A Summer's Reading / Bernard Malamud
George's goal is to attain the American Dream. He wants a good job, a nice house and enough money to buy things. He also wants a girlfriend, so he won't be so lonely, and people to like and respect him.
To reach his goals, George must first of all overcome his impulsiveness and lack of motivation. He quit school at 16 on impulse, he cleans the flat when he feels like it and he tells Mr. Cattanzara a lie on the spur of the moment so that he will respect him. In order to improve his life, he has to get an education, but he does not have the motivation necessary to do so.
George must also break away from his environment. His family is poor and he lives in an immigrant neighborhood where the residents are simple and uneducated. This is the norm. Therefore, he is under no social pressure to better himself.
Mr. Cattanzara's job is to give change in a ticket booth of a subway station. He is a change maker on the literal level because he gives people change for their tickets, but his is also a change maker on the symbolic level because he makes a change in George's life. The name "Cattanzara" means "chained". Mr. Cattanzara is chained to his life and cannot change it, but he can bring about change in George Stoyonovich's life. "Stoyonovich" means "staying in place". George is not moving, but he is not yet chained. There is still hope for him.
Mr. Cattanzara is an intellectual person as he reads the New York Times from cover to cover. He sees himself in George – a potential that is wasted, and wants George to improve his life and get an education. He acts like a father figure to George, as George's own father is inconsequential in George's life (there is no interaction between George and his father). George remembers Mr. Cattanzara being kind to him when he was a child (giving him money to buy lemon ice) and he is kind to him now, interested in what he is doing.
Comparison between George and Mr. Cattanzara
Both George and Mr. Cattanzara are underachievers – George doesn't have a job and Mr. Cattanzara only works as a change maker in a subway station while intellectually he could probably have achieved much more. Reading interests them both, but Mr. C. reads the New York Times and George only reads old material and dreams about reading more and getting an education. Both use escape methods – Mr. C. drinks to escape the world while George locks himself in his room.
Mr. Cattanzara has the benefit of experience. He can see that he has wasted his potential and does not want George to make the same mistake. He therefore has foresight and understands what will happen to George in the future. George, on the other hand, has difficulty seeing the long-term effects of his decisions (or non-decisions).
The lie
George lies to himself from the beginning. He always finds excuses why he doesn't do things (the teachers didn't respect him, he doesn't like people telling him what to do). However, the lie that George tells Mr. Cattanzara is the lie that has a major effect on his life. In the short term, the lie makes George feel that people respect him more, including Sophie, who gives him a dollar a week. George is in a good mood and enjoys life more, but after a while he begins to feel uneasy, worrying that his lie will be discovered. When the lie is discovered, George ends up feeling that he has lost Mr. Cattanzara's respect.
In the long term, the lie, or actually, the discovery of the lie acts as a catalyst. After staying in his room for a week, George can't stand it any longer. He goes to the library, takes out books and sits down to read. We can infer from this that it is possible that George is finally beginning his education and will ultimately achieve his dream. George's actions at the end of the story resemble a caterpillar in a cocoon (George's room) which finally emerges as a butterfly. Is this change lasting? We don't know. It's an open ending.
The title
In the summer, George does not read at all. The change occurs only in the fall. So why is the title of the story called SUMMER'S reading? Possible answer – reading also means understanding. The author may have given this title to show that in the summer, George understood his situation, while in the fall, he acted upon this understanding. Another possibility: summer is a time when the fruit ripens so that in the fall it can be harvested. Similarly, George matured (ripened) in the summer and was ready to harvest, begin his education, in the fall.
Adapted from Eric Cohen's teachers guide