Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Unfulfilled hopes and dreams are a common theme in The Assistant, so you can image that the characters fear their lives will amount to nothing—a waste. This is particularly how Helen looks upon her own life.
The adult daughter of the store owners Morris and Ida, she wants a future for herself. She longs for an education, but also for a future in love, both of which seem to have been taken from her. She wants enjoyment in the moment as well, but "without aftermath of conscience, or pride, or sense of waste" (1.3.20). She dreads waste because that's what everything becomes for her.
When Helen looks at her father's life, still in the same place he's always been, it leaves her "with a sense of the waste of her own" (1.4.38) She worries that her life will be more of the same, and she regrets that she didn't do enough to make her father's life something worth cherishing.
On a particular lonely night, Helen feels that "the spring-like loveliness of the night" has gone, "in her hands, to waste" (6.7.18). She feels she cannot make something good with what she has.
At least, this is how she feels at her worst moments. We have hope for her because she still dreams and presses on. Help us Helen Bober, you're our only hope.