In the Patimkin case, family is torn apart by a deliberate preference for distancing oneself from a successful counterpart, manifested as one brother who has the right to assimilate via his line of work (defined and classified by his social status) and one who detests a relation to that which overlooks blue-collar pride. Mr. Patimkin, Leo’s half-brother, is the sum of what the fluorescent bulb represents to Leo’s profession: a deliberate decision to eject the old before its function is used up (found in the utility bulb’s disappearance from the market and Leo’s inability or refusal to assimilate to the suburbs) and keep the other for its/his representation of modernity and assimilation.