The Rise of David Levinsky

Content Warning: This guide contains discussion of antisemitism and pogroms. It also references misogynistic views. This novel sometimes uses language that is offensive to people with mental health concerns and contains a depiction of sexual assault.

Cahan focuses on the impact of religion and spirituality on David’s interaction with the world. His entire youth centers on religious educational institutions. This upbringing impacts his interaction with America in three specific spheres, his language, his relationship with women, and his business dealings.

David spends his youth speaking Yiddish and learning Hebrew. While in Russia, he never learns Russian. David’s life in Antomir avoids the secular. When David arrives in America, he realizes that his best chance for acceptance lies in assimilation. He works tirelessly to master the English language as spoken by Americans. He even studies the mannerisms and gestures of Americans to integrate more fully, he explains, “striving to memorize every English word I could catch and watching intently, not only his enunciation, but also his gestures, manners, and mannerisms, and accepting it all as part and parcel of the American way of speaking” (159). David knows that his success as a salesman depends upon his ability to make others comfortable in his presence, and he believes that being as American as possible is his best bet.