Like the autobiographical character in Elie Wiesel's Night, Herman is constantly haunted by his Holocaust experiences. However, whereas Wiesel's character is determined to remember and speak out on behalf of the six million victims, Herman chooses to forget.

The Assistant (1957) by Bernard Malamud portrays a Jewish family adjusting to American life. Although a loyal family man and not a Holocaust survivor, Malamud's Morris Bober shares much with Herman: the reluctance to accept Judaism; the struggles for success; and the entrapment within an alien culture.