8. Discuss the relationship between Asher and Jacob Kahn. Asher Lev and his mentor, Jacob Kahn illustrated a relationship of God’s creation and temptation from the devil. Throughout the novel, Kahn pushes Asher to devote his life to art, and describes it as “a tradition; it is a religion...It has it’s fanatics, and I will force [Asher] to master it” (Potok 213). Throughout Jewish texts, it is clearly stated that God’s people, whom Asher Lev belongs to in the novel, will face temptations from The Other Side that will lead them away from Him. As art is against Orthodox Jewish beliefs, another Jew persuading and encouraging Asher Lev to continue his passion of painting, can be a symbol of the devil in disguise. This is furthered, as Kahn introduced his pupil to many …show more content…
The reader can interpret this as being evil, devilish, for it is made clear that without knowledge of the mentioned paintings, Asher would not have committed blasphemy through painting his mother on a crucifix. The relationship between the two artists is described as a mentor and his apprentice, however, it is depicted as more of a religious follower being guided away from his values to practice beliefs contradictory to religion. 10. Analyze Potok’s choice of setting. Why is the setting important to the story? Set in New York City in the time following Stalinist Russia, the setting of My Name is Asher Lev heavily contributes to the story, for the location is a place for people of all kinds, whereas the time was excessively prejudiced and anti-semitic. Asher Lev grew up as a child trying to learn that people of his own culture were slaughtered for their beliefs, shown through his confusion early on, “‘What writers were shot, Mama?’ “Jewish writers in Russia,’ …’Why were they shot?’ ...the dreaded name again” (Potok 58). As a young kid, Asher is surrounded by a world of hatred, despite
Just as Burroughs reveals the drug underground as it really is, Asher Lev is an artist of reality. His talent for art was recognized early in his life, but it was some years later that his view of the world became more apparent. He was neither a pessimist nor was his an optimist, but his drawing capture a little of both realms. He drew what he felt: what he saw as reality in his mind. More often in the book, however, do we see Asher's pessimistic views on the world come out because of the events that are going on in his life. "I don't like the world, Mama. It's not pretty. I won't draw it pretty." (52) Just like Burroughs, Asher does not think about what would be acceptable to those who view his works, or the beliefs of his religion, or if what he is drawing may be considered wrong; he just draws what he truly feels at the time.
Throughout the text “My name is Asher Lev” by Chaim Potok, minor characters of Jacob Kahn, the Rebbe, Uncle Yitzchok and Yudel Krinsky are central to our understanding of the text. Each character plays a significant part in the artistic progress of Asher Lev and allows him to reach a level of artistic talent at a young age. Their description and techniques used to describe them help the reader interpret the text thoroughly as they have an understanding of the type of character. Each minor character is as vital as the other as without one character Asher may not have been able to accomplish his great feats. Their contributions to Asher through either materials or advice are essential for Asher to establish himself as a great painter. Each character’s actions helping Asher succeed and also attributes to the tension created between themselves and Aryeh Lev which eventually results in the downfall of the Lev household. The minor characters are in essence the key to our understanding as each evaluates Asher’s feelings, emotions, and frustrations of art.
This shows how he never leaves the false impression he leads people to believe, the art or artifice he expresses to people. __________________________________________________________________________ In her graphic novel, she explores the art and artifice in her life. Alison decides that art is the truth and must be mastered, something beautiful. On the other hand, she comes to the fact the artifice is the falsehood she has encountered in life.
Asher and his art is an ultimate form of disrespect towards his parents and perhaps the Jewish community. They warn him of the day of hurt and resent like the opening day of Asher's paintings in the New York Museum. Asher's father returns from Russia, and says "Do not forget your people Asher" It is the same as if one Jew aches, the whole community hurts, Asher's mythic ancestor haunts him in his dream, and indicates that his art is a waste of time at the end of Chapter 4.
