Jewish New York in Abraham Cahan's The Rise of David Levinsky and Henry James' The American Scene

Essay from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1, Tel Aviv University Department of English (Tel Aviv University Department of English), course: Place in modern American literature, language: English, abstract: New York became the gateway for immigrants at the end of the nineteenth century. According to Rischin, by 1900 immigrants constituted over 76 % of the city's population. It was the time of the mass exodus of Jews from Eastern Europe. One third of the Jewish population tried to escape poverty and pogroms coming to America. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Lower East Side became the center of the Jewish population. It represents a whole era and a certain type of life, which its name evokes. "The name "Lower East Side" contains meaning that is automatically understood by all as distinctive, replete with a set of icons associated with it..." (Diner, p. 31). At this time the Lower East Side was an exotic place, which was closed to strangers. Its inhabitants were sealed off from the rest of American world.