John can’t face who he truly is. He says: “ Grace’s father was a smooth, confident manner of a man who had lived all his life among people who were rich and sure of themselves.” He is far too jealous of Grace’s family and he desires to have something else, something different from what he had before. He wants a rich and a powerful family. John’s father notices the son’s uneasiness from his presence. As a loving parent he swallows his pride and shadows out of existence with a meditative expression on his face. A picture is better than a thousand words; a second that crossed the eyes of a father and the son writes volumes on disappointments and forgiveness: “As his father’s blue, calm eyes stared steadily over the glasses, there was an instant when their glasses have met.” In the case of the snob, a son who doesn’t want to recognize his father, a loving, gentle and intellectual man that speaks and projects his thoughts just with a look, louder than shouting match. John is a snob. He struggles because of that and greatly comprehends the situation: “John’s shame grew, and then humiliation sickened him as he waited and did nothing.” He is willing to give up his father for a new style based only on class and money. Conflict between John and his father ends in a final “good bye”. John Harcourt jr. was too young to know better or either too stupid to want to know and understand!
John Harcourt jr. puts his blame on the other character, Grace. He accuses her of being a “snob” (a person that believes to be above the rest), but the reality shows an intelligent, carrying human being, who is really interested in John’s feelings and fears. “ What makes you so impatient? There is nothing but old books on that counter.” Grace seemed to have known the relationship between John and his father and she was probably more than welcome and happy to meet his father, because she insisted on staying in the bookstore, in the line up close to John’s father and refusing to except any excuses for Harcourt junior to leave the place. The uneasiness of John picks up Grace’s curiosity and interests, she tries hard to figure out what makes him uncomfortable. She gets upset only when she fails to understand John’s problems and pathetic accusations. Against all insinuations Grace gives up and says: “I think I better leave you right here.” It’s only that, John has the fear of loosing her and that is why he posses himself on his knees and begs her to stay. John is much more of a snob than Grace is. John continuously brings up the subject and fights with Grace about social status. John is the one who is ashamed of the way his father dresses and the ultimate insult is when he sees his father at the bookstore and ignores him completely. “Why does he dress as he never owned a descent suit in his life?” John is doing all the talking through the story, while Grace says only one word back at him. Although he betrays his father and chooses the path that he wants to be on, at the end, he still feels “wretched” and wondering about his father walking without his head turning.