Shell

Shell enters the narrative as the employer whose unexpected offer gives Fiete Honka a chance to leave his precarious life behind. Hired in June as a night watchman, he is assigned to patrol a factory site and office buildings in City Nord, a part of Hamburg he has never visited. The job becomes a turning point in his routine, though the hopes he attaches to it are his own, not a promise made by the company.

Employment and Duties

Fiete had not imagined that his application would succeed. The man who interviewed him was also from Leipzig, as Fiete was; the narration suggests, with some uncertainty, that this shared origin may have helped. His work is to guard Shell’s factory grounds and office buildings at night. The post places him in City Nord and gives him a defined responsibility requiring attention and regular attendance.

Consequences for Fiete

The night schedule keeps Fiete from going out and leads him to drink much less. After work, he has one or two beers and an equal number of spirits before going to bed tired. He treats this ordinary routine as evidence that his life is changing: instead of identifying with drinkers and people at society’s margins, he can see himself as doing useful, respected work that calls for dedication, discipline, and effort.

That sense of deliverance is larger than the facts of the appointment. Fiete imagines that the job will take him away from the dirt, noise, cold, humiliation, and hardship he associates with his former life, and even from St. Pauli. Shell’s hiring thus marks a real change in his schedule and drinking, while also becoming the focus of his hope that the rest of his troubles will somehow resolve themselves.