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Family influences on child development
Family influence on children's development
Family influences on child development
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My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok, is about the life of a Hasidic Jew and famous artist, Asher Lev. Potok makes it clear from the beginning of the narrative that creating art is what Asher was born to do. The narrative takes us through various stages in Asher’s life, from child to adult and young artist to master painter. Even at a young age, Asher tries to draw everything he sees around him. His artistic impulse drives him to do certain things of which others in his community don’t approve of. Throughout the book, Asher has to decide between his precious arts or the community of his parents.
The book follows Asher's development as a person and an artist. Asher is very gifted as an artist and, when he was younger, couldn’t control himself. He often seems detached from the world around him and generally zoned out. As Asher grows, the conflict becomes more visible between art and religion. He makes more decisions about what is more important to him. The conflict becomes one not only of Asher's art, but of his need to express his feelings through it. Asher expresses his mother's pain is through a Christian symbol. Lev’s art has led him to accept a world that is very different from his Hasidus society, to evolve meaning from Christian symbols. On the other hand, he finds it freeing expressing himself and how he personally sees the world. His freedom comes at a price though.
Asher’s parents, specifically his father Aryeh, do not approve of his gift. The story is told from Asher’s point of view, as he reflects over the events that have taken place in his life. Even in beginning of the story, the reader is given a picture of his father’s attitude towards his art. After Aryeh calls his art foolishness, this sets up the relationship bet...
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... paintings. “‘There are limits Asher...everything has a limit.’”, Rivkeh says. Asher’s art, has crossed boundaries that even his mother was no longer able deal with.
In “Beauty, Sentimentality and the Arts,” in The Beauty of God: Theology and the Arts”, Jeremy Begbie refers to Rivkeh’s resistance to Asher’s art as an example of sentimentalism. It does not allow her to see the truth or real beauty in Asher’s art. She knows that his renderings are well crafted. But she will not say it is beautiful if it doesn’t depict the “pretty” world that she dreamed of. Asher forces himself to paint these “pretty” things for his mother to please her. Asher has always understood the world to be much worse than his mother admits to. Because of this, Asher feels that he is not being true to himself or his art by depicting the world only as a “pretty” place, he depicts it much uglier.
Potok, Chaim. “Asher Lev, an artist is a person first.” Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 May. 2014.
"If you were a genius in mathematics, I would understand. If you were a genius in writing, I would also understand. If you were a genius in Gemorra, I would certainly understand. But a genius in drawing is foolishness, and I will not let it interfere with 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 a young age that he was destined to draw. Unfortunately, his friends and family simply discarded his gift as foolishness or mere childishness. His struggles were so great that he became a virtual outcast. The cost of being an artist was so immense as to affect the life of Asher Lev in profound ways.
At the beginning of the poem, the audience is able to witness an event of a young boy asking his father for story. While the father was deemed a “sad” man, it is later shown that his sadness can be contributed to his fear of his son leaving him. The structure then correlated to the point of going into the future. The future was able to depict what would happen to the loving duo. The father's dreams would become a reality and the son's love and admiration would cease to exist as he is seen screaming at his father. Wanting nothing to do with him. The young, pure child can be seen trying to back lash at his father for acting like a “god” that he can “never disappoint.” The point of this structure was not really a means of clarification from the beginning point of view, but more as an intro to the end. The real relationship can be seen in line 20, where it is mentioned that the relationship between the father and son is “an emotional rather than logical equation.” The love between this father and son, and all its complexity has no real solution. But rather a means of love; the feelings a parent has for wanting to protect their child and the child itself wanting to be set free from their parents grasp. The structure alone is quite complex. Seeing the present time frame of the father and son
For instance, in My Name Is Asher Lev , Asher is unsure whether or not the responsibility of pleasing the important people of his life and community is more important than making himself happy. In order for Asher to make others happy, he must sacrifice his one desire of being an artist. After attempting to do so, he concludes that being an artist is a greater priority in his life, because can not meet the needs of all the people that are important in to him in his life. Asher’s mother has no objections of his desire to draw, and is often encouraging him, which late in the novel leads him to become an artist. One example of his mother influencing him, she takes Asher, at a young age, on walks to several places, like the park. At these places Asher is able to draw different images, helping him find a hobby that he loves and that will later become his life. Another place his mother takes him to is the art museum. There they speak and learn about art, which Asher is later influenced by the paintings that are on display in that museum, and he often copies famous paintings. Another example, his mother is constantly asking Asher questions about his art, showing signs of interest. For instance, when she is ill and does not speak to her as often as she once did, she asks, “Asher?... Asher, are you drawing pretty things? Are you drawing sweet, pretty things? ...You should make the world pretty, Asher. Make it sweet and pretty. It’s nice to live in a pretty world” (Potok, p.17-18). By speaking to Asher about art when she is so sick and has other things on her mind shows him that she enjoys his art and that it is important.
