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The assistant
Malamud, Bernard






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1. Primaire gegevens

Ondertitel: n.v.t.
Jaar van 1e publicatie: 1957
Aantal bladzijden: 216
Code (Ludgerbieb): blauwe band, code E
Uitgelezen op: woensdag 22 november 2000

2. Summary

In New York there is a grocery. The owner of the grocery is Morris Bober and he is sixty years old. His wife Ida is fifty-one years old. They have a daughter called Helen, who is twenty-three years old and they are all Jews. Morris used to have a son called Ephraim, but he died from an illness. Helen has already finished her highschool.
Morris was advised by his father to flee from the concentration camp and to go to the United States of America. First he lived in San Francisco and Oakland and he didn?t finish his study in the U.S.A. because he met Ida.
Above the grocery lives Nick Fuso with his girlfriend Tessie. The grocery is almost bankrupt and Morris wants to sell, but nobody wants to buy the store. Across the street there is a new store from the German Schmitz and he has plenty customers. He sells more than Morris, because he also sells delicatessen. Next to Morris there is a liquorstore and the owner is Karp. Together they see a strange car driving up the street for about a week. They decide to buy a phone together to call the police if something happens. Then, one night, two men are robbing Morris with handkerchiefs over their faces. They stole all the money Morris had.
For a while the twenty-five years old Italian Frank Alpine is wandering through the street where Morris? grocery is and he feels guilty, because he stole from Morris together with Ward Minogue. Ward Minogue is the sheriff?s son.
One day Frank comes to Morris? grocery and he asks if Morris has a job for him. Morris can?t afford a clerk, but because he doesn?t feel well he let Frank work for him. Frank doesn?t get many wages so he sometimes steals money from the cashier?s desk. It feels good to him to steal from the Jews. Frank was allowed to live in a small room at Nicks? and Tessies? upstairs the grocery. Frank likes Helen, the grocer?s daughter. First, Helen doesn?t like him at all, but when she get to know him better she starts to like him. They often go to the library to meet each other there, because Helen?s mother doesn?t want Helen to fall in love with their clerk. After a while Helen admits she likes Frank very much and she even says she loves him. She wasn?t a virgin anymore and Frank knew that. Helen?s message was understood by Frank as a message like ?I love you, so I want to make love to you?, but it wasn?t meant that way by Helen. In the park Frank rapes Helen, because he can?t hold it anymore. Helen gets very angry and she doesn?t want to see him anymore. Helen starts going out again with Louis Karp from the liquorstore and Nat Pearl, another guy she knows. Those boys have been going to college and they graduated, so Ida thinks they would be good men for Helen. She is excited that Helen is going out with them again.
Frank confesses to Morris that he steals money from the cashier?s desk and that it was him together with Ward Minogue who robbed the grocer. Morris is very angry and fires Frank. That evening Nick comes to Frank?s door and says that he smells gas. They run into the grocery and than they run upstairs where the grocer is asleep. The grocer almost choked and Frank saved him by opening the windows. Morris forgot to light a match to make the fireplace burn. Frank was the grocer?s clerk again and he liked helping the grocer again.

On a night, Ward Minogue is drunk and enters the already closed liquorstore from Karp to steal some bottles of alcoholic drinks. He dropped a few bottles and when he tried to light his cigarette he let the match fall into the alcohol. The whole liquorstore burnt down and Ward was dead. Now Karp wants to buy Morris? store, because they don?t have a store anymore. Morris becomes ill and after three days in the hospital he dies. He had cleaned the front porch from the snow without wearing a coat. He had a double pneumonia.
Helen still doesn?t want to know anything from Frank. Frank still lives with the Fuso?s, but now he pays rent to Ida, because he runs the grocery and he has a part-time job in a coffeeshop. Helen always wanted to go to college and Frank offers her the money to do it, but she refuses it. Because Frank is paying rent to Ida, Helen can keep her own wages to save for college.
Helen is going out with Nat again, but they get a fight and she doesn?t want to be friends anymore. Still nothing happens between Frank and Helen. At the end Frank goes to the hospital and let himself circumcise. After the Jewish Easter he becomes a Jew himself.
3. Kopie en argumentatie

I choose these pages from the book, because here appears Frank. Frank is a very important person for the rest of the story. On every page you see the name ?Frank? appear. On these pages he introduces himself to Morris and also to the readers of course.
4. Reading literary works (?Ten Questions?)

1 The title is ?The assistant?. The assistant is Frank Alpine. He helps Morris in the
grocery. That is the first thing you think of, but Frank was also the assistant from Ward Minogue at the robbery.

