The assistant shoemaker is another of Malamud's weirdly insistent, lonely souls--impelled, who knows why, to devote himself to a hopeless love; still wincing from the horrors of Europe, which he has not entirely escaped; inarticulate, yet bursting with passion, if only his boss, the master shoemaker, will deign to listen.
The assistant shoemaker wants the master shoemaker to listen to them.
The assistant to the shoemaker was very busy dealing with his passionate work and a family at home.