it is a source for the short story The First Seven Years by Bernand MALAMUD.

1. (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986)

2. • born in Brooklyn, New York,
• fond of Charlie Chaplin's comedies.
• attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, from 1928 to
1932 .
• obtained a master's degree from Columbia University, writing a
thesis on Thomas Hardy in 1942.

4. • worked in factories in Washington during the Depression.
• began writing short stories in the 1940s .
• In 1956, Malamud traveled in Europe and later he used some
of his observations there for short stories.
• In 1959, The Magic Barrel , the National Book Award

5. • in 1942, Malamud met Ann De Chiaraan . They married on
November 1945 despite the opposition of their respective
parents.
• Ann typed his manuscripts and reviewed his writing. Ann and
Bernard had two children, Paul and Janna
• Malamud died in Manhattan in 1986, at the age of 71.

7. • wrote slowly and carefully; not especially prolific.
• the author of eight novels and three collections of short stories.
• The Natural (1952)
• The Assistant (1957)
• The Fixer (1967)
• Malamud is also renowned for his short stories.

8. • The Magic Barrel is a collection
of thirteen short stories written by
Bernard Malamud and published
in 1958.

9. • "The First Seven Years"
• "The Mourners]"
• "The Girl of My Dreams"
• "Angel Levine"
• "Behold the Key"
• "Take Pity"
• "The Prison"
• "The Lady of the Lake"
• "A Summer's Reading"
• "The Bill"
• "The Last Mohican"
• "The Loan"
• "The Magic Barrel"

10. • the search for hope and meaning
• mythic elements , isolation, class, and the conflict
• aware of the social problems of his day: rootlessness, infidelity,
abuse, divorce, and more
• also depicted love .
• moral dilemmas and crises of growth.
• realism and symbolism, as well as tragedy and comedy.

11. BERNARD MALAMUD

16. What do you think the story is about?
Do you like winter?
How do you feel in cold weather and hazy atmosphere?
How do you feel when you love someone?
Do you associate with love and sadness or love and
happiness?

17. • Polish village
• Feld’s Home
• Shoemaker store
• Sobel’s home
• Street
• Subway
• Office
• Bedroom&kitchen
• She is 19
• Sobel is 35.
• Working at shoemaker
store for 5 years, and
• Feld wants Sobel to
wait Mirriam two more
years.
• February
• Winter

18. • Haze of February snow.
• Icy night
• The shifting blur white outside
• Partly frosted window

19. • Exposition: Feld, the shoemaker, was annoyed that his
helper, Sobel, was so insensitive to his reverie.
• Rising action:the shoemaker quickly told Max why he had
asked to talk to him.
• Climax: Sobel said to Feld that ‘so why you look for strange
boys in the street they should go out with Miriam? Why you
don’t think of me?
Falling action : ‘She is only nineteen,’ Feld said brokenly.
‘This is too young yet to get married. Don’t ask her for two years
more, till she is twenty-one, then you can talk to her.’
Resolution: when the shoemaker arrived, heavy-hearted, to
open the store, he saw he needn’t have come, for his assistant
was already seated at the last, pounding leather for his love.

20. • EXPOSITION
• Exposes the setting - snowy polish village -february
• Exposes the characters 1.feld, the shoemaker
• 2.Sobel, his helper
• 3.Max, the college boy
• 4.Mirriam, Feld’s daughter
• RISING ACTION:
• Feld talks to Max about Mirriam.
• Sobel storms out of the shop.
• Mirriam does not enjoy Max’s company while on their
dates.
• The new assistant steals from Feld.
• Feld has a mild heart attack.

21. • CLIMAX:
• Feld seeks Sobel to return to work.
• FALLING ACTION:
• Feld finds out that Sobel is in love with Mirriam and that is the
only reason he has worked for him for as long as he did.
• RESOLUTION:
• Feld agrees to allow Sobel to marry Mirrriam.
• He just has to wait two more years to propose.
• Sobel goes back to mork for as Feld’s assistant.

22. • Why do you think the father wanted to get his
daughter marry Max?
• What is the significance of love in the story?
• Why has the story a title like that?
• Why Miriam’s father wanted Sobel to wait 2 more
years for Miriam? (till she is 21)
• Does Miriam love Sobel?

23. • The title of the story, which is an allusion to the Biblical
story of how Jacob labored in the service of Labon for 7
years to win the hand of Rachel whom he loved.

