Places: The Assistant

Grocery Assistant, Thestore. Morris Bober’s family store in Manhattan. As an economic and social barrier, the store resembles a bit of European ghetto transported to New York, though it could be located in any large city in which European refugees gather. Having escaped Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, Morris has nevertheless contrived a prison of his own making, one which threatens to kill the spirit of his wife, Ida, and his daughter, Helen. Poverty ceaselessly grinds them down. Every morning at 5:30 a.m. Morris crawls out of bed to give the “Polish woman” her three-cent roll, even though she threatens to spit out anti-Semitic insults at him. For hours thereafter, no customer is likely to come into the store. Most of his customers have deserted him for “the German,” who has opened a fancy delicatessen around the corner. When the German becomes ill, his business is bought and refurbished by Norwegians–more Nordic types–and Morris’s misery continues. At the end of the day, the cash register seldom holds enough money to pay the day’s expenses. Only Helen’s paycheck as a secretary keeps the family going.

In this scene of suffering, the street person Frank Alpine makes his appearance. In an apparent example of gross black comedy, Morris’s store is the one that Frank and a companion choose to rob. After being bumped on the head, Morris fails to recognize Frank in the holdup. However, something about the store and Morris’s dignified suffering fascinates Frank, something beyond his immediate needs. He later breaks his way into the store’s cellar and takes up residence there, stealing from the milk and rolls left in the morning. During Morris’s illness, he insinuates himself into the store as an unpaid “assistant.” Even though he continues to steal from the cash register, the store’s income rises slightly because of his energy and new ideas. However, the honesty, patience, and kindness that Morris embodies in his store work upon Frank, who determines to stop his pilfering of the cash register and confess his part in the holdup in order to make himself worthy of the love of Helen. When Morris finally succumbs to his final illness, Frank is there to sell the business and to claim Helen’s hand. Throughout, the image of the grocery is closely tied to the moral action of the story.

*Manhattan. New York City borough in which the story is set; a place notable for its distinct neighborhoods and famous landmarks. However, given the specificity with which the grocery store is described, it is odd that readers are not told exactly where the store is. Is it uptown or downtown, East Side or West Side? Readers are told that the grocery is in a “mixed neighborhood” and that only three Jewish families live on its block; otherwise, readers must drift in a strange placelessness. This mood seems appropriate to the obsessions of the characters, who recognize little beyond their immediate circumstances.

Library and park. In the sense of abstract placelessness in which the grocery exists, two locations are especially important and can be accurately called symbols. The library, where Frank and Helen escape to meet each other, represents the desire of both to reach out and to make something of themselves. The park as well is a place where they can temporarily experience the freedom they cherish, and their love can flourish.