Malamud's “The First Seven Years” and the Indirect Achievement Policy

The implied or indirect thematic basis of Bernard Malamud's “The First Seven Years” (1950) revolves around how the characters credit individual happiness as their social status rises in their acquisition of material and monetary achievement in the industrial and technological developments. Such an individuality reflects itself especially as the shoemaker father, the main character, in the short story decides to arrange a marriage for his daughter, Miriam, to a schoolboy, Max. Father's decision making gives him great pleasure, yet, the tale concludes differently: not Max but Sobel becomes much more interested in his daughter. This implies that direct circumstances and direct themes in the short story reflect indirect messages and implies the occurence of ironic themes, i.e., what is implied stands for some other meanings in the context.