Character Analysis
Polak is an editor Gandhi befriends at a vegetarian restaurant (4.18.2), proving that you always have to be on the lookout for new chums, even when you're chowing down on lunch. Polak becomes one of Gandhi's followers. He loans the author Unto This Last (4.18.8), which inspires Gandhi to start up the Phoenix Settlement and pursue the simple life. When Polak hears about the Phoenix Settlement, he's delighted and obtains permission from Gandhi to live there (4.21.5).
Polak is a simple and sociable fellow:
By his sociability he won the hearts of all and soon became a member of the family. Simplicity was so much a part of his nature that, far from feeling the life at Phoenix in any way strange or hard, he took to it like a duck takes to water. (4.21.6)
We think the inclusion of Polak shows just how joyful Gandhi's followers are and how the Phoenix Settlement truly becomes like a home to them.