The Tenant

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content, cursing, emotional abuse, and death.

Blake is the primary protagonist and point-of-view character in The Tenant. At the start of the novel, he is 32 years old and works as the Vice President of Marketing for a firm in Manhattan. However, when he is accused of giving information about the firm’s clients to a competitor, he is fired and struggles to find a new job for over two months. He is described as “handsome” by multiple characters, especially after he obsesses over working out after losing his job. He has been with his girlfriend, Krista, for two years, and they are engaged to be married at the novel’s start.

Blake’s anger is one of his most defining characteristics. Although Krista mistreats and harasses him, he reserves most of his anger for others; for example, he escalates the difficult situation with Whitney almost immediately by angrily confronting her at the diner. He is on the verge of physically harming her multiple times, having to forcibly restrain himself, and he also exhibits this behavior with others. For example, when Blake has his last confrontation with Mr. Zimmerly, he angrily throws the garbage can at him, noting, “He’s got to be close to ninety years old, and it probably would have killed him, but the can misses him by a mile and rolls onto the street beside him” (154).