Trust

Some stories are more intelligible than others. Familiar narratives with familiar characters are easier to understand than the unfamiliar. The motif of the illegibility of Mildred’s handwriting fleshes out this theme of intelligible versus unintelligible narratives. In contrast to Bevel, who writes an autobiography aimed at the masses, Mildred writes journals in illegible script. Bevel wants his story told in a language everyone understands; Mildred knows that even if she wrote in legible script none would believe—or understand—her story. The illegibility of Mildred’s script symbolizes the unfamiliarity, even unintelligibility, of her story to the people of 1920s America.

As Partenza learns in her research of titans of finance, Bevel easily fits the mold of the ostentatious New York financier promulgated in fiction and the media; he can be cast as a familiar character. His fictional counterpart, Rask, even molds himself to this type to hide his true character that people find eccentric. There’s an established part for Bevel to play. There’s no part like that for Mildred: As a woman, she cannot be a titan of finance, let alone the most successful investor in the world.

Bevel consigns his late wife to the readymade role of the gentle and innocuous homemaker.