Evidence Outline

Thesis: In the novel “Call It Sleep” by Henry Roth, the author puts us in the perspective of the barriers, hardships, and challenges an immigrant boy faces in such a foreign and complex world. Roth’s portrayal of these aspects helps us to understand the pathway of cultural assimilation in a new environment.

“Can’t you see that those idiots lying back there are watching us already? They’re mocking us! What will the others do on the train?”(page 31)

“But you look so lean, Albert, so haggard. And your mustache—you’ve shaved.”(page 27)

“Flocks of pigeons wheeled. Where they flew in lower air, they hung like a poised and never-raveling smoke; nearer at hand and higher, they glittered like rippling water in the sun. Quiet. Sunlight on brow and far off plating the sides of spires and water-towers and chimney pots and the golden cliffs of the streets. To the east the bridges, fragile in powdery light.” (page 407)

• In the beginning when David and Genya meet with David’s father, Albert at the port. Genya couldn’t recognize Albert because he “looked so lean” with his “mustache shaved”. Since Albert was living in the United States before having his family join him, his change in his appearance foreshadows the effect of cultural assimilation to being americanized.

• When David and his mother, Genya, first arrived in the United States David was wearing a straw hat from the old homeland. David’s father said angrily “Can’t you see that those idiots lying back there are watching us already? They’re mocking us! What will the others do on the train?”. David’s father was angry at that because he didn’t want people to know that they are immigrants but Genya didn’t seem to mind. Maybe David’s father didn’t want people to know that they were jewish so that they wouldn’t face any anti-semitism or acts of prejudice from in their home land.

• When David was going up to the rooftop of his apartment he described the scene as “Flocks of pigeons wheeled. Where they flew in lower air, they hung like a poised and never-raveling smoke; nearer at hand and higher, they glittered like rippling water in the sun. Quiet. Sunlight on brow and far off plating the sides of spires and water-towers and chimney pots and the golden cliffs of the streets. To the east the bridges, fragile in powdery light.”. The imagery that Roth uses to describe what David see’s in his neighborhood describes the typical setting of an urban society. David and his parents lived on the Lower East Side of Manhattan where many immigrants settled. The living conditions were like the slums