Dick Tracy

Dick Tracy appears as a comic-book figure in the Blonde Actress’s account of being driven from President Kennedy’s suite. Alongside Bugs Bunny, he restrains and escorts her away; when she resists, the scene associates him with the dismissive treatment of her injury. He is less a developed character than a vividly named instrument of power, making the removal of the actress both grotesque and unmistakable.

Identity and Role

Dick Tracy is paired with Bugs Bunny, another fictional figure, as one of the men who control access to the President. Their names place the encounter in the book’s stylized register, but their actions are concrete: they take hold of the Blonde Actress and prevent her from entering the room where the President is speaking with a red-haired woman.

Removal from the Suite

As the Blonde Actress is being led through a side exit, she spots the President behind a partly open door and quietly asks to come in, hoping to greet him and be introduced to his companion. Dick Tracy and Bugs Bunny pull her away with such force that she fears her arms have been dislocated. The President looks at her and slams the door in her face.

The confrontation continues in the corridor. One of the men shakes the Blonde Actress and the other slaps her; the narration then singles out Dick Tracy with his grinning, sharply defined jaw as he dismisses the blood at her mouth as lipstick. She cries and threatens to tell the President what has happened, but Jiggs warns her that threatening the President is a crime and high treason. The sequence leaves her being marched away, injured and unable to reach the person she had hoped would protect her.

Narrative Significance

Dick Tracy’s fictional name sharpens the scene’s bitter contrast: a familiar comic hero becomes part of an intimidating escort. His presence helps render the Blonde Actress’s exclusion as more than a closed door; it is enforced by force, followed by ridicule that denies the injury. The scene gives him no separate history or motive, instead using him to embody the abrupt, physical authority that silences her.