Fox

One of the moral questions that dominates Fox is what obligations people bear toward others in their communities. While Fox lives according to a hollow and predatory individualism, seeking to isolate his targets from their communities, the novel argues that people have a mutual obligation to look out for one another. 

P. Cady’s individualism helps her forge her own path in a male-dominated world, making her a groundbreaker and a leader. However, because Cady never feels that her achievements are secure, she often plays it safe, abdicating the responsibilities of leadership in favor of self-protection. This is why she doesn’t investigate Fox’s credentials and ignores the rumors about him. Exposing Fox would put her own institutional power at risk. Loss of security is also what keeps Demetrius Healy from interceding when he suspects that Fox is abusing girls in his office. He wants to stop Fox’s abuse but cannot risk his father being fired. Demetrius’s lack of status and money prohibit him from being the moral individual he’d like to be. He only acts when he must, on Eunice’s behalf.

Fox uses other people’s self-protective instincts against them, dividing communities and thwarting the systems of communal care that should protect his targets.