The Adventures of Augie March

With the help of Grandma Lausch, the 12-year-old Augie is hired by a man named Sylvester to distribute theater flyers. Despite warnings against doing so, Augie occasionally dumps them down a sewer or hands them out to Georgie’s classmates to distribute on his behalf. When he is hired for a newspaper route, Augie is sent to live with relatives on the North Side of Chicago while Simon finds work as a bellhop. Anna Colbin promises to treat Augie “like [her] own boy” (16), even though her own son, Howard, has run away to join the Marine Corps. She laments Howard’s departure while allowing her house to become filthy.

Anna’s brother is nicknamed Five Properties. He drives a dairy truck and occasionally allows Augie to accompany him to work. Anna’s husband is named Hyman Coblin. He is a hard worker who lives a “life of movement” (21), dabbling in many industries. The Colbins have more money than other families. They eat large meals and treat Augie well. He returns home regularly and is proud to hand over his wages to his mother.

He talks to Grandma Lausch about what he sees in the Coblin house. Grandma Lausch knows that Five Properties wants to marry an American girl. By arranging such a marriage, she hopes to secure “a matchmaker’s fee” (25). She recruits Kreindl to help her without success. Anna, meanwhile, hopes that Augie will marry her daughter, Friedl. She also ensures that Augie is well-educated about religion, and she tells him entire, unabridged stories from the Hebrew Bible.

Grandma Lausch helps Augie find odd jobs, and trying his hand at many different careers will be a defining feature of his life. Even though Augie has bold aspirations, Simon seems destined for greatness. He has an academic rigor and focus which, Grandma Lausch determines, Augie lacks. Simon graduates, and Augie skips a grade, but neither of them sticks to school. Simon loses interest in his education after a summer spent waiting tables. Augie and Simon often work the same menial jobs until Simon finds a better one with the Federal News Company. He acts emboldened and arrogant, and he distributes part of his wages to the rest of the family without first giving them to Grandma Lausch. He seems “ready to take the control of the family into his own hands” (33), slowly removing Grandma Lausch from her position of power. Despite this, she convinces Simon to find Augie a job in the same company.

Augie struggles with the job and is quickly fired. Grandma Lausch criticizes Augie, and Simon does not stick up for him. Instead, Augie searches for a job with Jimmy Klein, a local boy of whom Grandma Lausch disapproves. Augie spends more time at Jimmy’s house, admiring the family’s relative wealth but noting their frequent arguments. He begins to skip school to go to the local shows, so much so that Simon must go to the school and apologize on his brother’s behalf. Augie and Jimmy are hired by Jimmy’s Uncle Tambow to distribute political leaflets for the local Republican Party, as well as other odd jobs.

Augie ignores Grandma Lausch’s warnings about his future if he spends all his time with Jimmy Klein. Though he defends Jimmy as innocent, Jimmy encourages Augie to steal occasionally. They buy gifts for their friends and family with their ill-gotten gains, but they are eventually caught. Grandma Lausch and Simon both react badly to the news of Augie’s criminality. They seem more “distant,” but Augie is eventually forgiven, and the money is returned.

When Augie develops a crush on a local girl named Hilda, his friends, Jimmy and Tom, make fun of him. During this period of “anarchy and unruliness” (48), he notices that his mother seems even more distressed than she usually does. Soon, Augie learns that she and Grandma Lausch have been arguing about Georgie. Grandma Lausch believes that Georgie should be sent to a psychiatric hospital that can deal with his disability. When Augie takes his mother’s side and suggests that Georgie should stay with the family, Grandma Lausch dismisses his opinion as that of a thief. To Augie’s surprise, Simon agrees with Grandma Lausch. For Augie, Simon seems to now be “the head of the family” (53).

For the first time in a long time, Grandma Lausch leaves the house to visit a caseworker to discuss Georgie’s situation. Augie is aware that Georgie will be taken away, so he spends more time with his little brother. After tripping and falling on election day, Grandma Lausch shuts herself inside her room. When Augie and his mother take Georgie to the hospital, Georgie realizes that he must stay there. He wails in anguish while Augie and his mother cry. When they return home, Augie decides that Georgie’s presence was “the main basis of household union and now everything [is] disturbed” (58). The family begins to drift apart. Simon is outwardly insolent toward Grandma Lausch, who begins to doubt the boys will ever amount to anything. Her elderly dog, Winnie, passes away.

Augie meets the “superior” William Einhorn, a man whom he ranks alongside the most famous and admirable figures from history and legend. Einhorn has a physical disability and uses a wheelchair, and he amasses a great fortune through various business ventures before losing most of it in the 1929 stock market crash. Augie works for Einhorn both before and after the crash. He also occasionally works for Dingbat (Einhorn’s brother) and The Commissioner (Einhorn’s father). One of the businesses where Augie works is a pool room. He fetches soda for Einhorn; when Simon sees this, he mocks Augie for being a “butler.” Among the various jobs Augie does for Einhorn, he helps him dress and reads to him while he uses the bathroom. He also helps Mrs. Einhorn with domestic cleaning.

While working for Einhorn, Augie learns a great deal. Though he is impressed by Einhorn’s academic knowledge, Augie feels constantly reminded that they come from very different backgrounds. He is keenly aware that, unlike Einhorn’s family, he stands to inherit nothing from Einhorn, even though they have grown close. Nevertheless, he learns important lessons and observes Einhorn’s “numerous small swindles” (69). He learns not to limit his ambition.

Augie gets to know a woman named Lollie Fewter, who works occasionally at the pool hall. To Augie’s surprise and frustration, she is romantically linked with Einhorn and is one of many women that he keeps around. Augie also observes the romantic activities of Einhorn’s family members. He also watches Einhorn’s repeated and desperate attempts to heal his body, all of which fail. As he grows older, adults begin to tease Augie with “sentimental questions” about his romantic life. Augie falls out of touch with his brother but spends some time with Dingbat, who protects Augie from petty criminals. Speaking frankly to Augie, Einhorn describes Chicago as a violent place. He thinks about death often, almost—Augie suggests—as though Death were a “real god.”