Page 19 - Point 5 Literature Program Option 1 Teachers Guide (2) (1)

A SUMMER’S READING
Bernard malamud

Student’s Coursebook, page 14

HOTS taught: Inferring, Problem solving
HOTS spiraled: Distinguishing different perspectives
Literary Terms taught: Protagonist, Antagonist, Character, Hero

Background Information

Biography
Bernard malamud (1914–1986) grew up in a Jewish immigrant family in Brooklyn, new
York, during the great depression of the 1930s. His father’s business failed and his mother
died when he was 15. He worked at odd jobs to pay for his studies and started to publish short
stories in magazines while he worked as a night school teacher. A Summer’s Reading appeared
first in the New Yorker and later in malamud’s first short story collection, The Magic Barrel, in
1958. His characters struggle in a foreign world but despite their loneliness and suffering, they
strive for a better life and never lose hope.

Cultural issues and relevant vocabulary
th
• The early part of the 20 century was a period of mass immigration from europe to the east coast
of America. There were many options for people to acquire the education they needed to advance.
in addition to regular school, one could register for summer school (line 5) and night school
(line 6) classes.
• IRT (line 49) stands for Inter-borough Rapid Transit – the train system for New York City.
Passengers needed to have the right coins (change) to buy a ride on the train. Those who
didn’t would go to the person who ‘made change’ (gave you the right coins for your bills).
This person was called the change maker, and this was Mr. Cattanzara’s very boring job.
We may suppose that Malamud purposely assigned Mr. Cattanzara this job to enable the
metaphor of his role in george’s life.

• Different newspapers are mentioned in the story. The News and the Mirror (line 21) were
daily papers mostly read by the working classes. The New York Times (line 51), which is read
by Mr. Cattanzara, was more sophisticated and was read by more intelligent and educated
people. The fact that Mr. Cattanzara reads it from cover to cover every day is a hint to the
reader that even if he lacks formal education he is intelligent and perhaps could have achieved
more in his life under different circumstances.

General Interpretation
Part I
In a short story, the author has to ‘give us the picture’ very quickly. Here, in the first paragraph
we are given key information about george’s conflict and his character. He is ashamed about not
having completed his education, but has plenty of excuses why he did not use any of the options
he had to do so. While these excuses show him to be somewhat childish and passive, it is very

A summer’s reAding 19