Trust Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
The chapter opens with the unnamed narrator—later revealed as a young woman named Ida—arriving early for a job interview at a towering skyscraper on Exchange Place. She finds a long line of women already waiting around the corner, stretching almost to Wall Street. Men passing by slow down to make lewd comments, adjusting their clothes as if to perform respectability before their remarks. Ida recalls that she did not need to confirm the address from the newspaper ad; the building’s presence was unmistakable.
Ida takes her place at the end of the line, aware that the other women are studying her, likely judging her as an awestruck outsider. She recognizes a few faces from previous interviews. They are all dressed in their best clothes: some in tweed suits, others in evening dresses despite the summer morning. Ida herself wears a too-tight skirt and an unbuttoned jacket—both once owned by her mother. She uses her pocket mirror to fix her lipstick and notices the woman behind her doing the same.
To pass the time, Ida leafs through a newspaper containing the job ad. She comes across a review of Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock, a book she had never heard of and still has not read. The review mentions that the hero’s name is Ida. She takes this as a good omen. Decades later, this detail allows her to pinpoint the exact date: June 26, 1938.
Ida then reflects on her life. She is twenty‑three, living with her father in a railroad apartment in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. They are dangerously behind on rent and deeply in debt with everyone they know, including neighbors in the small Italian enclave who are themselves struggling. She realized early that her father’s wages as a printer would never cover their basic expenses. Since childhood, she had worked at nearby stores—cleaning, stocking shelves, running errands, and eventually working the counter. All those jobs were temporary, and her pay rarely made up for her father’s meager income as a typesetter.
Like many young women of the era, Ida believed that secretarial work would allow her to tap her way into economic independence, a phrase borrowed from a Remington typewriter advertisement. With library books and a borrowed typewriter, she taught herself bookkeeping, stenography, and typing while applying for jobs across the city. At first she never passed the initial tests, but each failed interview taught her a valuable lesson. Over time she improved, and for about a year she worked for a temp agency. Now, at the end of that period, she finds herself waiting in the unmoving line that leads to the skyscraper on Exchange Place.
Key Events
- Ida arrives early at Exchange Place and discovers a long line of young women outside the building, curving around the corner onto Broad Street.
- She examines the skyscraper’s architecture, noting its stern lines, copper cornices, and gothic arches that seem to claim all of history.
- Ida takes her place in line, aware of being watched by the other women and by passing men who make crude jokes.
- She recalls the newspaper’s review of Brighton Rock and takes the coincidence of the hero’s name (Ida) as a good omen.
- The narrative shifts to a retrospective summary of Ida’s life: living with her father in a railroad apartment in Carroll Gardens, deep debt, her father’s low income as a printer, and her series of temporary jobs.
- Ida describes learning secretarial skills from library books and a borrowed typewriter, and her year‑long stint at a temp agency.
- The chapter ends with Ida waiting in the line, hinting that this interview is a significant opportunity.
Character Development
Ida Partenza: This chapter introduces Ida as a resilient, observant, and determined young woman. She is pragmatic about her family’s poverty and takes initiative by teaching herself marketable skills. Her attention to detail—such as noting the building’s architecture and the newspaper review—shows a sharp mind. She is not naive; she understands the social dynamics of the line and the lewdness of the men. Her willingness to endure repeated failures in job interviews demonstrates perseverance. The chapter establishes her as the second major perspective in the novel, contrasting with the earlier wealth‑and‑power narrative.
Ida’s father: Though unnamed and off‑stage, he is evoked through Ida’s concern about his printer’s wages and their accumulated debt. He seems a hard‑working man trapped in a low‑paying trade, unable to lift them out of poverty.
Themes, Symbols, and Motifs
Economic Independence: Ida’s quest for a secretarial job embodies the central theme of economic self‑sufficiency. She explicitly connects typing skills to freedom, paraphrasing a contemporary advertisement. The line of women outside the skyscraper symbolizes the crowded, competitive path to such independence in 1930s New York.
The Skyscraper as a Symbol of Power and History: The building on Exchange Place is described in terms of ambition and greed—“claiming all of history for itself.” Its gothic arches and futuristic gladiators suggest a desire to master both past and future. The nearby construction site, with its steel skeleton and men suspended on beams, underscores the human cost and peril behind grand financial structures.
Social Performance and Class: The women in line wear their best clothes, even if inappropriate for the season, to perform respectability. The men who adjust their ties before making lewd remarks reveal the hypocrisy of gendered social codes. Ida’s own attire—her mother’s ill‑fitting garments—highlights the hand‑me‑down scarcity of her class.
Memory and Self‑Narration: Ida’s ability to later reconstruct the exact date from a book review shows how small details anchor personal history. The chapter itself is a memoir‑style account, suggesting that memory is selective but can be precise when tied to significant objects.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 2 shifts the novel’s focus from the titans of finance to a working‑class woman striving to enter the world of corporate power. It provides a ground‑level view of the economic landscape that the earlier chapters presented from a boardroom perspective. Ida’s story will likely intersect with the world of the Bevels, making this chapter essential for understanding the novel’s full social scope. Her voice introduces themes of gender, class, and economic mobility that complicate and enrich the narrative. The chapter also establishes the year 1938, setting a specific historical moment for Ida’s ambitions.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Ida recall the newspaper review of Brighton Rock decades later?
Ida remembers the review because the hero’s name was Ida, which she took as a good omen on the morning of her interview. This small coincidence becomes a mnemonic anchor that later lets her pinpoint the exact date—June 26, 1938—when she browses microfilms of The New York Times. The detail illustrates how personal significance can preserve otherwise trivial information across time.
2. How does the description of the skyscraper reflect Ida’s attitude toward wealth and power?
Ida observes the building with a mix of awe and critical distance. She notes its “greedily, comically” claiming all of history. The architecture strikes her as both stern and ornate, linking Wall Street to a grandiose, almost‑absurd self‑mythology. Her attention to the nearby construction site, with men dangling on beams, reveals an awareness of the human labor and danger underpinning such monuments of finance.
3. What does the line of women outside the building reveal about the job market for women in 1938?
The long line—already bent around the corner even though Ida arrived early—indicates intense competition for secretarial positions. The women are uniformly well‑dressed, suggesting that presentation is as important as skills. Many, like Ida, are likely desperate for work. The men who stop to mock or leer at them underscore the gendered harassment that women had to endure even as they sought professional advancement.