2 The story is a psychological novel.

3a) - Morris Bober: he is the grocer himself and he is sixty years old. He is not very
strong and he is often ill. He is married to Ida and they have a daughter. He is a
Jew who flee from a concentration camp to the U.S.A. Morris is a kind man
who cares about his family. He works hard.
- Ida Bober: she is married to Morris and she is fifty-one years old. She is a Jew
also. I think she is very old-fashioned, because her daughter has to marry a Jew if she ever gets married. She also takes good care for the family.
- Helen Bober: she is Ida?s and Morris? twenty-three years old daughter and she
has a job. She finished highschool for a time ago and since then she dreamed from going to college.
- Frank Alpine: he is a twenty-five years old Italian man. Together with Ward
Minogue he robbed Morris? grocery. Afterwards he feels guilty and he wants to be the clerk in Morris? store. He is a good salesman. He is in love with Helen. He is a real boy, free and impudent.
- Nick and Tessie Fuso: They live upstairs the grocery. They are very kind and
Frank can live with them in a separate room.

b) Ida and Morris are married. Helen is their daughter. They all live upstairs the grocery.
Frank Alpine is the clerk at the grocery and lives upstairs the grocery too, but not in
the same part as Ida, Morris and Helen.

c) Yes, Helen says not much at the beginning of the story, but later on she talks pretty
much. Frank becomes more important in the story, because he replaces Morris when
he is ill.

4 The theme of the novel is ?love and hate? I guess. First Morris liked Frank, but as he
gets to know what Frank did to him he began to hate Frank a little. Helen liked Frank too, but after he raped her she hated him.

5 The story is set after the Second World War I think. Morris had to flee from a
concentration camp and around that time there were universities and small stories like Morris? store. It?s a guess.

6 The story isn?t divided into several parts.

7 The story is told chronologically, but contains a few flashbacks. Sometimes Morris
dreams about his dead son Ephraim and he thinks about his father?s advice to flee from
the concentration camp. The book has an open ending.


8 The narrator of the story is a 3rd-person. The narrator looks down on the most
important people in the story.
The language used in the book is important, because the reader has to know what the
book is about.

9 The author is Bernard Malamud. I have never heard of him. I know ?the assistant? is a
book from the Blackbirds, but I had another book. In a Blackbirds-book you can look
up the information at the end of the book, but I couldn?t, because I hadn?t a
Blackbird. Otherwise it was very simple, and thus no information about Bernard
Malamud.

10a) I had certain expectations, because my English teacher told a little bit about the story
and that he likes it.
b) I liked the book, but I wasn?t moved or something. It was a nice and not a tough book
to read.
c) The book didn?t teach me something I didn?t know.
d) I think Helen is a strong woman and she wants to do something useful. She wants to
go to college even though they have not enough money. I can?t identify myself with
her or any other person in the story.
e) No events were shocking to me, except for the death of Morris, it came all so sudden.
f) It was totally different from mine, because we don?t have a grocery and we are not
Jews.
g) Yes, I would.
h) No, I don?t.
5. Verwerkingsopdracht

D)

Letter 1

Dear Helen,

You don? t really know me, yet, but I want to know you better. I am a gentleman and I never treated ladies wrong. I have had many relationships, but I never found the right one. I think you are a sweet girl and that?s why I want to know more about you. Do you think we can meet each other sometime without having your mom knowing about our meeting? I hope we can. You know I can see you are a nice girl. I can see it in your steps and in your ayes. I think your hair is beautiful too. Well, I am a little bit sleepy now. I am going to push this letter under the door from your bedroom so your mother doesn?t see it.

Kind regards,

Frank Alpine


Letter 2

Dear Frank,

Thank you for your kind letter.
You are right, I don?t know you yet. I kept distance from you, because you are our clerk. My mother doesn?t like it when I want to be friends with you, because you are the clerk. When I saw you for the first time I didn?t think we would become friends, no really, I am not kidding! You are so different from my family and me. Right now I start to like you and sure we can meet somewhere, but don?t ask me where. Wait a minute? I go to the library twice a week. Wouldn?t it be a great idea if we meet there. No one will know what we are doing. After borrowing a few books we can walk in the park and talk to get to know each other better. Yes, I like that idea, don?t you? Let?s meet on Wednesday and mom will not know anything. You see, my mother doesn?t like the idea that I could possibly marry some man who is not Jewish, so we must meet in secret.

Kind regards,

Helen Bober

Letter 3

Hello my lovely Helen,

Here a short letter from me. I want to say that I had a great time with you at the library. And we should definitely walk a little more often in the park at night. What do you say, shall we meet again on Friday night? You can see you are going to the cinema with some friends and then we can meet again. Please don?t tell your mother about our friendship.
I am looking forward to our next meeting!

Love,

Frank


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