The Assistant is about Frank Alpine's transformation from a petty thief into a compassionate, self-sacrificing and loving a human being. Frank is a 25 years-old wanderer of Italian extraction, who came from San Francisco to New York in search of a new and better life. He is the protagonist of the story. His past in conveyed by a series of incoherent memories of want, guilt, and failure. Everything he does seems to be an effort to escape his past. According to Frank, a good person is someone who's honest with other people, who can have discipline and have control over his action.
             A good person also has a good education, but Frank doesn't have education at all. For him, St. Francis is a very good person because he can speak with Good and call the birds. Frank fails to understand the nature of his past, but his passion is to change it. He goes from lover to hater, from victim to victimizer and from saint to criminal. This ambivalent nature causes him problems to reach his goals. He committed crimes and did not feel a thing, or even at times experiences a curious pleasure from it. He also regrets his crimes afterward with an intensity that is almost suffocating. The major problem is that Frank can't control his actions (Page 64) and there is still something missing in his life. His transformation is symbolized by his religious conversion at the end and his attempt to court Helen, Morris's daughter. Frank seeks acceptance as Morris's son-in-law but works tirelessly to support him to pay back his debt for the robbery.
             Frank has a need for love that is almost insupportable. Love, or the lack or it, cause Frank's development and transformation throughout the book. After he rapes Helen in the park, she calls him an "uncircumcised dog" (Page 115) afterward, and this is one reason why he has himself circumcised in the end. It could also be seen as a sort of self-castration to repent for what he did. Either way, it is caused by his love for...