"Reasons (1936)" Summary

The narrator's father comes home tired and late from a Party meeting and reads his paper absent-mindedly while listening for sounds on the stairway. Hearing Herr Schneider, he insists he and Friedrich come into his apartment. He offers Schneider one of his Sunday cigars and uncharacteristically begins chain-smoking cigarettes. With guilt, the narrator's father first confesses he has joined the Party, which Schneider confesses he knows. Joining has ended his long unemployment and they are doing well. Schneider says that if he were not a Jew, he would also join. The narrator's father asks if every party and leadership does not have a dark side, and Schneider says painfully he is in the shadows this time. Fear has left him. The boys listen to the serious talk but understand nothing.

The narrator's father comes to the point. Why have the Schneiders...