Character Analysis
As the novel's narrator tells us, the Manager of the Brokerage Office is "a cold, mild, lean German who dressed correctly and around his neck wore a pair of opera glasses with which he read the board" (4.20). To Wilhelm, he seem intimidatingly perceptive and astute:
He must have recognized in Wilhelm a man who reflected long and then made the decision he had rejected twenty separate times. Silvery, cool, level, long-profiled, experienced, indifferent, observant, with unshaven refinement, he scarcely looked at Wilhelm, who trembled with fearful awkwardness. The manager's face, low-colored, long-nostriled, acted as a unit of perception; his eyes merely did their reduced share. Here was a man, like Rubin, who knew and knew and knew. He, a foreigner, knew; Wilhelm, in the city of his birth, was ignorant. (4.24)
If you check out our character synopsis on Rubin, you'll see that Wilhelm has a habit of meeting men who seem to know, and know, and know. Just like Rubin, the Manager of the Brokerage Office forces Wilhelm to put his own abilities into perspective. Compared to these men, Wilhelm feels ignorant and uninformed: confused by the world, and confused by the ins and outs of America's economic system.
The Manager may be nothing but a minor character, but Saul Bellow describes his appearance in such rich detail that he sort of sets him up as a fleeting, momentary foil of Wilhelm himself. Through the Manager's ability to know, and know, and know, both Wilhelm and the novel's readers can see just how much Wilhelm's knowledge pales in comparison.