Endless Sleep

Amos Owens in Beloved Husband is a man whose troubles started when he was just a boy. At the age of 10 Amos started waking up early in order to pick-up newspapers and deliver them to houses. Of course there are not very many people who enjoy being up early in the morning and for the young Amos the worst part was the awkward silence of the morning. When Amos turned 16 years old he started a new job working for a fish market. He had to meet the 4 o’clock train every morning in order to put the fish on ice. He continued this pattern of waking up early to work until he purchased the fish market at the age of 32. At this point he finally had the chance to not have to wake up early and he could sleep in. Unfortunately, that’s just not who he is. All of those years of waking up early had made it so he was unable to sleep in. While this doesn’t seem like a big problem, it lead to him feeling like an awkward outcast. Everyone else would sleep, while he was left alone with only the rare opportunity to talk with someone. To make things worse, he was treated like an outcast by his neighbors who he would accidently wake, and even his wife would ask him not to deprive her of sleep just because he can’t.  Almost everyone Amos knew thought he was weird for his habit. He even wished he could change, but it was just a part of who he was. The struggle between who he was, and what he wished he could be/what others wanted him to be lead to his own end.