25 pages • 50 minutes read
Manuel RojasThe Glass of Milk
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
The Young Man
The protagonist of the novel is an unnamed man, introduced as “a young, slim man” (Paragraph 2) who appears distressed. He is both a round and dynamic character, changing throughout the story. He has a weighted posture that draws a nearby sailor’s attention. His body language reflects his conflicting feelings about accepting the food from the sailor; he ultimately decides not to and chooses to try to find work to feed himself. This choice characterizes the young man as someone who is trying to adhere to the capitalist social code—one must work to survive—though doing so hasn’t positively affected his circumstances. Despite his resilience, his hunger undermines his ability to perform labor-intensive work. As such, his circumstances at the start of the story represent the paradoxical nature of capitalism; workers are exploited to maximize profit, even though these working conditions inhibit their ability to work.
The young man’s moment of physical suffering from exhaustion and starvation, when he hallucinates and sees his family back home, is an anagnorisis or epiphany of sorts; after this moment, he decides to steal food to survive, in contradiction to his earlier actions. As he eats the stolen milk and cookies, he feels guilty and weeps. However, has experiences catharsis when he realizes the dairy worker is treating him with compassion rather than viewing him as a criminal, and his tears transform into relief and joy. Rojas uses this transformation to propose an alternative society and moral code in which everyone is cared for, regardless of their means. The young man ends the story happy and fed but still exhausted due to the hard labor he performed earlier. Through this fatigue, Rojas asserts that single acts of charity are only temporary salves in an exploitative system, though there is hope for more substantial change.
The Blonde Lady
As the only other character present in the climax, the blonde woman attending the counter is a pivotal figure. She is a static character and is characterized as compassionate and emotionally intelligent. Through her keen observation, she anticipates the young man’s actions and feeds him anyway, seeing that he needs food and kindness. As the young man embodies the working class’s suffering under capitalism, she represents an alternative social structure that provides for its people regardless of whether they fulfill certain criteria. She embodies the axiom, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” (Marx, Karl. Critique of the Gotha Programme, 1875).
The woman is also a maternal figure, not only feeding the young man but comforting him, “caressing his tired head” (Paragraph 61). She encourages him to embrace his emotions and cry freely without fear of judgment or punishment. Her care is also demonstrated in her choice to feed the young man milk and cookies—a treat—rather than a more sober meal. By the end of his second plate of cookies, the young man feels restored and comfortable, “as if […] his mother were behind the counter” (Paragraph 65), reaffirming this archetypical role for the dairy worker. However, this characterization is complicated by the fact that she does not interact with the young man further, looking instead “at a distant point, and her face was sad” (Paragraph 64). This detail is ambiguous; it could indicate that the young man’s particular situation has affected her deeply or that he is not the first person she has seen in such a desperate situation.
The Vagabond
The vagabond is a foil to the protagonist and is a flat, static character. He is introduced only moments after the young man and shows stereotypical marks of poverty, “dressed in unbelievable rags, with big broken shoes, a long blonde beard and blue eyes” (Paragraph 12). The vagabond occupies a similar social position as the young man, but whereas the young man refuses the sailor’s offer of food, the vagabond eagerly accepts the meal and eats it quickly, explaining plainly, “Yes, sir, I am very much hungry” (Paragraph 15). While the young man adheres to society’s code about pride, the vagabond knows the truth of his circumstances, represented in this direct statement about his hunger. Similarly, the vagabond’s obvious markings of poverty expose the results of capitalist exploitation. Through his honesty, he is fed, while the young man remains hungry.
The vagabond is also older than the young man, and this contrast in age represents the wisdom that comes from age in contrast to youthful naivety. The young man still has faith that playing by the rules will keep him safe, while the vagabond knows that isn’t true. The young man learns this truth over the course of the story; by the climax, he understands that he needs to act outside of his code if he doesn’t want to starve to death.
