Awake and Sing!: Analysis of Major Characters
"Awake and Sing!" is a poignant play set during the Great Depression, exploring the struggles of a working-class Jewish American family, the Bergers, as they navigate economic hardship and personal conflicts. The central character, Bessie Berger, is a domineering housewife who prioritizes the family's outward appearance of respectability, fearing the loss of their home. Her husband, Myron, is characterized as weak and submissive, clinging to small hopes of financial relief through gambling. Their son, Ralph, embodies idealism yet feels trapped by his financial limitations, which impede his aspirations and relationships. Bessie's daughter, Hennie, grapples with her independence amidst societal pressures and ultimately makes a drastic choice that challenges her family's values.
The play also features Bessie's father, Jacob, who represents philosophical dissent, culminating in a tragic end that reflects his despair. Other characters, such as Uncle Morty and the boarder Moe Axelrod, highlight contrasting perspectives on success and morality within a capitalist framework, while also impacting the family's dynamics. Through the lens of each character, "Awake and Sing!" offers a rich analysis of resilience, aspiration, and the complexity of familial bonds in dire circumstances.
Awake and Sing!: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Clifford Odets
First published: 1935
Genre: Play
Locale: The East Bronx, New York
Plot: Social criticism
Time: The early 1930's
Bessie Berger, a working-class Jewish American housewife struggling to hold her family together during the Great Depression of the 1930's. Bessie values the appearance of respectability above all else. Her greatest fear is that she and her family might be put out of their home and thrown into the street, as an old lady who lived near them has been. Bessie is domineering and self-righteous. She does not think deeply. Her life is centered on her family, three generations of which live in a cramped apartment in the Bronx.
Myron Berger, Bessie's husband, a follower rather than a leader. Myron is a broken man, completely controlled by Bessie, who is much stronger than he is. He once studied law at night school but did not complete his studies. He tries innocently to overcome the hardships of the Depression by buying chances on the Irish Sweepstakes and by betting a few dollars on a horse, convinced that the government would not let such enterprises be crooked. His chances of winning are his only tangible hopes for the future.
Ralph Berger, Myron and Bessie's idealistic son, who scrapes by on the sixteen dollars a week he earns only by living at home. He contributes much-needed funds to the family coffers. He has a girlfriend, Blanche, but cannot entertain any realistic idea of marrying her because of his financial situation. Bessie's moral posture, the appearance of respectability at any price, appalls Ralph, a decent person who has never had an even break. When he was a child, there was never money to have his teeth fixed or to buy him a pair of roller skates he wanted. Now that he is earning money, little has changed. He still barely survives economically, and he still cannot live his own life.
Hennie Berger, Myron and Bessie's daughter, who has a streak of independence in her, although she is slowly being crushed by the same economic forces and insecurities that threaten the rest of the family. When the family's boarder, Moe Axelrod, gets Hennie pregnant, Bessie, to preserve the appearance of respectability, forces Hennie into a marriage with the unsuspecting immigrant Sam Feinschreiber, whom Hennie does not love. She finally abandons her family and compromises her child's future by running away with Moe, thereby asserting her independence but also demonstrating her self-centered willfulness.
Jacob, Bessie's father, who lives with the family. He and Ralph share a philosophical kinship. Jacob quotes the sayings of Karl Marx, using Marx to support his contention that families such as this one should not exist. Jacob and Bessie are at opposite poles, with Jacob the almost total idealist and Bessie the pragmatist. Jacob finally commits suicide by plunging off the roof of the Bergers' apartment building, having written his small insurance policy over to Ralph so that Ralph can have a new beginning.
Uncle Morty, Bessie's affluent, cigar-smoking, womanizing brother and Jacob's son. He comes to the Bergers' apartment so that his father can cut his hair. He represents the practical businessman who has ceased to be a person. He is what the people he does business with require him to be. He is loud, rich, and insensitive, a character corrupted by the very capitalistic system that has made him affluent. He refers to Jacob as a nut.
Moe Axelrod, the Bergers' sexually tempting boarder, a ladies' man who lost one leg in the war and now lives on a decent disability pension. Moe is no more sensitive than Uncle Morty. He may not be rich, but he has the security of his pension, which is important in the bleak days of the Depression. Having impregnated Hennie and refused to marry her, he proceeds to destroy the marriage her mother arranged for her by virtually forcing her to leave her husband and baby to run off with him to an uncertain—and likely not very enduring—future.
Sam Feinschreiber, a lonely immigrant with whom Myron works. Myron brings Sam home to dinner to meet Hennie, who has no interest in him. Sam, however, is the vehicle through which Bessie can preserve her family's respectability after Hennie becomes pregnant.
Schlosser, the superintendent of the building in which the Bergers live. He informs the family of Jacob's suicide. Schlosser is German. His wife ran away with another man twenty years earlier, leaving Schlosser to rear their daughter, as Hennie is about to do. The daughter did not turn out well, and Schlosser has lived a life of desperation and frustration for two decades.