sor too. She will have to find something else to wear. Next is Heinrich's friend, Orest Mercator. Jack believes that Orest "was creating an imperial self out of some tabloid aspiration. He would train relentlessly, speak of himself in the third person, load up on carbohydrates. His trainer was always there, his friends drawn to the aura of inspired risk" (268). Orest clearly has an image problem if he feels he has to sit in a room with poisonous snakes in order to get attention. He is so desperate for an image that he is willing to die. Or perhaps the image he wants is only attainable if he risks his own life. Either way, he is clearly not happy with his own self. Finally is Tweedy Browner, whose husband is a spy. She laments, "When Malcolm goes into deep cover, it's as though he never existed. He disappears not only here and now, but retroactively. No trace of the man remains. I don't know which half of Malcolm's life is real, which half is intelligence" (89). Her husband has the ultimate false image - one that turns him into a completely new person. At least the images of the others were built on what was already there, i.e., Jack's image partially came from his weight. In this case, however, what was already there for Malcolm, now and in the past, is eclipsed by his secret agent life. First, there is the matter of his robe. Eric Massingale tells Jack that without his campus attire he looks harmless. "A big, harmless, aging, indistinct sort of guy," Massingale says (83). Since Jack's image is false, it cannot be true all of the time. The problem arises when someone catches him out of his false image, because his true self has no power or authority. Thus, he must either keep up the facade as long as possible or avoid his colleagues when not properly dressed.This leads to an additional problem - love and friendship. I have often heard that in order to become a friend, you must make yourself vulnerable. Y...
