Another identity that is offered, so to speak, to Neil, is that of an employee in
Mr. Patimkin's firm, where Ron already works. Mr. Patimkin suggests to Neil that
he, too, would be able to learn the business, but Neil recognizes that he is unsuited
for such a life. He is not robust enough for the work, but, on the other hand, he
is attracted to the neighborhood where the company is located, the black section
of Newark that once was peopled by immigrant Jews of his grandparents' generation.
There is an authenticity and vitality in life as it was and is lived in these
neighborhoods, and their pungent smells suggest it. The ways of the Jews of old
as well as the blacks of the present are chaotic and povertyridden, yet more suited
to real human needs than the middle-class way of life that is replacing it. The old
blacks, for example, are not segregated from the community, but are placed in
"screenless windows" (p. 64) where they can watch the throbbing life in the streets.
Here, in spite of many problems, there is a freedom and zest for life that Neil
appreciates and will not entirely give up struggling for in his own existence either.
In a sense, the impossible Tahiti of his dreams is closer to him here than anywhere
else, and at the end of the story he returns to the scenes of his childhood.