David Schearl's Call It Sleep
Call It Sleep is the story of a Jewish family in New York. Six-year-old David Schearl has a close and loving relationship with his mother but his father Albert is aloof, resentful and angry toward his wife and son. David's development takes place between fear of his father's potential violence and the life in the streets of the slums.
After the family has begun settling into their life in New York, Genya's sister Aunt Bertha arrives from Austria to stay with them. Bertha's coarse and blunt nature offends Albert, and her presence in the home renews and exacerbates the tension in the family. Bertha leaves the Schearl household when she marries Nathan, a man she met at the dentist's office. She and Nathan open a candy store where they live …show more content…
Leo often belittles David, acting as a superior because he is older and a Christian. Leo bullies David, promising him a rosary, something that David was curious about, due to not knowing what it is, if David does what he wants.David is thrown into an agitated state. He goes to the rabbi, lying, telling him that Genya is actually his aunt, his true mother is dead and that he is the son of her affair with the non-Jewish man. Polly tells Bertha and Nathan about what Leo did with Esther. As the rabbi goes to the Schearl household to inform Genya and Albert of what David told him, Bertha begs Nathan not to confront Albert about David's role in Leo's actions. Nathan goes anyway, although he fears Albert's wrath as well.
As the others restrain Albert, David flees the apartment and returns to the electrified rail. This time, he touches the third rail with a long milk dipper in an attempt to create light and receives an enormous electric shock. David is left extrrmely injured, almost dead, but is found and brought to an ambulance, where the doctor revives him. When his parents are informed what happened, Albert appears remorseful and compassionate toward his son for the first time. As his mother takes him into her arms, David experiences a feeling of tiredness and hallucination, such that "he might as well call it
After the family has begun settling into their life in New York, Genya's sister Aunt Bertha arrives from Austria to stay with them. Bertha's coarse and blunt nature offends Albert, and her presence in the home renews and exacerbates the tension in the family. Bertha leaves the Schearl household when she marries Nathan, a man she met at the dentist's office. She and Nathan open a candy store where they live …show more content…
Leo often belittles David, acting as a superior because he is older and a Christian. Leo bullies David, promising him a rosary, something that David was curious about, due to not knowing what it is, if David does what he wants.David is thrown into an agitated state. He goes to the rabbi, lying, telling him that Genya is actually his aunt, his true mother is dead and that he is the son of her affair with the non-Jewish man. Polly tells Bertha and Nathan about what Leo did with Esther. As the rabbi goes to the Schearl household to inform Genya and Albert of what David told him, Bertha begs Nathan not to confront Albert about David's role in Leo's actions. Nathan goes anyway, although he fears Albert's wrath as well.
As the others restrain Albert, David flees the apartment and returns to the electrified rail. This time, he touches the third rail with a long milk dipper in an attempt to create light and receives an enormous electric shock. David is left extrrmely injured, almost dead, but is found and brought to an ambulance, where the doctor revives him. When his parents are informed what happened, Albert appears remorseful and compassionate toward his son for the first time. As his mother takes him into her arms, David experiences a feeling of tiredness and hallucination, such that "he might as well call it