Mort

Mort is Abe's brother and half owner of Box Brothers, the family box business. He is a serious man who depends heavily on facts, as seen in his dependence on the numbers to keep control of the business. He is a controlling person who hates everything that he cannot control.

Mort believes in a form of karma, as seen in his decision to keep a tally of the good things he does during Rose's pregnancy. He hopes that if his good deeds outweigh his faults, Rose will have a son. One of Mort's main problems during the early years of this novel is that he has three daughters but does not have a son. He feels that having a son to carry on the family name and to enter the family business would make him happy with his life. After he has a son, he discovers that merely...