The Rise of David Levinsky is a tale of an immigrant from Russia who takes a chance, and abandons a Talmud-centered life for the change to strike it in the “land of opportunity”. In Russia, he had little but his religion. He lived with a single mom and ate meager portions in a room with numerous other families. After his mother is killed, he abandons Russia and eventually most of his religion in New York, trying to make it as a businessman.
It remains a sad fact that David could not hold on to his values in America, in the “godless country”. It seems that you can’t have both, monetary success and maintenance of value. Or maybe you can, and only in David’s case this wasn’t done. I believe he could have tried much harder to maintain his “inner self”. He is unhappy at the end because he abandons his identity, and so it leaves us begging the question, was it worth it? Was it really a “rise”?
One of my favorite parts of the story which I could most relate to was the interaction between Dora and her daughter, Lucy. Dora made Lucy’s education her number one priority. She didn’t care about her own happiness so much as Lucy’s. My mother didn’t finish high school and so she took my education very seriously when I was younger. She wanted me to take every opportunity she had but did not take advantage of, and so this part touched me dearly.
