him as a kindly professor-type, complete with glasses and a sweater vest. Fittingly, Alice is super proud of the sweater vest that she gets him for his birthday:
Oh, this afternoon I ran out and got Dad a sleeveless sweater. I'm sure he'll like it because he saw something very similar in Mr. Taylor's window and said that it would be just perfect for the office when he doesn't want to wear a coat. (289)
In other words, we're not far off in thinking he looks like this guy. The most shocking thing about the above quote, though, isn't her dad's super nerd status—it's that Alice was actually paying attention to someone other than herself. For more on her self-absorption, though, check out her page elsewhere in this section. Moving on.
Dad does stuff like take Alice to her first political rally, get her permission to use the University library to avoid her bullies, and conspire to sneak Joel home for Alice's birthday surprise. But most importantly, Dad kind of has a knight-in-shining-armor complex. Or, at least that that's how Alice sees him:
It's strange that when something happens to me Dad always leaves everything in the whole world and comes. I think if he were a peace mission involving all humanity in all the galaxies he would leave to come to me. He loves me! He loves me! (169.1)
To be clear, Alice only recognizes giant, un-ignorable displays of affection, so it's good her dad's prone to them. Later, when Alice is locked up in the insane asylum, he jumps into action and saves the day by getting Marcie and Jan to retract their statements that helped get Alice put away. Way to go, Dad.