Sam Ramey

Sam in a Sheikh costume he designed for himself, c. 1920

**Samuel Cole Ramey** (birth name: Samuil Lvovich Abramov, Russian: Самуил Львович Абрамов, Yiddish: שמואל לוואָוויטש אַבראַמאָוו) is the protagonist of the novella and comic, *Sam in New York.*

First introduced as a 20 year old law student at New York University, Sam is a cheerful guy fond of puns, weird jokes, and occasionally "offensive" humour (sexual and political, usually). He is witty and more intelligent than he initially appears.

His interests include debate, the nightlife, music (especially atonal music, which he finds delightfully transgressive), and most of all, acting. He sees himself as a witty intellectual with street smarts (despite being quite sheltered in reality).
Sam's weaknesses include not thinking properly before diving headfirst into a new endeavour, not taking criticism well at times, and being easily bored. As Sam's parents note, if only he were more patient and less sensitive, he would have a much better work ethic.

Sam enjoys dressing in bright colours so more people will pay attention to him. There is nothing he enjoys more than being the centre of attention.

## Family Background

His parents, Lev and Raisa Abramov, were born and raised in the Pale of Settlement, modern day Belorussia. They are of Ashkenazi Jewish background. They grew up in the *shtetl*(Jewish settlements in Eastern Europe) and spoke Yiddish and only a bit of Russian (though his father, due to his political involvement and later residence in Odessa, has much better Russian than his mother, who was barely exposed to it growing up).

Lev was involved in the burgeoning Jewish movements in Eastern Europe of the late 19th century, such as Poalei Zion, which sought to empower the Jewish community through Marxism and class struggle. Later on, his parents fled to the USA (in the 1890s), finding life in Tsarist Russia too restrictive.
Sam, having been raised on his father's interest in Marxism (which has now faded due to the Red Scare of 1920s America and just general disillusionment), is obsessed with equality, even if using extreme measures to achieve said equality. Sam hopes his law degree will help him to fight oppression in America, but after three years of law school (he's in his third year), he finds that law school consists mostly of hypocritical blue-bloods who are more concerned about keeping the status quo than changing society.

## Why Sam Likes Acting

Because law school frustrates him, Sam finds solace in Yiddish theatre, where he finds more rebellious people. He eventually branches out to other types of theatre, hoping to one day break out into the stages of Mainstream American society.

Sam loves acting because he sees it as the ultimate act of individualism.

As he says of himself and his identity:

* But I'm American, my dear friend, I'm American--it doesn't matter that I grew up so differently from the 'typical American,' whatever that means! A new type of American is emerging in the 20th century, one that's nothing like the American of the past. No longer a pioneer or a settler, or some blueblood who's the head of a plantation somewhere down south. No, friends, the new American of the 20th century is someone like me! An everyman, a man whose parents fled the oppressive, intolerant Old World in search of freedom in this new country, to build something totally new. We new Americans embody the democratic ability to *choose* that America represents. As Emma Lazarus wrote in the 1880s to raise money for the construction of the Statue of Liberty, "give me your tired, your poor/your huddled masses!" Paul Bunyan? Johnny Appleseed? Make way for Sam Ramey, law school dropout, actor, playwright and future movie director.

## Dislikes

There is nothing Sam dislikes more than societal restrictions, especially ones he considers arbitrary or potentially dangerous for minorities such as himself.

#### **The Temperance Movement**

As a city (atheist but culturally Jewish) boy, Sam despises having rural, Protestant, Conservative values such as the Temperance Movement being pushed down his throat.

He dislikes Conservatives' attempts to define "American values" as necessarily being Protestant Christian, rural, and isolationist (as America was for the most part before the First World War).