25. • Miriam :
• Independent
• Smart
• 19years old
• Pretty
• Soft hair and open face
• Chooses to work rather
than attending colloge
• Loves to read & discuss
literature
• Sensible

26. • FELD
• Polish
immigrant
• Shoemaker
• Insensitive
• Practical man
• Had an heart
attack

27. • Sobel:
• 35 years old
• Bald
• Loves to read books
• Feld’s helper
• Polish refugee
• Stocky man
• Has a plain face
• Has soft blue eyes

28. Max:
• Tall and thin
• Has a beak-like
nose
• Young
• Educated
• College boy
• Materialist

29. • Mirriam&Feld
• Mirriam&Max
• Sobel& Feld
• Younger&older
• Educated&uneducated( formal-informal education)
1.Feld wants Max and Mirriam to marry each other.
2.Sobel wants to marry Miriam.
3.Mirriam wants her independence.
• What blocks their wants;
1.Feld does not want Mirriam to Marry Sobel.
2.Max and Mirriam do not like each other.

30. • though Feld frequently asked himself what keeps Sobel here?
Why does he stay? He finally answered it that the man, no
doubt because of his terrible experiences as a refugee, was
afraid of the world.
• he went finally in search of Sobel, as he had once before/he
decided not to insist on seeing him. Instead he went home and
hired a new helper
•
• Sobel, you are crazy,’ he said bitterly. ‘She will never marry a
man so old and ugly like you/Ugly I didn’t mean,’ he said half
aloud.
• Feld who had looked forward to anticipating how ıt would go
with his daughter and Max,instead had a great worry on his
mind

31. • Book in the hand of Mirriam : the importance
of education
• Worn Leather wallet: poverty
• Rather than education and having a job :
independence

32. • the sudden deep remembrance of snowy Polish village
where he had wasted his youth could turn his thoughts
from Max the college boy whom he so much respected
because of the sacrifices he had made throughout the
years to further his education
• Five years ago, after an attack, it had appeared as
though he would have either to sacrifice his business
upon the auction block and live on a pittance thereafter,
or put himself at the mercy of some unscrupulous
employee who would in the end probably ruin him. But
just at the moment of his darkest despair, this Polish
refugee, Sobel, appeared one night from the street and
begged for work

33. • After the incident with the broken last, angered by
Sobel’s behavior, the shoemaker decided to let him stew
for a week in the rooming house, although his own
strength was taxed dangerously and the business
suffered

34. • Decision making
• Formal & informal education
• Appereance &reality
• Wealth & Happiness
• Material & spiritual
• Love

35. • Third person limited

36. • When Feld had sufficiently recovered from his
anguished disappointment to ask why, she answered
without hesitation, ‘Because he’s nothing more than a
materialist.’
• ‘What means this word?’
• ‘He has no soul. He’s only interested in things.’
• He considered her statement for a long time but then
asked, ‘Will you see him again?’
• ‘He didn’t ask.’
• ‘Suppose he will ask you?’
• ‘I won’t see him.’

37. • Sobel, why you read so much? And the
assistant could not answer him. Did you
ever study in a college someplace? He had
asked, but Sobel shook his head. He read,
he said, to know. But to know what, the
shoemaker demanded, and to know, why?
Sobel never explained, which proved he
read much because he was queer.

38. • How strange and sad that a refugee, a
grown man, bald and old with his miseries,
who had by the skin of his teeth escaped
Hitler’s incinerators, should fall in love,
when he had got to America, with a girl
less than half his age.

39. ‘So why you look for strange boys in the street they
should go out with Miriam? Why you don’t think of me?’
said Sobel.
‘So what has my daughter got to do with a
shoemaker thirty-five years old who works for me?’
‘Why do you think I worked so long for you?’ Sobel
cried out. ‘For the stingy wages I sacrificed five years of my
life so you could have to eat and drink and where to sleep?’
‘Then for what?’ shouted the shoemaker.
‘For Miriam,’ he blurted – ‘for her.’

40. • What do you think about the end of the story?
• Will Feld allow Sobel to wed Miriam?
• Can Feld put his daughter's feelings above what he thinks is appropriate for her?
• Can Feld learn to see in Sobel what Miriam sees in him?
• What is being wise and literate for you? Does Being graduated from higher
school means that you are wise or sophisticated?
• What is the importance of Sobel in Frank’s life?
• What do you think of relationship between Feld and Mirriam?

41. • Write down the similar story if there are similar love
stories in your culture.
• Write down what you would do in Sobel situation.
• Write down your own ending.

42. THANKS FOR YOUR
ATTENTION
