Abraham Cahan

His central subject -- “the (usually painful) process of ‘Americanization’ or assimilation of immigrants from all corners of the world."

He was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in a village a few miles from Vilna, Lithuania, then a part of the Russian Empire.

He admired Tolstoi and especially Chekhov.

An intensified Russian anti-Semitism and an unprecedented series of murderous pogroms unleashed against Russian Jews . . . [led] to . . . the massive emigration, starting in 1882, of Russian and Eastern European Jews to Palestine and, in much greater numbers, to America (two million by 1924).

Cahan arrived in the U.S. in 1882.

YIDDISH -- a language that combined Middle High German dialects with vocabularies taken from Hebrew, Slavic, and European languages and as time went on a distinctively American vocabulary.

The story’s TENSION -- (1) between the grim and cramped spaces the characters occupy and the exhilarating release of romantic love some of them experience, (2) between the pretensions of the prideful bosses of a “cockroach” shop and the independence and self-reliance of the young couple who refuse to be treated as servants and who marry in the end.

With apparent artlessness, this story illuminates truthfully and movingly the emotional and psychological realities of ordinary men and women living with good humor under difficult economic, cultural, and social circumstances.

At the same time the story provides insight into highly specific aspects of the rapidly growing and increasingly competitive garment industry.

Another aspect of the story’s apparent artlessness has to do with Cahan’s skillful use of language . . . Yiddish and heavily accented English in this story are largely absorbed and “translated” into the perceptive by lucid language of an omniscient third-person narrator.

The change of presentational mode is a clear sign of Cahan’s mastery of English and sophistication of technique.

In this story his sharp eye and sensitive ear for language are at the service of mood and characterization.

Possible Criticisms:

Compared to other stories in the NAAL, this story might seem mild and comparatively unassuming, a bit like a network situation comedy. The interpersonal chemistry and the conflict of Leizer’s shop could fill half an hour of air time with mild laughter.

We have bashful lovers, overbearing parents, and social hierarchies disrupted by the move from the Old World to the New. Aren't these pretty “common” subjects?

When the low-paid lovers-to-be stand up to an arrogant boss and lose their jobs, they find new ones together, they become engaged, and the ending is quick and happy. Is this kind of ending too "romantic," too unrealistic, too convenient?

We are not likely to find much that’s unique in the plot or character list . . .

. . . BUT we may be intrigued by peculiarities in the way the tale is told: the tone and position of the narrator, the stylization of the dialogue.

The characters speak WITHOUT accents, without any of the DIALECT that turns up in other stories of this period.

What is gained and what is sacrificed with such stylization?

What is gained and risked by telling a story of love, reticence, and misunderstanding? In other words, isn't this one of the oldest stories in the world?