My Experience
My experience reading Call It Sleep by Henry Roth felt like revisiting and comparing other novels I’ve read that share a similar storyline about immigrants coming to America and facing harsh working and living conditions. It reminded me especially of the novel I read for my second post, A Tale of the New York Ghetto, since both works portray the struggles, poverty, and challenges immigrants endured while trying to build new lives in America. Also, the characters of Call It Sleep are Jewish immigrants who grew up speaking Yiddish and who are from Austria. This novel has gave me a better understanding and sense regarding my religion, my ancestors, and novels that are similar.
Classifying My Experience
While reading this novel, I experienced many emotions. I experienced immersion, connection, relearning, and identification. Similarly to the other novels I’ve read, I felt immersed in the main character, David’s life. Immersion is defined as “Absorbing or engrossing involvement in a story. You might feel as though you’ve been swallowed by the story.” As I read these novels listening to the audiobook, it feels like I am behind the scenes watching and listening to what is going on the story while it is happening. Secondly, I felt connection. Connection is defined as “Feeling linked or bonded to others in community.” I was able to feel a connection to David and his parents because they are Jewish and practice their religion. A sense of connection also emerged when David was speaking to his neighborhood friend Yussie, and Yussie was speaking in broken English. This is a common recurring pattern as the characters’ first language isn’t English and their primary language is Yiddish. Another experience I felt was relearning. Relearning is defined as “Learning something you have learned in the past and partially forgotten.” Throughout this course, the themes and experiences I encountered in other immigrant novels closely connect to what is happening in this novel. These themes connect to difficult labor conditions, minimal pay, and the challenges of adapting to the English language that are shown in the other novels I’ve read. Lastly, a new experience I learned is identification. Identification is defined as “Recognizing, in a character’s experience, a conflict that you have experienced.” David and his family experienced an entirely new life after moving to America. On a smaller scale, I have experienced something similar when I moved to a new school and found myself in an unfamiliar environment, not knowing anyone or what to expect. Also, while reading this novel, I felt
The Features that Prompted my Experience
In Chapter 3, the mother Genya mentioned that she keeps a kosher household and attends synagogue. My ancestors kept a kosher household and attended synagogue, as I did when I was younger. This created a connection between myself and my ancestors’ past similarly to David’s. “And whether David’s mother kept a kosher- at which she smiled- and whether David’s father still had time to do phylacteries in the morning and what synagogue he attended-“(Roth, 31 ) While reading this novel I also experienced relearning. In chapter 1, Yussie and David are speaking in broken English. “It wakes op mine fodder in de mawning”(Roth, 21) This quote made me experience relearning because I have read other novels where immigrants were speaking in broken English. In chapter 1, I also experienced immersion. “You peel off the year as one might a cabbage. Are you ready for your journey?” (Roth, 19) In this quote, David’s mother is speaking to David about his calendar and the idea of him becoming a year older each year. I felt that I was in the story and thinking about David’s future as he gets older in America. Lastly, I experienced something new while reading this novel. While reading Call It Sleep, I also felt identification. In the prologue, the narrator explains how there was a man who had immigrated to America and now is trying to bring his wife and child into America from their home country. “The man had evidently spent some time in America and was now bringing his wife and child over from the other side.”(Roth, 10) This is similar to when Jake takes large efforts to bring his wife and child also into America. It symbolizes a new chapter in immigrants’ lives, as they step into a world filled with both opportunity and uncertainty. I felt the same way on a smaller scale situation as I was moving to a new school and I didn’t know where anything was nor knowing anyone. This also aligns with connection.
Determining the Narrative Technologies Prompting my Experience
A narrative technology that has prompted my experience is Free Indirect Discourse. At times, the narrator describes David from an outside perspective, while at other moments, David speaks directly for himself. This made me feel like I was able to see how he thinks also what he fears. I felt I was thinking with him. “I think I do. I think when you come out of a house and step on the bare earth among the fields you’re the same man when you were inside the house.” (Roth, 31) The change of narration between the narrator and David has made me feel immersed as I felt I was behind the scenes. I also felt a connection between David’s perception of his religion and upbringing and how it is similar to mine. At many points in the novel I was able to connect with his confusion and adjustment which aligns with the experience of identification. The experience that led to relearning was me seeing his struggles through his eyes.
Featured Image
Cover for Call It Sleep. All Rights Reserved.
