The Boss by Dan Jacobson - Short Story

Analysis
1. Authors Biography
Dan Jacobson was born on 7 March 1929 in Johannesburg, South Africa,
and was educated at Kimberley Boys' High School and the University of
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. After the publication of his first two novels, The
Trap (1955) and A Dance in the Sun (1956), he was awarded a one-year
Creative Writing Fellowship at Stanford University (1956-7). From 1965-6 he
was Visiting Professor at Syracuse University, New York, and he was Reader in
English at University College London between 1979 and 1986, and Professor of
English until 1994 (Professor Emeritus since 1994).
A Long Way from London, a collection of short stories published in 1958,
won the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and his collection Time of
Arrival and Other Essays (1963) won a Somerset Maugham Award. His novels
include The Evidence of Love (1960), The Beginners (1966), The Rape of Tamar
(1970), The Confessions of Joseph Baisz (1977), which won the Jewish Quarterly
Literary Prize for Fiction, Hidden in the Heart (1991), and The God-Fearer
(1992).
His volume of autobiography, Time and Time Again: Autobiographies
(1985), won the J. R. Ackerley Prize. His books, The Electronic Elephant: A
Southern African Journey (1994) and Heshel's Kingdom (1998), are eclectic in
form, combining public history, private memoir and accounts of journeys made
in southern Africa and Lithuania respectively.
Dan Jacobson lives in London. His most recent book is All for Love (2005).

Critical Perspective
Author Dan Jacobson used his experiences as a child growing up in
South Africa to mold his writings about human nature.
Even when Jacobson has spent most of his adult life in the UK, he
grew up in South Africa, where his parents families had come to avoid the
persecution of Jews in their European homelands.
His father, Hymann Michael Jacobson, was born in Latvia, in 1885. His
mother, Liebe (Melamed) Jacobson, was born in Lithuania, in 1896.
Jacobson had two older brothers, Israel Joshua and Hirsch Jacob, and a
young sister, Aviva. His mothers family immigrated to South Africa in
1919, after the death of his grandfather. His grandfather, Heshel Melamed,

was a rabbi, and refused to leave Lithuania after travelling to the United
States and finding that many Jews were not following their religion.
Jacobson later wrote about his travels back to Lithuania to find out more
information about his grandfather.

Bibliography
2005 All for Love, Hamish Hamilton
2000 Mouthful of Glass by Henk Van Woerden, translator, Granta
1998 Heshel's Kingdon, Hamish Hamilton
1994 The Electronic Elephant: A Southern African Journey, Hamish
Hamilton
1992 The God-Fearer, Bloomsbury
1991 Hidden in the Heart, Bloomsbury
1988 Adult Pleasures: Essays on Writers and Readers, Andr Deutsch
1987 Her Story, Andr Deutsch
1985 Time and Time Again: Autobiographies, Andr Deutsch
1982 The Story of Stories: The Chosen People and Its God, Secker &
Warburg
1977 The Confessions of Josef Baisz, Secker & Warburg
1973 The Wonder-Worker, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1973 Inklings: Selected Stories, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1970 The Rape of Tamar, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1970 Penguin Modern Stories 6, contributor, Penguin
1966 The Beginners, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1964 Beggar My Neighbour: Short Stories, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1963 Time of Arrival and Other Essays, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1960 The Evidence of Love, Weidenfeld & Nicolson

1959 The Zulu and the Zeide, Weidenfeld & Nicolson

1959 No Further West: California Visited, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1958 The Price of Diamonds, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1958 A Long Way from London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1956 A Dance in the Sun, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1955 The Trap, Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Awards
1986
Society of Authors Fellowship
1986
Mary Elinore Smith Poetry Prize
1986
J. R. Ackerley Prize, Time and Time Again: Autobiographies
1977
Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize for Fiction, The Confessions of Josef
Baisz
1964
Somerset Maugham Award, Time of Arrival and Other Essays
1959
Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, A Long Way from London

2. Importance and relevance of the title

The Boss is the perfect title for this story. It summarizes the content of
the narration, and describes with a metaphor the different points of views
which the different generations have: it shows what they think it means being
the boss.

3. Synopsis of the story (Plot)

The story starts off with a conversation between Mr Kramer and Miss
Posen, a lady who has worked in his factory for 15 years. Mr Kramer is
intending to hand his Butter factory over to his own son Lionel, as he is retiring.
Even when Miss Posen knows Lionel well enough -because he almost grew up in
the factory-, she insists of not facing that it will be the new boss in the office.
On the other hand, instead of being nervous because of his new
responsibilities, Lionel is overwhelmed by his confidence in controlling the
factory. He determinedly wants to prove that he will be as prolific as his father,
who has risen to the position of a boss entirely through his own hard work.
In the firm, everybody used to call Lionel by his name; but now that he has
a position of authority, they call him Mr Lionel, except for Miss Posen who
continues calling him by his name. Lionel is very frustrated by her attitude and
complains again and again to his father.
However, all his complaints are in vain: Mr Kramer always leaves the
decision to Lionel himself. Mr Kramer aspires for his son to become a capable
leader who can cope with any situation, but he cannot see his son is still so
young for this and depends on his father to solve the problem for him.
And each time Lionel warns her, Miss Posen just ignores his requests and
continues to provoke him. Lionel feels that his position is threatened and he is
afraid that he would not get the respect he should get. He cannot tolerate any
kind of disrespect against him.
So, one day, Lionel can no longer control the anger within him and starts to
spy Miss Posen. He ransacks Miss Posens bag when she is not around, taking
notes of what is inside the bag: different elements that she has taken from the

