My Name Is Asher Lev Essay

Asher Lev Essay: Minor characters are central to our understanding of any text. Analyse their significance in My Name Is Asher Lev. Central to our understanding of “My name is Asher Lev” by Chaim Potok, is the dynamics of Asher’s relationship with different minor characters involved. Each minor character such as Yudel Krinsky, Uncle Yitzchok, the Rebbe, and Jacob Kahn each help Asher in a different way allowing the reader to interpret the text more thoroughly. Their guidance to the antagonist creates

novel, My Name Is Asher Lev. As an Orthodox Jew, Asher's gift for art is looked upon very unfavorably. Despite the disapproval of his community and father and the pain his art causes those around him, he pursues his passion and must find a way to reconcile the conflict between his religious identity and his individual identity. Potok starts off with the main character delivering three short sentences that set up the basis for the entire book. Before the reader learns anything about Asher Lev or the

Most who’ve taken the time to read My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok would agree the novel to make for an exceptionally thoughtful, yet entertaining read. I can similarly testify of this after studying it myself and learning firsthand about the unique experiences of a young hasidic jew struggling to find his identity who is, coincidentally enough, named Asher. Aside from its merit as a generally fantastic source of literature though, what kind of eligibility does it possess in the way of academics

our lives. Do you understand me, Asher?" (Potok 136). The struggle begins for young Asher Lev, a talented artist who tries to convince his father and the rest of his family of his artistic ability, when his father refuses to recognize his talent. Set in a tightly knitted Jewish community in Brooklyn, Chaim Potok successfully depicted a young boy torn between his orthodox Jewish tradition and his passion for art in his best seller My Name is Asher Lev. Asher Lev knew from

Douglas, Asher Lev has to sacrifice his family and community for the sake of following his

appears in Asher’s dreams reprimanding him, chiding him. “Wasting time, wasting time. He thundered. Playing, drawing, wasting time.” (Potok 36). The Mythic Ancestor in this appearance is representing Asher’s father, reflecting his opinion on Asher drawings. That it is truly just a waste of time. According to them, it is absolutely foolish for him to be drawing and painting instead of focusing on his studies in order to be a good Hasidic boy. Asher’s parents are not proud of him because they

Critical Lens Hypothesis: Asher Lev’s struggle to reconcile his “gift” with his ultra-orthodox religious beliefs can be explained in Freudian terms. The human psyche is an incredibly complex system. It controls us in every aspect of our lives, rewarding us for a job well done while also making us feel guilty for each mistake we make. Our psyche is influenced by the world in which we live, by our immediate family and friends and also by those who we will meet during our lives. Each and

Throughout the novel, My Name Is Asher Lev by Chiam Potok, much of inner characters are revealed through the symbol of the window. The mother, the father, and Asher all face many struggles and the use of the window helps one to understand them. To begin with, the mother, Rivkeh, is shown a great deal by the window. Potok writes, “About an hour after supper, it began to snow heavily. My mother and I stood at the living-room window, watching for my father. ‘I hate this,’ my mother murmured, staring

In the books Candide, The Glass Menagerie, Their Eyes were Watching God, and My Name is Asher Lev written by Voltaire, Tennessee Williams, Zora Neale Hurston, and Chaim Potok, they are all discernibly different stories, yet they all appear to share the common theme of perseverance in varying degrees to find that happiness is not always awaiting them. I have found that the various symbolic language combined with each author’s different style of writing not only makes each story unique, but they also

of strength, and typical only crumble/ fall apart from within. If someone from the religious group starts to question the core values and beliefs of their community, they typical turn against the given individual. We see this represented in My Name is Asher Lev, written by Christian Potok, in which he explores the life of a Hasidic Jew. When one person starts to question within the community, the entire community gets affected. For the better of the community, this individual should be diminished