The Magic Barrel

As with “A Summer’s Reading,” this story also focuses on a broken promise, but this time the stakes are much higher. Reflecting the recurring theme of Empathy and Human Solidarity, the action of “The Bill” radiates from a spontaneous act of kindness and faith as Panessa generously agrees to give almost unlimited credit to the janitor, Willy Schlegel. For a more experienced grocer, Willy’s poverty and rambling spiels of grievance would immediately mark the man as a serious credit risk. Panessa, however, sees only a man in need and considers the gift of credit to be part of the human contract, saying, “If you were really a human being you gave credit to somebody else and he gave credit to you” (146-47). This is a revelation to Willy, whose brutal life in the ash-heaped neighborhood where he works has never known much generosity or reciprocity, and he cannot resist taking advantage.

Soon the miracle of “credit” becomes an addiction, and Willy never pays another cent to the Panessas, even when he has the money to do so. Like a beggar in a fairytale who stumbles across a magical bottomless sack, he gives little thought to the source of this largess or to its possible damage to the struggling grocers. To him, the Panessas are property owners: people with whom he has never felt much in common. Likewise, his reaction to their gentle reminders to pay characterize him as the equivalent of a child caught with his hand in a cookie jar, for rather than honoring the agreement, he peevishly ending his shopping with them, leaving his debt unpaid. His irrational anger against the Panessas is significant, for it reflects his unaddressed guilt and his attempt to internally exonerate himself by lumping the poor couple in with his boss, another property owner whom he believes to be far too demanding. Willy’s wife, who welcomed the Panessas to the neighborhood and has long been sensitive to their plight, soon becomes complicit in her husband’s breach of promise, essentially letting herself be bribed by Willy’s gift of a dress. This interaction also proves that Willy is ironically the sort who throws money at his problems, which, with the Panessas’ credit, now feeds a vicious circle.

Although Willy’s resentment over his unpayable debt soon breeds violent fantasies about the frail couple, Malamud once again uses the recurring literary device of an epiphanic vision to effect the character’s belated attempt at redemption, for Willy sees the starving Panessas in their cage-like store and envisions them as mangy, wasted birds, like omens of death from a fairytale. This vision revives some of his humanity and pity for the couple, and as is often the case in Malamud’s stories, this inner change is outwardly reflected in symbolic form as well. Thus, Willy grows a “surprising” mustache and alters his style of clothing. However, he lacks the mental resources to make much of his new insight, for although he throws himself into work with a penitential fervor, these efforts go nowhere and bring in no additional funds to pay down the bill. It is also notable that when things become truly desperate and Mrs. Panessa begs for 10 dollars to save her husband’s life, Willy hides in the cellar just like George Stoyonovich hides in his room in “A Summer’s Reading.” However, although George is able to reverse his poor decisions by going to the library for his 100 books, Willy’s last-minute trip to the pawn shop comes too late to save Panessa’s life. Yet there are no villains in “The Bill.” Instead, there are only ordinary people who, with the most human of intentions, nonetheless manage to heap suffering on each other. The Panessas’ touching faith in Willy and in humanity therefore exemplifies Malamud’s ideal of the human bond; but in the soot-blackened ruins of human life, the soul upon whom such kindness is bestowed may be too harried and stunted to respond honorably.