It reminds us of a time not so different from where we live now, a world filled with lies, hatred, and moral ambiguity. It’s a story that largely reminds us as humans who we are, prone to mistakes and preconceptions that can lead to disastrous results, but also capable of growth and redemption. This story really allows you to understand different philosophies, perceptions, and differing opinions of morality and
Amir’s development from being “a boy who won’t stand up for himself,” to a man that stands up for the morally responsible thing to do (22, Hosseini). When Amir was a child, he tried to escape from his sins in the past by hiding them with lies. However, this only made it worse for Amir, causing him to be an insomniac for much of his life and putting himself through constant torment. Only when Amir became a man, like Baba wanted him to be, was Amir able to face the truth of what he done and put himself on the path of redemption. Even when Amir was suffering a violent beating from Assef, Amir was able to laugh because he knew he was doing what he should have for Hassan years ago. Amir’s development from a child, who lies in order to cower from their own mistakes, into a man, someone who is not only able to admit his sins, but atone for them, is essential to communicating the theme of redemption being the only way to settle with your
many other emotions that the artist is trying to display in his painting. Although we can try and
At the beginning of the novel, Amir and Hassan were complete opposites, but as the novel progresses, it is shown how they are one in the same. When Amir was younger, he did not have the caring and faithful qualities like Hassan did, but once he was called upon to take charge of an important situation, he quickly gained those qualities. Amir overcame his past struggles to become more mature and gain those necessary qualities to live an honest life. Hassan brought out the best qualities in Amir, and their unique friendship changed Amir’s life forever.
The story symbolizes character’s in different way that can be interpreted to analyze. Harry Ashfield, a 5 year old kid, dies in a tragic way where his belief and faith lead him to what seemed a pointless death. His literally taking of Bevel Summers words lead him to God, where he wanted to be after living a life so empty and concerning The story represents actions and events that help us visualize what each character symbolizes, to conclude to a characters faith, belief, and weakness/strengths. Flannery O Connor helps us to connect with the story and possibly think about how are religion or beliefs affected us towards conflicts. Having personal connection is our main focus and the characters in the story may represent us or something in our lives.
... Recovering from this rescue, Amir learns that an orphanage Rahim spoke of does not exist. This leaves him with the issue of what to do with this child. Amir ponders to himself, “I wondered what I'd do with the little wounded boy on the bed, though a part of me already knew” (Hosseini, 328). Related to redemption, this quote foreshadows that Amir will adopt and take Sohrab home. For what is he to do but save his brother's son? To redeem himself of a betrayal long ago Amir knows he has to take in and take care of Sohrab. Thus, foreshadowing is a principal device in evoking the theme of redemption.
Hassan represents all that is good and kind and Assef represents all things evil. Through the character descriptions of Amir, Hassan, and Assif, Hosseini displayed his thoughts on sin and redemption. In the novel redemption is so important because sin is so enduring. Amir opens the story by telling us not about how exactly he sinned, but about sin's endurance: "It's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out." (15) Hosseini uses structure and character description to emphasize the themes of sin and redemption.
When I saw Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring about five years ago at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., I felt something about the painting that I had never felt before when looking at artwork. I felt as if this girl, this young woman in the painting was real, hiding in the museum behind this canvas. She was in the flesh. Her skin was still dewy from three hundred-something years ago, the light across her face still glowing. She was in the round, her eyes followed mine, she was real. She was about to speak, she was in a moment of thought, she was in reflection. This girl was not crimson red or titanium white, she was flesh. Vermeer caught her, a butterfly in his hand. She was not just recorded on canvas, she was created on canvas. She was caught in a moment of stillness. Vermeer creates moments in his paintings. When viewing them, we step into a private, intimate setting, a story. Always, everything is quiet and calm. I realize now it is no wonder I had such a strong reaction to Vermeer the first time I saw him: he is a stillness seeker.
He has grown up in the backwash of a dying city and has developed into an individual sensitive to the fact that his town’s vivacity has receded, leaving the faintest echoes of romance, a residue of empty piety, and symbolic memories of an active concern for God and mankind that no longer exists. Although the young boy cannot fully comprehend it intellectually, he feels that his surroundings have become malformed and ostentatious. He is at first as blind as his surroundings, but Joyce prepares us for his eventual perceptive awakening by mitigating his carelessness with an unconscious rejection of the spiritual stagnation of his community. Upon hitting Araby, the boy realizes that he has placed all his love and hope in a world that does not exist outside of his imagination. He feels angry and betrayed and comes to realize his self-deception, describing himself as “a creature driven and derided by vanity”, a vanity all his own (Joyce). This, inherently, represents the archetypal Joycean epiphany, a small but definitive moment after which life is never quite the same. This epiphany, in which the boy lives a dream in spite of the disagreeable and the material, is brought to its inevitable conclusion, with the single sensation of life disintegrating. At the moment of his realization, the narrator finds that he is able to better understand his particular circumstance, but, unfortunately, this
The novel starts right off with the notion of a love between a mother and a son. Even at a young age, Stephen is able to distinguish that his mother is a source of pure, unabridged love. “His mother had a nicer smell than his father. ”(1) At a very young age the artist is already beginning to form because of women, he is beginning to see beauty through the senses.
In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Dedalus defines beauty and the artist's comprehension of his/her own art. Stephen uses his esthetic theory with theories borrowed from St. Thomas Aquinas and Plato. The discourse can be broken down into three main sections: 1) A definitions of beauty and art. 2) The apprehension and qualifications of beauty. 3) The artist's view of his/her own work. I will explain how the first two sections of his esthetic theory relate to Stephen. Furthermore, I will argue that in the last section, Joyce is speaking of Stephen Dedalus and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as his art.