stationery-cabinet. Then, he promises himself she will be punished for being a

thief and she will learn who is the real boss in the firm.
The situation reaches his climax when Lionel says Miss Posen what he has
found out. Then, he tells this to his father. Mr Kramer has to choose between
Miss Posen and his son. And he does. With pain in his heart, he asks Miss Posen
to leave the factory, and promises her that he will find another position in some
other firm for her.
Finally, Mr Kramer tells Lionel what he feels: things are done the way Lionel
wanted, but Miss Posen, that poor girl, will remember these things all her life.
These words make Lionel feels guilty for using such underhand methods. And
he is able to see the fallacies in his rashness and learn that his own solution to
the problem may be morally erroneous.

4. The subject matter

Difficulties of a young man in being the next boss of his fathers factory,
caused for an old employees resistance.

5. The theme
The story is about the generational conflict between the old and young
people in a factory. Miss Posen and Mr Kramer represent the old generation,
and Lionel is the young one in the firm.
While Mr Kramer has accepted the fact that he is going to retire and leave
Lionel in his position, Miss Posen freely disapproves this decision. She has
worked for Mr Kramer for many years so she cannot adapt to a new boss,
especially one who is younger than her. And this situation leads to a conflict
between Lionel and Miss Posen.
On the other hand, Mr Kramer is able to understand that Miss Posen is
reasonably upset by having a younger boss; and being both of the older
generation in the workplace, there is a bond between them that is not possible
with the younger workers.
And, obviously, everyone acts according their own experience in life.
********
Mr Kramer: We are all different, arent we, Lily, now that the younger
generation has come to take our place?
Lionel: Shes old and finished and shes got it against me because Im
young and on top of her.
Lily: Youre a dirty little boy! You should be ashamed of yourself.

6. Structure of the story

Exposition. The characters are introduced during a conversation among
Mr Kramer (the owner of a factory), Miss Posen (the secretary) and Lionel (Mr
Kramers son), while he is telling her his son will be the next boss in the firm.
Rising action. Miss Posen does not easily accept the new situation, so
she disrespects Lionel, daring his position; even when he asks her not doing
that repeatedly. Tired of Miss Posens bad behaviour, Lionel decides to find
evidence that can oust her from the company. So, he ransacks her bag and
finds that she has been stealing some things from the stationery-cabinet.
Climax. One day, Lionel says Miss Posen what he has found out and
makes terrible accusations against her.
Falling action. Lionel tells his father what has happened and that Miss
Posen has to go. Mr Kramer asks Miss Posen to leave the factory and promise
her a new position in another firm.
Resolution. Mr Kramer talks to his son and shows him that he has acted
in a wrong way with Miss Posen (Didnt I throw that poor girl out after fifteen
years, push her out like she was nothing to me, because you told me to?).
Finally, Lionel realizes that he has probably made a mistake by acting that way.

7. The setting (Place and time)

Place. The story takes place in South Africa, in a butter factory, especially
in the secretarys office and in the boss office.
Time. The story occurs, probably, in summer, during the school holidays.
Lionel has already finished the secondary school and, while his friends will go
to university, he wants to work at the factory.

8. Sketch of the main characters

Mr Kramer. It is the owner of a butter factory. He has come to South Africa
as an immigrant boy and becomes entirely through his own efforts the
manager of the factory. He is old and a real hard-working man. Now, he is
retiring from this position and preparing his son to take his place.
Miss Lily Posen. She is Jewish and over forty years old. She is plain, dull,
heavily built and bespectacled. She wears glasses and, usually, blue dresses
and blue jumpers. She is not married. She has worked at Mr Kramers butter
factory for fifteen years; so, she can do any work she is asked to do: typing,

sending out accounts and farmers cheques, supervising the work of the other
girls, a certain amount of bookkeeping. And she presumes on the fact she is
the oldest employee in the firm. Miss Posen is loyal to Mr Kramer, thus she
does not accept Lionels coming, resulting in the tension with the boy.
Lionel Kramer. He is Mr Kramers son. He is tall, tanned, with a lean face
and large brown eyes. He seems to be self-confident, but when he cannot solve
a problem, he asks his father for help. He is eighteen and does not want to go
to the university; instead, he has decided to work in the factory.
Others characters: Betty, the girl who brings the tea to Mr Kramer and
his son; the white employees (in contrast with Miss Posen who is Jewish).

9. Point of view
The point of view is omniscient (all-knowing). The story is told in the third
person and the narrator knows everything, including what goes on in the minds
of the characters.

10. Atmosphere and tone

The atmosphere is predominantly tense, because of the tension between
Lionel and Miss Posen; even though, at the final part, it becomes nostalgic and
sentimental, with Mr Kramers reflexions.
The tone is simple, direct, matter of fact.

Wasnt I right? Lionel demanded. Didnt I find out about her?

By your lights, perhaps, you were right. Said Mr Kramer. Your
lights seem to be different from mine, thats all.