Monty Roth

Monty Roth is a wealthy produce wholesaler and one of the most forceful members of the Roth family. His ingenuity and practical generosity make him a powerful presence in the family’s life, but he expects others to accept his authority, and his loyalty has limits: he offers Alvin Roth a way back into work while later dismissing Herman Roth when Herman fails to appear at the market.

Identity and Background

Monty built his fortune in the wholesale produce trade near the railroad tracks at the Miller Street market. His older brother, Jack Roth, began the business and brought him into it. After Jack died, Monty took in their youngest brother, Herman Roth; he later invited Herman to join the business as well. Herman declined, having been sufficiently bullied by Monty during their boyhood to know he did not want to work under him. The contrast between the brothers is pronounced: Herman can endure hardship, but does not share Monty’s appetite for command or his ambition to dominate a room.

Monty’s success rests on a concrete piece of commercial invention. He gambled on selling ripe tomatoes in Newark during winter by buying green tomatoes from Cuba and ripening them in heated rooms on the second floor of his warehouse. Once ready, he packed them four to a box and sold them for a premium. The business made him known as the Tomato King. His wealth was visible in the large houses, lawns, and Cadillacs of the Maplewood produce merchants, a world apart from Herman’s family’s rented five-room flat in Newark.

Authority, Wealth, and Politics

Monty is described as the most overbearing of the uncles, and his wealth appears bound up with that temperament. He is energetic and entrepreneurial, accustomed to making decisions and expecting others to accept their consequences. His market success gives his opinions practical weight within the family, but it does not make him impartial. He regards business prosperity as compelling evidence in favor of the political order that has delivered it.

In an argument with Herman, Monty defends Charles A. Lindbergh’s administration because business is booming and the country remains out of the war. Herman counters that Monty once shared his hostility toward Lindbergh and accuses him of valuing profits above other concerns. Monty answers by turning the disagreement toward the safety of Herman’s sons, asking whether Herman wants them to return from war as Alvin has. The exchange exposes both the substance and the limits of Monty’s reasoning: he frames political judgment through money and the immediate prospect of keeping the family’s young men safe, while dismissing Herman’s warning about the president’s antisemitism.

The narrator’s account places Monty among successful Jewish men whose drive to secure a prominent place in American life is shaped by the humiliations and discrimination associated with their origins. Monty’s commercial achievement offers independence and status; his success, however, does not make him a model of gentleness. His willingness to use pressure within the family echoes the competitive force that helped make him a formidable businessman.

Alvin’s Return and the Market Job

When Alvin returns after rehabilitation in Canada, Monty objects that Herman should have stopped him from leaving for the war. He presents Alvin’s service and disability as the disastrous result of that decision, and challenges Herman over his guardianship. The argument takes place in the Roths’ kitchen, with Monty leaning against the sink; young Philip watches, fascinated and uneasy. Monty’s concern for Alvin is real, but it comes in the form of reproach and control rather than comfort.

Monty eventually offers Alvin a job at the market. The offer is specific and deliberately unglamorous: Alvin would begin at the bottom, washing the floor, grading tomatoes, and doing other basic work, for a weekly paycheck. Monty also acknowledges Alvin’s money from an Esso station partnership and gambling, but still proposes employment, explaining that Alvin is Jack’s son and that he owes much of his own career to Jack. In the same breath, he contrasts Alvin with Abe Steinheim, who had tried to teach him the building business. Alvin had rejected that route, and Monty regards his resistance to instruction as a defining defect.

After another confrontation, Monty’s pressure helps produce a turning point. Alvin accepts the market job he had earlier refused, agrees to dissolve his partnership with Shushy Margulis, and gives up street gambling. He apologizes to the family and promises to stop mistreating them and to change how he behaves toward them. Monty makes the arrangement conditional: if Alvin breaks his promises and continues to undermine Herman’s household, the family will be finished with him. The intervention is both an act of kinship and an assertion of authority; Monty offers a foothold, but makes clear that continued belonging depends on conduct.

Alvin does not last long at the market. After little more than a week, the FBI questions the workers about him and insinuates that he is plotting against the president. Monty’s offer cannot protect him from the political suspicion that drives him from the job. The episode also limits Monty’s power: his money and influence can provide work, but cannot shield Alvin from state harassment.

Family Ties and the Limits of Loyalty

Monty’s bond with Jack remains a central explanation for his treatment of Alvin. He says that Jack taught him the produce business and that he would do anything for his brother. That debt motivates him to offer Alvin a job, even while he criticizes him. At the same time, Monty insists that help does not mean accepting every choice Alvin makes. His affection is expressed through provision, blunt judgment, and rules.

His relationship with Herman is more openly combative. Monty invokes Herman’s responsibility for Alvin, while Herman challenges Monty’s political conversion and material priorities. Later, during a period of growing danger, Herman leaves Monty rather than leave his family alone on Summit Avenue. Monty’s anger is no longer the main consideration: Herman chooses his family’s immediate safety over his brother’s displeasure. The conflict illustrates the difference between Monty’s loyalty to family as obligation and Herman’s protection of family as presence and care.

Change and Narrative Significance

Monty’s influence is consequential but not transformative. He can force a crisis into a practical decision: Alvin takes the job, renounces some of his earlier pursuits, and asks his relatives’ forgiveness. Yet Alvin’s return to work is brief, and Monty’s commercial solution cannot undo the pressures surrounding the family. Later, while Herman is away, Monty fires him for missing work for a second week, despite Bess Roth’s pleas. The decision is presented as evidence of Monty’s self-interest, sharply contrasting with Herman’s choice to travel to bring a child back to safety.

Through Monty, the novel connects business success, family power, and political accommodation without treating them as identical. He is capable of generosity, but his generosity often comes with terms; he values kinship, yet will not consistently subordinate his own interests to it. His tomato business shows the imagination behind his rise, while his arguments and decisions reveal the price of living by a rule that prizes leverage, profit, and control.