The First Seven Years

A last is a hard form upon which a shoemaker repairs or constructs shoes. In “The First Seven Years,” the last is an important symbol of skilled, working-class labor and emotion. Both Feld and Sobel are shoemakers who earn their livings with this important tool. They are men who work with their hands, placing them between unskilled laborers like Max’s father and the white collar, professional worker Max will become once he is an accountant.

The person the reader most sees working at the last is Sobel, and to all appearances, he is a man who will always be a member of the skilled working class. The way Sobel interacts with the last is also an indication of his emotions. Sobel works away noisily at the last when he becomes angry at Feld for choosing Max as a suitor for Miriam, breaks the last when his anger overcomes him, and he returns to the last to indicate his commitment to winning the chance to be a suitor to Miriam.