SOURCE: "Levinsky and the Language of Acquisition," in The Monological Jew: A Literary Study, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1988, pp. 84-92.

In the following essay, Dembo discusses Cahan's use of language and dialogue in The Rise of David Levinsky.

What does the rise in The Rise of David Levinsky actually mean? We know what it means in The Rise of Silas Lapham by that author whom Abraham Cahan admired as a realist, William Dean Howells, but the question of Cahan's attitude toward his hero is more complex and more fraught with ambiguity. Even though Levinsky is in many ways a projection of his creator and often serves as his spokesman, the novel is far from being autobiographical. For one thing, the author was a life-long socialist, the character a business tycoon, portrayed as having, whatever his faults, a great deal of sensitivity and insight.

Why has Cahan chosen...