Mr. Beeman

Mr. Beeman is the headmaster of the Upper West Side school that Theo Decker attends on a scholarship. It is his decision to suspend Theo for smoking on school property—or, more precisely, for standing near Tom Cable while Cable smoked—that forces Theo's mother, Audrey Decker, to take a morning off work and brings the two of them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on April 10th, the day of the terrorist bombing that kills her. Though Mr. Beeman later attempts to offer support, his officious manner and his role as the catalyst for the tragedy make him a figure Theo comes to hate irrationally.

Role in the Catastrophe

The suspension is the immediate cause of the fatal museum visit. Theo is roughly seventy-five percent sure that Mr. Beeman, en route from his office to the teachers' lounge, looked out a second-floor landing window at exactly the wrong moment and saw him standing with Tom Cable while Cable smoked. At Theo's school, being present while another student smoked amounted to practically the same offense. The meeting to discuss the suspension is scheduled for eleven-thirty that morning, forcing Audrey to take the day off and clear her schedule. She and Theo head to the West Side early for breakfast and to buy a birthday present, and on a whim they stop at the museum to wait out a rainstorm. Theo later reflects bitterly on the chain of causation: "If Mr. Beeman hadn't asked us to come in on Tuesday, or Thursday?"

Post-Bombing Interactions

After the bombing, Mr. Beeman adopts a tone of clipped British solicitude. He compliments Theo on his "maturity" and tells him he seems to be "coping awfully well," a judgment that reflects the adult tendency to interpret Theo's numbness as a positive sign. Theo, however, has come to hate Mr. Beeman "irrationally, as an agent of my mother's death." When investigators from the FBI and the NYPD interview Theo at school, Mr. Beeman inserts himself into the proceedings, questioning the necessity of the interrogation and provoking a sharp rebuke from the lead investigator. He wears a "dumb tweed motoring cap" and a waistcoat with a watch chain, details that underscore Theo's contempt for his pompous, self-important manner.