Hahne's

Hahne's is the large downtown Newark department store where Bess Roth works during a period of mounting uncertainty for her family. It is at once a source of income, a place where she prepares for a possible escape, and a site where the family’s expanding exposure to federal scrutiny enters everyday life.

Setting and Work

Bess takes a job selling women's dresses at Hahne's after Sandy Roth begins spending his afternoons at Evelyn's Office of American Absorption. She is hired as temporary holiday help, working six days a week and Wednesday evenings. Although the position is in sales, her experience as an office secretary leads her to hope that an opening might arise on the store's administrative floor and that she could remain as a permanent employee after Christmas.

Her choice of work marks a practical change in the household. The department store provides Bess with wages at a time when Alvin Roth's return is expected to increase the family's expenses. Earlier, Herman Roth had considered a promotion with Metropolitan Life that would have meant moving the family to Union; Hahne's instead gives Bess a job in Newark, where the family remains rooted.

Household Finances and a Hidden Plan

Bess tells Sandy and Philip Roth that her pay will help meet the larger bills occasioned by Alvin's return. That explanation is true, but incomplete: without her family's knowledge, she mails her paychecks to a Montreal bank account. She is quietly building a reserve to help them cross the border and begin again in Canada if they have to flee.

The distinction between the stated use of the wages and their concealed destination makes Hahne's more than a workplace in the family's story. Bess's employment provides a modest, practical means of preparing for an emergency, while the secrecy of the savings reflects how little confidence she has that the family's circumstances will remain secure. When she later leaves the job, the Montreal account contains less than she had hoped, but enough to help them get across the border and make a start there.

Surveillance at the Store

Hahne's also becomes one of the places where the Federal Bureau of Investigation questions the Roth family. An agent who has been investigating Alvin's activities stops at the dress department to question Bess, then visits Herman at his Metropolitan office and questions Sandy on his bus. The sequence places the department store within a widening pattern of surveillance: the family's workplaces and daily routes have become points where an inquiry can reach them.

The questioning does not make Hahne's responsible for the political pressure surrounding the family, but it alters the meaning of Bess's ordinary workday. The store is no longer only the setting for temporary holiday employment and hoped-for advancement; it is also a public place where the family is scrutinized as the government pursues its questions about Alvin and their views.

Departure and Significance

Bess eventually leaves Hahne's and returns to running the household full time. Her departure coincides with Herman's resignation from Metropolitan Life, as both parents reject the relocation arrangement they understand as a threat to the family. The paychecks she has saved do not amount to the sum she had wanted, yet they preserve a limited possibility of escape.

Hahne's therefore connects paid work to both household care and political contingency. Bess enters the store hoping for permanent employment, but also uses her earnings to prepare for a future she cannot safely discuss at home. When the family chooses to remain on Summit Avenue rather than accept relocation, the job's lasting consequence is not a career at the store but the emergency fund she has managed to set aside.