What Makes Sammy Run?

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1941

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary

Chapter 1 begins with the narrator, Al Manheim, a New York City theater reviewer, meeting Sammy Glick for the first time. A “little ferret of a kid, sharp and quick” (3) Sammy has just been hired as a copy clerk at the paper Al works for. Al is immediately struck by how Sammy races around the office, working extremely hard despite his lack of manners and his lowly job. In an early conversation between the two men, Sammy makes it clear that he is ambitious, not intending to stay a copy clerk forever. However, when Al offers to slip in a good word for him with the editor, Sammy meets this offer with derision, insisting that he is not going to be stuck slowly working his way up through the newspaper. Al is shocked by his contemptuousness.

Al begins to compulsively observe Sammy and analyze his psychology, remarking that “the world was a race to Sammy” (5). He is particularly curious about Sammy’s motivation, repeatedly asking himself and those around him “What makes Sammy run?” (5). One night, Al writes his column in a rush after drinking and philosophizing about Sammy, and his boss calls him in to berate him for major mistakes in his review. He tells Al the only reason it was spotted before the paper went to print was because Sammy Glick brought it to his attention. Al confronts him about this betrayal, but Sammy shows no remorse or shame.

Sammy continues to be ambitious and manipulative. Al, motivated by kind instincts, attempts to relate to Sammy and convince him to change his ways. He shows kindness to Sammy and attempts to appeal to his sense of solidarity as a Jewish person, but Sammy seems to find these efforts almost comically naive, meeting Al’s insistence that people should be kind to one another with jokes. When Al gives him tickets to see a show, Sammy sells them to another man in the office to make a profit and buy a fancy pair of shoes.

Increasingly shocked by Sammy’s life philosophy, Al tries to get him fired. Though the editor agrees that Sammy “creeps” him out, his work is too good and efficient to let him go. Even as Al becomes more and more put off by Sammy, Sammy thrives. He manages to talk his way into spearheading the newspaper’s radio column, cutting into Al’s Broadway review column. Sammy happily prints false information and spreads rumors to get the most attention.

Sammy invites Al out to dinner with him and his girlfriend for Sammy’s birthday. Uncaring that Al tried to have him fired and obviously does not want to go, Sammy talks him into it. Sammy’s girlfriend is a young Jewish girl, Rosalie Goldbaum, who Al notes has been completely taken in by Sammy. At the dinner, Sammy spots a Pulitzer Prize winning author, George Opdyke, across the room. Using his charisma, Sammy convinces Opdyke to come sit with the party and flatters him assiduously. Al realizes Sammy planned the dinner to get Opdyke to sit with them. Generally good natured, Al is upset by his inability to like Sammy or reform him. He convinces himself to love Sammy alongside all other men. This resolution is shaken the next morning, when he sees discussion of Sammy’s birthday in a society column publicizing his and Opdyke’s presence. Sammy is, as always, unrepentant.

Chapter 2 Summary

Al tries to avoid Sammy in the wake of the birthday party. During this time, a young man named Julian Blumberg comes in with a script for Sammy to read. He hopes to get it put on as a radio play and wants Sammy’s thoughts due to his “expertise” in radio. Sammy acts flattered, taking the script from the eager Julian and promising to read it. Though Al expects him to throw the script in the trash, Sammy reads it. He even remarks to Al that he thinks it’s funny. Al is immediately suspicious, questioning Sammy’s motivations, but Sammy brushes him off.

Sammy invites Julian back and, despite his praise to Al, tells him that the script needs work but could be really good. Julian is overjoyed. Sammy promises to rework the script and give it to his agent. After Julian leaves, Al questions Sammy about how he’s going to give the script to an agent when he doesn’t have one. Sammy in turn asks Al to tell him who a good Hollywood agent would be. Al sarcastically suggests the powerful Myron Selznick, but Sammy takes him at his word.

To Al’s disbelief, Sammy calls up Myron Selznick immediately. As Al listens in astonishment, Sammy uses his confidence and charisma to convince Selznick to take on Julian’s story, which Sammy has titled Girl Steals Boy. Al’s dislike of Sammy is eclipsed by awe at his audacity, and he asks if Sammy was scared. Sammy says that during the call he just kept repeating his own name to himself in his head to stay calm.

After a few weeks, Sammy gets a return call from Selznick. To Al’s shock, Sammy has sold the story for $5,000. Sammy then manages to get a mention of himself in the newspaper’s film section. Julian Blumberg is only mentioned as an afterthought, though Al is shocked he was mentioned at all.

Sammy remains at the paper, but is waiting to get a job in Hollywood. Finally, he tells Al he’s been hired by World Wide Film Studio because of Julian’s script. Julian has not been hired. Despite everything, Al attempts to be kind to Sammy as he says goodbye, which makes Sammy uncomfortable. Al watches him as he takes off in a taxi cab for the airport, and thinks about how much Sammy resembles the racing cars on the road.

Chapter 3 Summary

Al continues to work at the newspaper office until he is offered a screenwriting position in Hollywood. After accepting the position, he agrees to meet with Rosalie Goldbaum. Struck by her beleaguered and sad appearance, Al is immediately apprehensive of what he is about to learn, for good reason. Rosalie asks Al to get in contact with Sammy for her in California. Apparently, Sammy promised he would send for her his second week in California, prompting Rosalie to quit her job and sell her possessions in anticipation, but Sammy has not contacted her since he left. Al tries to comfort her, and she apologizes for imposing. She tells him that Sammy said Al is his closest friend, which Al realizes is likely true. Al gives Rosalie some money and promises to talk to Sammy for her.

