Mark Helprin Monday

“Monday” by Mark Helprin tells the story of the main character Fitch and his endeavor to renovate, Lilly’s, a previous client of his, apartment in New York. Helprin utilizes four virtues in “Monday”. The first of which is Intelligence, meaning, “the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations”1 (Webster). The second virtue is Compassion, “sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it,” (Webster). The third is Courage, “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty,” (Webster). The final and most evident virtue Helprin utilizes is Integrity, “firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values,” (Webster). Helprin uses these

Lilly also trusts Fitch and trusts that he will make the best decisions with her best interests in mind. When her and Fitch were at lunch, she talks about the trust she has in by referring to the previous job saying, “When we redid the kitchen it was the architect who cheated us, not you, and you easily could have, couldn’t you,” (Helprin 59). Lilly knows that if Fitch wanted to, he could have scammed her, but he didn’t. Lilly knows that Fitch wouldn’t cheat her because that’s just not who he is. Lilly is virtually in the dark for the whole project because she trusts that Fitch will get the job done. Fitch also takes a liking to Lilly, which is part of the reason he decides to take the job, even though he knows it’s not smart to do so. Any doubt he had about taking the job disappeared when he learns of what happened to Lilly’s husband. When Fitch, Lilly, and her parents go to visit the apartment he’s going to work on, he talks about carefully working on the windows saying, "The dust on the windows is from the Trade Center. It will have to be washed down carefully, or the mineral grit will scratch and fog the glass. And it will have to be done respectfully, because the clouds of dust that floated against these windows were more than merely inanimate,” (Helprin 60). The building that Lilly owned was near where the World Trade Center once stood. Fitch wants the windows to be cleaned and

Without courage, Fitch might not have taken the job. Any logical person would have refused the job, being backed up with work for the next two years, it’s only reasonable that he didn’t take the job. But he did. By taking the job, Fitch endangered his reputation and financial stability, but to him, none of that mattered. What mattered was getting the job done. Fitch says, “This would hardly bring back for Lilly what had been taken from her, and knowing it, he would work furiously into March, as if it might,” (Helprin 69). Fitch worked on this job harder than he worked on any job that preceded it. Everyone he worked with thought he was crazy for accepting the job. But once they learned why he was doing it, they just couldn’t refuse. Fitch made a gamble and it paid off. His moral code just wouldn’t allow for anything