The First Seven Years, by Bernard Malamud reveals a saddening story about a father who's obsession with materialism robbed him of real duty to his daughter. The theme of humanism versus materialism was extremely strong in this story and was a showed the reader how important the first of the too really was. The First Seven years depicted the story of a shoemaker named Feld's desperate attempt to give his daughter Miriam what he thought …showed first 75 words of 346 total…

…showed last 75 words of 346 total…humanism of Sobel. The seven years is the amount of time that he is willing to wait to pursue the love that he has for Miriam. Those seven years are filled with very little except the future with the one he loves. Max does not bring those feeling to Miriam and in the end of the story the father finally realizes that. He finally realizes the limits of materialism and the importance of true love.