Character Analysis
We get an entire chapter dedicated to this guy's backstory, and believe us, that's plenty. He's basically the scariest dentist that you'd ever meet, because if he decides you're not Aryan enough—based on your teeth—then you don't really deserve to live.
Cool, thanks, bye. Hope to never see you around, Jones.
Now, of course, Jones doesn't actually kill anyone. Phew. He does, however, spread his hate through a newspaper funded by the Nazis. Rather like Campbell, actually—except Jones's hate is real.
What's perhaps even more bizarre is how Jones behaves in front of Dr. Epstein:
But the two antique Fascists were childishly respectful and dependent. About the only thing Jones said to Epstein, after Epstein had pronounced Krapptauer very dead, was, 'I happen to be a dentist, Doctor.' (17.12-13)
In the face of a person who happens to be both Jewish and a doctor, Jones is sheepish and even wants to impress. New York City public life in 1961 doesn't seem to condone being a vicious bigot: Jones wouldn't get away with the horrible things he writes if he said them to someone's face, and he's internalized this.
We wonder, though, if part of Jones's deferential treatment has to do with the fact that Epstein is a practicing doctor, and if this trumps being a failed dentist in his mind. On the other had, how much of all the anti-Semitism we read about in this novel is actually based on a weird kind of envy? Like, the Jewish characters are often pretty impressive. The anti-Semites? They're only impressive in their hatred.
Something to chew on, folks.