In his The Way of the World, Franco Moretti proposes a certain theory of the European Bildungsroman throughout its history, ending with the approach of the Great War in 1914. In the United States in 1934, Henry Roth published his novel Call it Sleep, chronicling a portion of the childhood of his protagonist, David Schearl. As is clearly evident already, Call it Sleep does not specifically fit with the precise subject matter of The Way of the World; however, many of the general qualities of the Bildungsroman, with modifications, of course, are readily discernable in the text, even according to much of Moretti’s analysis. Among the general aspects of a text are those of dianoia and mythos, respectively content as a matter of structure and content as a matter of plot, a certain quality of which can be discerned for Moretti’s ideal Bildungsroman. By considering each of these matters through Call it Sleep’s themes of enmity with time and of clashing socialization, one finds a fascinating uncertainty, much akin to both the novel and the Bildungsroman itself.
Enmity with time is a consistent presence from the start of the novel, and David must always combat its flow, even unawares. Upon his arrival in the United States as an infant, time set itself against him when his mother, upon the demand of his father, claimed his age to be seventeen months, while the Hamburg doctor estimated his age to exceed two years, but David apparently is someplace in between (Roth 12-13). In this example, time has placed David in conflict both with desire, specifically those of his parents, and appearance, thanks to his size, consistent with the advancement beyond his supposed age throughout the course of the novel. This is very pertinent to the dianoia, which Moretti seems to view as an imbalance between “autonomy and socialization” (Moretti 28). The dianoia of the post-Napoleonic Bildungsroman, among whose features is often a hero “born in the wrong era,” wherein “individual autonomy and social integration are…incompatible choices” (Moretti 80). David, whose age here alienates him from all angles, is no friend of the present, linking his place in the world to one described by Moretti. Thus this building of David as a stranger to his world by time itself holds a certain consistency with Moretti’s conception of the post-Napoleonic hero.
Another such instance takes place much later, though such acts of David’s as collecting calendar leaves maintain the theme throughout, when David’s father commands him for one day to come along his milk delivery route and watch his cart while he is away. As David awaits the coming of this adventure in dread, he has been told to remain near the cart until his father is prepared to go. Instead, yielding to fearful desire, he wanders off to watch some other boys try to fish a coin out of a cellar: “Involuntarily, so it seemed to him, he gravitated toward the corner and went around it” (Roth 270). Of course, the reader is made perfectly aware of David’s true intentions, regardless of whether or not he is, and with each passing sentence the clock seems to tick, until at last, “sleeveless shirt dazzling in the light, his father was rapping the butt-end of the whip against the wagon” (Roth 273). David attempted to defeat the result of his enemy, time, by separating himself from it, but he failed; time carried on even without his attention. In this episode Moretti’s proposed mythos of the Bildungsroman is evident, which signifies that “the meaning of events lies in their finality” (7), or otherwise their lack thereof. The mythos, being largely a teleological concern, depends entirely upon the appearance of David’s father, but only after the time had passed. A mundane fishing of a coin out of a cellar or the commonplace rage of Albert Schearl by themselves communicate very little of particular note. They depend on one another, but only in opposition; time is the opponent of the end, just as it is David’s chief nemesis not only in this instance but also arguably in the novel as a whole. Thus this theme of enmity with time is not only an essential part of Call it Sleep, but also it is an aspect of the Bildungsroman itself, so it would seem according to Moretti.
Now, this enmity with time is closely linked with troubles with socialization, an essential aspect to the battle between autonomy and socialization that is apparently Moretti’s conception of the Bildungsroman’s dianoia. For this reason the literary theme of clashing socialization in Call it Sleep gains considerable weight. David, upon meeting Leo, becomes torn between two societies, so to speak: that of his mother and that of his friend, for lack of a better word. This becomes manifest from the moment David meets Leo, immediately desiring to be like him, to be part of his society. No clearer is this than when Leo explains the mystical powers of the cross he wears around his neck, to which David responds by “sigh[ing] and gaz[ing] at Leo’s chest half in awe, half in envy” (Roth 305). Of course, the more David learns of these matters, the clearer it becomes that these two societies of his are in conflict, creating a situation a bit different from Moretti’s description, wherein socialization is not only in conflict with autonomy, but it is also in conflict with different varieties of itself. Truly this is a new development in this strange world of multiple societies interacting and even, as in this case, competing. This is the embodiment of Call it Sleep’s theme of clashing socialization, which adds an entirely new dynamic to Moretti’s generalization of the dianoia of the Bildungsroman.
The closing passages of Call it Sleep deal with the mythos of these clashing societies once and for all, providing yet another departure from Moretti’s mold. Therein David is drifting into sleep after the great quarrel in his home and his electrocution at the rail. “He might as well call it sleep,” the narrator states, “it was only toward sleep that…” an apparently irrational series of images are recalled. At last David could “feel them all and feel, not pain, not terror, but strangest triumph…” (Roth 441). By evoking these thoughts and memories and making no attempt to make sense of them, David simply accepts them as they are. He need not worry about them any longer, and this is his triumph, for which he appropriately has no explanation for himself, as well. This is entirely deviant of Moretti’s outline of the mythos, wherein “[Events] become meaningful….It becomes so because someone…gives it meaning” (45). David utterly fails to do this, making him neither integrated into society nor dispelled from it, the two possible outcomes that Moretti proposes for the classical and post-Napoleonic Bildungsromans. Is this a new Bildungsroman for a new era, accepting doubt rather than pursuing certainty, or is it not a Bildungsroman at all?
Thus it cannot be said for certain whether Call it Sleep and The Way of the World fairly complement one another, for as stated at the start, Call it Sleep is part of neither the time nor the place that The Way of the World is meant to describe. By extension perhaps, and through applicable generalizations both exhibited here and not, Moretti’s theory of the Bildungsroman and Roth’s novel can likely find a comfortable synthesis. After all, it should be clear at this point that Moretti’s principles can without much trouble be used as a mode of analyzing Call it Sleep, and that is certainly compelling. At the least, two simple themes, enmity with time and clashing socialization, both so prevalent in the novel, relate very well to Moretti’s mythos and dianoia of the Bildungsroman. The question is now not so much whether Call it Sleep fits the analysis of The Way of the World, but whether The Way of the World’s analysis can be extended to cover Call it Sleep, and how its deviations are to be explained.
Bibliography
Moretti, Franco. The Way of the World: The Bildungsroman in European Culutre. New Edition. Verso, London: 2000.
Roth, Henry. Call it Sleep. Picador, New York: 1962.
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