Herman Kreder
The tailor's son Lena is married to — twenty-eight, obedient to his parents his whole life, and desperate not to have a woman anywhere near him.
To be left alone to work, and later, once there is a child on the way, to be a father. Fatherhood is the only thing in his life he ever wants strongly enough to make a struggle over.
The book
At a glance
- Tailor in Bridgepoint, working for his father; Lena Mainz's husband
- Twenty-eight at the wedding
- Two old parents whose thrift the book describes at length: a cold, close, unwashed house kept that way to save, and later Lena, and later three children
- None of his own — he had always worked for his father, who had never thought to pay him
- Going out of an evening with other men, for a little beer, with no women present
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeHerman Kreder is the man Lena Mainz is married to in the third story. He is twenty-eight, a tailor working for his father, the only child still living at home, and he has never in his life stopped being told what to do by his parents. He is quiet, sullen and gentle. He likes going out on a Saturday night for a beer with other men, and he does not want a woman anywhere near him.
He is informed that he is getting married and answers with a grunt. Three days before the wedding he goes to New York without telling anyone. His father comes and fetches him back.
How the book draws them
- The obedienceHe has done everything his parents wanted since he was a boy, and the story is careful to say he does not love them much. He obeys because he cannot stand a struggle, and because it is easier not to hear things.
- Running awayThree days before the wedding he goes to his married sister in New York and sends no word. When the wedding day comes, nobody has heard from him and it has to be put off a week.
- His father's argumentOld Mr. Kreder coaxes him for days: a promise is a bargain the same as in business, the girl has everything ready, his mother is hurt, all this travelling costs money, and all Herman has to do is stand up for an hour and then it will be over for him.
- His sister's argumentShe laughs at him for being a grown man frightened of women, tells him marriage will make him stand up for himself, says she would be ashamed of a brother with no more spirit than that, packs his things, and kisses him.
- Standing up to his motherOnce married, he starts telling his mother to leave Lena alone while she is unwell. It is the first fight he has ever picked with anyone. He wins enough of it to get a house next door for his own family.
- The childrenThey are the one strong feeling the book gives him. He dresses them, feeds them, teaches them, puts them to bed, and eventually moves his work into his own house so they are always in the room with him.
Herman gets the only thing he ever asked for. Lena dies having their fourth child, and the baby dies too. He is left alone with three children, does all his own housework, works from home so they are always with him, and the book's final sentence has him living very regular and peaceful, every day just like the next, very well content. It is the coldest ending in the book, and Stein hands it over without a word of comment.