How we cite our quotes: The book doesn't have numbered or titled chapters, but it is broken up into sections with sub-sections under these. We'll call this Chapter:Section:Paragraph.
Quote #1
Morris paid cash for the liverwurst; from a German he wanted no favors. (1.1.19)
You'll see people referred to by their nationalities in the novel. It's how people identify one another in this ethnically diverse Brooklyn neighborhood. Also, the book takes place not long after the end of World War II…so you might imagine there could be a lingering sense of mistrust between Jews and Germans.
Quote #3
Yet she felt, whenever she thought of it, always a little troubled at the thought of the stranger's presence below, a goy, after all, and she looked forward to the time when he was gone. (3.1.16)
Helen has been raised to distrust, if not dislike, non-Jews.
Quote #4
Otto Vogel, once when he was weighing a ham, warned him in a low voice, "Don't work for a Yid, kiddo. They will steal your ass while you are sitting on it." (3.1.21)
Vogel repeats the stereotype that Jews are swindlers. Morris, an honest man, ends up getting cheated by his gentile clerk, Frank. What do you have to say about that?
Quote #5
He thought she didn't look Jewish, which was all to the good. (3.2.3)
Frank doesn't despise Jews, but there's some animus in his outlook. He's cool with dating a Jewish woman, but he'd prefer she not resemble one, whatever that means.
Quote #6
He remembered thinking as they went into the store, a Jew is a Jew, what difference does it make? Now he thought, I held him up because he was a Jew. What the hell are they to me so that I gave them credit for it? (3.4.17)
It can be easy to get caught up in prejudices without really thinking them through. Frank had gone along with the robbery and the motivation for it, repeating the justification without a second (or first) thought.
Quote #7
Yet the why of it was simple enough—the store had improved not because this cellar dweller was a musician, but because he was not Jewish. The goyim in the neighborhood were happier with one of their own. A Jew stuck in their throats. (4.1.1)
Morris believes this may be a reason for the store's improvement. We never really get certain evidence that this was the case. A lot of factors may have played a role.
Quote #8
Then he blew his nose, and wagging a thick finger in Morris's face, warned him if he had any plans to skip, he had better forget them if he expected to live. A dead Jew was of less consequence than a live one. (4.2.7)
Morris's heritage is used to threaten him with death. If that's not prejudice then we don't know what is. Nobody deserves to be threatened like that.
Quote #9
Helen felt for him, as they walked, an irritation bordering on something worse. She knew what caused it—her mother, in making every gentile, by definition, dangerous; therefore he and she, together, represented some potential evil. (4.6.7)
Throughout the novel, Helen struggles to balance her own desires and goals with the expectations of her parents. She'll lie to them, if she feels she must, but they're always at the back of her mind, guiding her.
Quote #10
Yet what was the payoff, for instance, of marrying a dame like her and having to do with Jews the rest of his life? So he told himself he didn't care one way or the other. (5.3.20)
Frank tries to comfort himself by fueling his old prejudices. In the end, he becomes a Jew, so he makes progress.