The Assistant door Bernard Malamud

Characters Before the main characters in the book are explained, it is important to know something about the storyline. Morris Bober owns his own shop in New York and is a refugee from World War II, from where he, his wife Ida and his children had to move from Germany because of anti-Semitism. Businesses begin to go bad; especially when his shop is gets robbed one day. One of the robbers however, Frank Alpine, has regrets about this. The next day, Frank returns to the shop, not telling him what he had done and offers him to become his assistant. Morris Bober Morris owns his grocery shop in New York, and has had is since he flew to America from a concentration camp. He is married to Ida and has one daughter, Helen. The whole family is Jewish. Businesses soon begin to go bad, and Morris soon wants to sell his shop and look for another job. Unfortunately however, no one wants to take over his shop, so he is forced to continue working day after day, even though his wife and daughter live in poor circumstances. He is an old but decent man, he knows how to behave, and he never gets mad or starts screaming, plus his shop is everything to him.
Frank Alpine Frank is a young man with a big heart. In the beginning of the book, he tries to search for himself, but he does bad things like robbing Frank’s shop with some of his friends. Later on however, Frank feels guilty about this. He wants to tell Morris everything and apologize for it, but he realises he’ll be sent to prison if he does so. As the story continues, he finds out who he really is. The only way for him to learn who he really is, is by learning from his own mistakes. He steals money from Morris’s shop; sexual harasses Helen, lies and always runs away from his problems. All these things influence him, and finally make him a better person. Helen Helen is Morris’s daughter. She’s Jewish, but it seems to be difficult for her to deal with this. She has had many boyfriends, but no one was good enough for her to settle down with. When she meets Frank she changes; she thinks he is the right man for her. She is loyal to everyone; a good example of this is her willingness to give her father her salary, because the businesses are doing so badly and it needs the money. Ida Ida, Morris’s wife, is a very pessimistic woman. She doesn’t like Frank because in her heart she wants Helen to marry a well-educated Jew. She has a strong influence on Morris, and before Morris hires Frank she helps him a lot in his shop. Story Morris Bober is a refugee from the Second World War. He decides to start a new life in New York, and buys a grocery shop with his wife Ida. His shop is his whole life and tries with all his heart to make it a success, but unfortunately businesses are going bad. But he never complains; even when he tries to sell his store and no one is interested. Soon, problems arise and things get really bad when his shop is robbed by Frank Alpine and Ward Minogue, who steal his last bit of money. However, Morris has no idea who did it. Frank feels guilty about stealing Morris’s money and after a few days returns to Morris’s store and asks to become Morris’s assistant. Morris realises that this is a chance to acquire himself more free time and decides to hire him. Businesses are getting slightly better, and Helen, who paid her salary off to Morris, is told by Frank to keep her salaries to start studying. Helen thinks this is a good idea, and starts saving money. Frank’s salary is poor so he steals money out of Morris’s cashier, but Morris has no idea about Frank doing this. Then, Frank and Helen start seeing each other often and fall in love. Everyone is against their relationship because Helen is Jewish and Frank isn't. Nevertheless, they continue seeing each other, mostly in the library. Frank always wants more than just a casual relationship with kissing, but Helen however does not. Things are changing when one evening Helen is waiting for Frank in the park. All of the sudden, Ward Minogue shows up, and starts bothering and annoying Helen. Helen tries to stop him, but it doesn't make any sense. Ward then tries to rape Helen, but at that same moment Frank shows up. He sends Ward away and comforts Helen, but when she has stopped crying he rapes her instead. Helen is very upset about this and very disappointed with him, and she doesn't want anything to do with him anymore. Finally, Frank decides to tell Morris he played an important role in the robbery, and that he has been stealing money out of the cashier. Morris is both upset and mad, but when a leaking gas tap sets the shop on fire and Frank saves everyone Morris decides to forgive him. After the fire, Frank helps Morris to rebuild his shop, and they become good friends again. Everything appears to have a happy ending, but unfortunately Morris dies a couple of weeks later in hospital. As a result, Frank changes his life and becomes Jewish for Helen. Unfortunately however, Helen couldn’t forgive him for raping her, so nothing happens between them. Analysis The title of the book can be easily explained by two main events in the book. Firstly Frank is hired as Morris's 'Assistant' and secondly Frank plays the role of Ward's 'assistant' during the robbery. The theme of the book is anti-Semitism, which I think is very well explained within the content. Mainly because Frank is anti-Semitism. Nonetheless later on in the book his feelings change and he then becomes philo-Semitism, because he realises that boycotting and robbing Jews are bad things. The book is originally written to entertain you, but the writer also wants to explain how anti-Semitism is a bad thing. What he wants to show is his opinion about it, and I think that he does it in a good way, by writing this book about it. This story is told in third person. Most of the time you are reading Morris’s thoughts: ‘….., Morris thought’. The author is standing outside of the story, he only observes, but does not explain everything. Through the resource of the internet I learnt that this is called the ‘Eye of God-technique', he watches the story like God, but is nothing more than ‘audience’. There are several images used in this book. And as I have already explained, the word ‘assistant’ has a deeper meaning. Frank is also Ward’s assistant during the robbery. Neither Onomatopoeia nor metaphors are used very often in this book. The story is told in a chronological order, with no flashbacks.
My opinion Before I started reading, I thought that this book wouldn’t be very interesting. However, once I had started reading it, I couldn’t stop, and I soon finished it, reading it all in just one evening. The text on the back of the book wasn’t as easy to read, and I thought that the theme ‘anti-Semitism’ wouldn't be explained well. During my History class, we have spoken about this subject, and it proved to be a subject that I really enjoyed. Overall, I liked reading this book very much, so I’d therefore recommend this book to anyone who is interested in World War II.