Upon arriving in California, Al calls Sammy. Though Sammy is happy that Al is now in Hollywood, when Al attempts to bring up Rosalie, Sammy dodges the conversation, saying they’ll talk about it in person. Against his better judgment, Al finds himself excited by a kind of morbid curiosity to see how far Sammy has come. He goes to meet Sammy at the Studio, where Sammy has a plaque with his name on the door and a secretary.

Sammy has clearly made many material strides forward. He’s dressed according to the latest Hollywood fashions, with another fancy pair of shoes. His office is decorated with signed pictures of famous actors and photos of Sammy himself. Sammy starts the conversation with cheery small talk, but Al insists upon discussing Rosalie. Sammy once again puts off the conversation by telling Al to choose a restaurant for lunch. Despite this, Sammy then chooses the restaurant.

They drive to the restaurant in Sammy’s brand new Cadillac, and Sammy greets all the actors, producers, and directors like old friends. At lunch, Al finally manages to force Sammy to discuss Rosalie. Though Sammy seems genuinely apologetic, he refuses to send for Rosalie. Al convinces Sammy to send Rosalie $1,500 to help her get back on her feet, but he believes Sammy is doing it more as a show for Al than out of genuine contrition. As they leave the restaurant, Al asks about Julian Blumberg, from whom Sammy stole his script. Sammy tells Al that Julian is in Hollywood but hasn’t been hired by any studios.

Al begins to adjust to life in Hollywood, but he finds it lonely and isolating. He begins to observe the different kinds of people in Los Angeles, from a young and talented writer who gets pushed out of the movie business for not being ambitious enough, to an old high school classmate who has become a successful but miserable poet. Seeking human connection, Al goes to a club named The Back Lot. There, he runs into Sammy, who introduces him to the girls he is with, Sally Ann and Billie. Al notes that Sammy is relaxed around him despite all Al knows about him, and he deduces that Sammy’s comfort stems from his understanding that Al would not use Sammy the way Sammy uses others.

Drunk, Al goes back to Sammy’s apartment with him and the girls. Sammy goes to have sex with Sally Ann, making Al uncomfortable. Al is left alone with Billie, and it is unclear whether they also have sex. The next morning, Sammy wakes Al up. The girls have left, and Sammy reveals that he is on his way to breakfast to meet with Julian Blumberg.

Chapters 1-3 Analysis

These first few chapters introduce Sammy through the eyes of Al, setting up their contrasting personalities and Al’s fascination with Sammy. The basics of Sammy’s character are almost immediately apparent. From the first, he makes it clear that he is ambitious, telling Al that his job is only a good job if he’s moved on from it in less than a year. His schemes to get ahead grow more and more audacious, from stepping over Al to gain favor with the newspaper’s editor to cold calling a famous Hollywood agent with a stolen script. This sets up a paradigm for the rest of the novel—Sammy will feed his ambition in ever more amoral ways while Al watches as the horrified audience.

Sammy’s introduction shows his character not only through his actions but also through narrative voice. The name Sammy Glick is phonetically similar to the word “slick,” immediately implying not only a sense of speed with his name, but also a sort of greasy persona. He is also frequently described as a runner—his job is to run copy, he lives life like a race, and Al remembers him as “racing between the desks, his tie flying, wild-eyed, desperate” (4). Sammy’s running—represented in the book’s title—is a central motif representing The Price of All-Consuming Ambition. These first few chapters portray both Sammy’s physical state of running and the start of his mental race to remain on top of the social order. He even begins to run Al down by repeatedly shoving his egocentrism in Al’s face. Sammy’s first job, literally “running copy,” is just the start of a long race that ends with Sammy running Hollywood and all the people in it.

A key component of Sammy’s rise is his fixation on ostentatious displays of wealth. In Chapter 1, his new shoes (which will be a repeated indicator of Sammy’s status throughout the novel) are bought with money he has conned a coworker out of. He proudly shows his shoes off to Al, feeling no shame for what he has done. In Hollywood, he is quick to secure a top-of-the-line car for a cheaper price by capitalizing on another’s misfortune. Even his payout of Rosalie is a show of material wealth, as Al confesses that he thinks Sammy sends Rosalie the money more to prove to Al that he can than to do the right thing. Though in these chapters Sammy is encountering material wealth for the first time, he is quick to understand how to make a spectacle of it.

Al’s fascination with Sammy is also shown in its nascent stages in these first few chapters, still tinged with some naivete as to how far Sammy is willing to go. While both men are still in New York, Al thinks about trying to reform Sammy, hoping that the younger man is not as irredeemably self-centered as he seems. His initial hopes are repeatedly dashed, as Sammy shows an inexhaustible capacity to ignore the feelings of others. The Collective Versus the Individual is emerging as a theme here, as Al struggles to get Sammy to recognize some form of community loyalty while Sammy persists in caring only about himself. Still, though he struggles with how alien Sammy’s nature is to his, Al is able to find some insight into Sammy’s character that will be confirmed by the end of the novel. As he witnesses Sammy’s initial growth, he thinks of it as “[Sammy’s] own special brand, Sammyglick maturity. No mellowing, no deepening of understanding” (16). Sammy can’t grow and mature due to his alienation from others. Though Al has not fully captured the psychology of Sammy Glick in these chapters, he proves himself an astute and dedicated investigator.

That these chapters show a younger and slightly more nervous Sammy foreshadows the reveal of his backstory later. While Sammy never allows his nervousness to interfere with his plans, he also shows much more of his fear here than later on. After moving to Hollywood Sammy becomes increasingly confident and self-assured as he accrues more success. In New York, however, Sammy is young and vulnerable enough to admit to Al the fear he feels after having successfully cold called Myron Selznick. This adds a dynamic element to Sammy’s character, revealing however briefly the young man inside the massive ego. This in turn sets up support for the theory Kit will later espouse, that Sammy was made into who he is, not born.