how are Mikeys mother and father portrayed in the novel? How do they change? How does the portrayal of each one relate to the issue of class consciousness?

Mike’s mother and father have different relationships to work, money, and capitalism, but both exemplify the class divides that Irwin Granich sees as fundamental to U.S. society.
Katie, the mother, struggles to raise Mike and his sister, Esther. She has a job in a cafeteria as well as caring for the children. When Esther is killed in an accident, hit by a moving company’s truck, the mother becomes despondent. Her grief is so heavy that she can no longer work. When the company offers them money, it only emphasizes their hypocrisy, and she refuses to put a price on her daughter’s life.
Herman, the father, works as a housepainter. He is a solidly working-class man who loses his livelihood from an accidental off a ladder. His quest to find other employment and his attitudes toward the “charitable” organizations that claim to want to help them show his bitterness at the owning class, along with his awareness of anti-Semitism that to some extent parallels class divisions. Although he starts to bend when their daughter is killed, seeing the company responsible as owing them, his wife’s objections win out. Herman continually tries to find a way ahead, but he becomes disillusioned with America altogether, including with the holiday of Thanksgiving.