The Assistant characters

Appears from the start

An aging Jewish grocer in Brooklyn whose small shop barely supports his wife and daughter. Morris is habitually honest and generous even when generosity worsens his own hardship. After two masked men rob and injure him, he struggles to keep working and to preserve a sense of decency amid debt and disappointment.

Appears from the start

Morris's practical, anxious wife, who keeps close watch on the grocery's poor receipts and fears that the failing business will also limit their daughter's future. Her sharpness is rooted in years of insecurity and work beside her husband.

Appears from the start

Morris and Ida's adult daughter, a serious young woman frustrated by the family's poverty. She works to contribute at home, reads widely, and hopes for an education and an independent life beyond the grocery. Her parents' expectations and her own judgment do not always point toward the same future.

First appears in chapter 2

A young Italian American drifter who begins lingering near the Bobers' store after the robbery. He says he needs work and admires Morris's stubborn goodness. Eager to improve himself but secretive about his past, he offers help at a moment when the injured grocer cannot manage alone.

First appears in chapter 2

A local young man with a history of delinquency and a bitter relationship with his father, a former police detective. Ward's resentment and volatility make him a threatening presence around Frank and the Bobers.

First appears in chapter 2

Ward's father, a former detective who has repeatedly tried and failed to restrain his son. He knows the neighborhood and remains alert to Ward's involvement in crime.

Appears from the start

The owner of a nearby liquor store and one of Morris's neighbors. More commercially successful than the Bobers, Karp watches local business closely and thinks in practical terms about property, competition, and his family's prospects.

First appears in chapter 3

Julius Karp's son, whom the older generation regards as a financially secure possible match for Helen. His advantages do not give Helen the intellectual or emotional connection she wants.

First appears in chapter 3

A law student from the neighborhood whom Helen has dated. Nat is educated and ambitious, qualities she values, but his conventional plans and his view of her family complicate their relationship.

Appears from the start

Nat's father, a neighboring shopkeeper and familiar figure in Morris's small commercial world. He takes a more buoyant view of business and of his son's prospects than Morris can take of his own.