The Glass of Milk

The Glass of Milk Summary | Detailed Summary

"The Glass of Milk" is Manuel Rojas' short story about pride, despair and compassion when a young boy's hunger will not allow him to ask for desperately needed food, which is supplied unquestioningly by a kind woman.

As the story begins, a young man emerges from some freight cars on a shipyard dock, looks out to sea and walks idly along the wharf's edge. As the young man passes in front of a docked ship, a sailor who holds a white paper-wrapped bundle calls out to the boy, inquiring if he is hungry. The boy hesitates for a moment but replies that he is not hungry. He thanks the sailor and continues on his way, embarrassed that the sailor seems to think the boy is needy.

Soon after, the sailor calls out to a tramp passing behind the boy and inquires if the tramp is hungry. The tramp responds that he is hungry, and the sailor immediately throws down the white paper-wrapped package, which the tramp opens gleefully before he devours the still-warm food inside. Watching the tramp eating the food that could have been his, the boy counts three days since he himself has eaten. As hungry as he has been, the boy has not been able to ask for food from any of the sailors on the wharf for the past few days.

Discovered as a stowaway, the boy was left at this port six days ago with no money, food, friends or skills. The boy was able to sneak food as long as that ship was in port, but now that it is gone, he is completely without contacts or resources. Although this is a difficult time, the boy loves the seagoing life and has already made many trips on ships sailing the coast of South America. The skills learned on board render the boy virtually useless for employment on land. Now the boy walks the docks with the other tramps and sailors no longer connected to any ship who are forced to live by any means they can devise.

The next day, the boy resolves to find some sort of work to earn enough money to eat because his strength is failing fast. The boy is hired to work in a line of men loading huge sacks of wheat into a ship's cargo area. The morning passes without incident, but by noon, the boy is so weak from hunger that he must lie down and feign having no appetite. By the end of the workday, the boy is so hungry that he asks the foreman for an advance on his wages, but the foreman cannot pay until the entire job is completed. Out of kindness, the foreman offers the boy forty cents, but the boy declines and walks away in despair.

Feeling physically ill, the boy briefly hallucinates about his home and his family before his senses return him to the reality of his starvation. Instinctively, the boy knows that he will not last beyond the next hour and resigns to eat somewhere and let the proprietor punish him appropriately upon discovery that the boy cannot pay. Passing up the taverns because of the rough element of people, the boy chooses a milk bar with its little round tables topped with clean marble. The only customer in the milk bar is an old man who, undistracted, reads his newspaper while a half-filled glass of milk sits on the table before him. The boy paces outside, willing the old man to leave so that the boy can drink the balance of the milk in that glass.

The boy continues to pace for fifteen minutes, glaring at the old man and now convinced that the old man is playing some evil game to see who can hold out longer. At last, the old man folds the paper, drinks the rest of his milk and leaves the cafy. The boy hesitates but finally enters the restaurant and trips over a chair before deciding on a seat at one of the tables. The boy orders a large glass of milk and inquires about the possibility of biscuits. There are no biscuits, but there are vanilla wafers.

The waitress resumes her place behind the counter and watches the boy, who surreptitiously drinks the milk so that he does not raise the woman's curiosity. The boy slowly begins to eat the wafers, and the burning in his stomach subsides a little. Just as his physical anguish diminishes, the boy's emotional stress takes over, and he begins to cry in his desperation. Drinking and eating between sobs, the boy finishes just as a huge tear drops into his empty glass. Sobs now shake his small body. The boy wails without moving for several minutes, and he barely notices the hand touching his hair in a comforting gesture and the waitress' voice telling him, "Cry, son, cry..."

The tears of pain are now replaced by tears of joy, and the boy feels a huge rush of relief before looking up to see the waitress, who has taken up her station behind the counter once more. The boy notices that there is another bowl of vanilla wafers and another glass of milk on the table in front of him. This time the boy eats and drinks slowly as if the waitress were his own mother and he were eating in the kitchen at home.

When darkness falls, the boy knows he must leave, but he hesitates, not sure of what to tell this generous woman. The boy rises and says, "Thank you very much, ma'am; goodbye..." The waitress bids the boy farewell, and he walks out onto the dock where the cool breeze refreshes his skin. As the boy walks, he vows to himself to repay the woman's kindness when he can, but a few minutes later all thoughts of repayment have evaporated with his hunger.

Coming to the water's edge, the boy, now invigorated, strides the wharf until he finds a stack of burlap sacks on which he reclines and falls asleep, his face turned toward the sea.