Call It Sleep Analysis

Climbing up the Social Scale

The time and way people are brought up in society makes a huge difference on how they will climb up the social scale in life. In the classic novel House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton and Call it Sleep, by Henry Roth the main characters experience totally different upbringings into society. While Lily Bart is brought up into a high class society, David is born into an immigrant family in a part of the city, which has similar people as his own country. The two characters in the novels both have different and some similar views on how to climb up on the social scale. Although they would give different advice to each other on how to climb the social scale, and have different views on life, one thing that would be common
Although he is only seven in the book, David understands everything that is happening around him, and learns how to survive in his world. Unlike Lily's rich, upper class society, David comes from an immigrant family, who lives with people who are similar in ethnicity. In David's eyes the key to surviving in the world is to have a steady job, one must conform to American society, and one should never be scared of anything. From the beginning of the book we see that David's dad has problems with getting a job, he gets fired from almost every job that he has. In turn the dad is always mad, and has a lot of anxiety issues, which always brings hostility into the house. One needs money to survive in any community, and since the dad always gets fired from his jobs he's in a sense, always on the edge of a cliff. We see the happiness in the father when he realizes that he will no longer have to go searching for jobs, when he gets a job for Dolman's Press. He writes, "I told you this cursed wondering from job to job will end… now time may bring something- who knows"(32). This quotation shows how a job is very important for a person not only to survive but to have some sort of happiness in a household. Another advice that David would give Lily would be that immigrants should conform to American society so they can rise on the social scale. Again we see that the dad desperately tries to act American, but always fails. Luter however is a perfect example of an immigrant with higher status, and a person who conforms to American society. In the scene where Luter is invited for dinner to David's house, we see that he is in a higher social status, and is also respected by the Dad. Lastly David would tell Lily that one should never be scared. In the book David is scared of many things, he fears upsetting his parents, he's afraid of the dark, and he's afraid to be free, do what other kids in the