"THE ASSISTANT" MALAMUD (end of 3rd chapter)
The scene that we are going to study appears at the end of the third chapter: after having had an argument with
Ward Minogue, Frank Alpin comes back to the grocery. Here he look secretly at Helen in the bathroom and manages
to see her naked. Earlier in the same chapter the readers learnt that the sympathetic Frank Alpine who helps
Morris Bober is also a thief and responsible for the robbery of Morris at the beginning of the novel.
Frank Alpine is almost the main character of the novel, as he is "the assistant", and the conflict of his changing mind
is among the main conflicts of the novel.
How does this passage gives the readers the whole complexity of Frank Alpine's personality?
To begin we'll see to what extent is Frank Alpine a complex and tortured character, then, in a second part, we'll
see how did Malamud manage to make Frank Alpine sympathetic to the readers.
Throughout the novel Frank Alpine is torn between the man......
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Approximate Word Count: 1104
Approximate Pages: 5 (260 words per double-spaced page) |