The way Potok sets up My Name is Asher Lev is to make the two worlds of Judaism and Secularism conflict. He does this with the use of many key icons and symbols of the two ways of life. He employs extreme Jewish symbols and symbol-systems, such as Hasidism, the Rebbe, Asher's father, Gemarah, Shabbos, and very symbolic holidays like Rosh Hashanah and Pesach, to portray a barrier between Asher, his community, and the rest of the world. He then uses extreme secular symbols such as, Russia, art, and in art, crusifixions, nudes, and Asher's art mentor Jacob Kahn, to show the radical differences between the two. At one point (in book 3, chapter 10) Jacob says to Asher, "You are too religious to be an Abstract Expressionist..." ... "We are ill at ease in the universe. We are rebellious and individualistic. We welcome accidents in painting. You are emotional and sensual but you are also rational. That is your Landover background...." Potok makes Hasidim out to be a dying culture by telling stories about them in the past, and a big part of Asher's consciousness of his heritage, and his dreams and perceptions of his Grandfather (chapter 3, pg. 98). "He came to me that night out of the woods, my mythic ancestor, huge, mountainous, dressed in his dark caftan and fur-trimmed cap, pounding his way through the trees on his Russian master's estate, the earth shaking, the mountains quivering, thunder in his voice." As for the other extreme throughout the book, there is an ongoing conflict inside Asher of what is expected and permitted to draw from an artistic perspective, and what is deemed unacceptable by his father, Asher's main religious influence.
Following a vivid dream in which Aylmer surgically removes Georgiana’s birthmark, Aylmer assures Georgiana with extreme faith in himself that he can heal their woes by removing the birthmark. The birthmark serves as a symbol for the uncleanliness of the sin that could be in her; not that she has been terribly unrighteous, but the birthmark, like sin, is an imperfection that he wishes to purify. I think the birthmark is a part of Georgiana that Aylmer cannot understand or explain, so he condemns it as sinful. It is possible that Aylmer may feel that what man cannot fathom is not of good nature. The idea that man associates evil with things he does not understand shows the close-mindedness that humans continue to carry through to the next generations through socialization. It could be a defense mechanism that we use to avoid physical or social harm. The shape of the birthmark also adds to its sin-like nature due to the negative co...
In the face of increasing anti-Semitism during the interwar periods Jewish identity often came into conflict with societal pressures to assimilate. Irving Howe’s, A Memoir of the Thirties, written in 1961, depicts his experiences as a Jew in New York City. In his memoir Howe describes the living and social conditions during this decade that pushed many New York Jews to become involved in some type of socialist movement. Although the memoir is primarily about political activities, his description of the social conditions and the Jewish community provides ...
Immediately at the start of the novel Asher is asking the reader to come to terms with how the choices humans make, in a constantly connected society,
Poet, journalist, essayist, and novelist Richard Wright developed from an uneducated Southerner to one of the most cosmopolitan, politically active writers in American literature. In many of Richard Wright's works, he exemplifies his own life and proves to “white” America that African American literature should be taken seriously. Before Wright, “white” America failed to acknowledge the role African American writing played in shaping American culture. It was shocking in itself that an African American could write at all. Thus, Richard Wright is well known as the father of African American literature mainly because of his ability to challenge the literary stereotypes given to African Americans.
Throughout the world, there are many genetic disorders that are well known to society. For example, Down Syndrome, Colorblindness and Autism are a few that people have knowledge of or know at least a fair amount of information of what those conditions are all about. Genetic conditions such as Jacob Syndrome however are rarely talked about. Even though it’s considered as minor compared to the others, it’s a genetic disorder that should still be known even if it’s just a small amount of info given.
A story of a young boy and his father as they are stolen from their home in Transylvania and taken through the most brutal event in human history describes the setting. This boy not only survived the tragedy, but went on to produce literature, in order to better educate society on the truth of the Holocaust. In Night, the author, Elie Wiesel, uses imagery, diction, and foreshadowing to describe and define the inhumanity he experienced during the Holocaust.
Asher Lev has been conflicted with art and his father, a very respectable man in the Jewish community since an early age. This is best shown in a conversation between fiver year old Asher and his father. When Asher's father comments on his drawings explaining that his grandfather would not have liked him wasting so much time on foolishness. Asher tries so combat his father by saying that a drawing is not foolishness however he is discouraged when his father overlooks this comeback. “...I continued to draw him anyway, though after awhile i stopped showing him my drawings.” (Potok 12).
Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, is an account about his experience through concentration camps and death marches during WWII. In 1944, fifteen year old Wiesel was one of the many Jews forced onto cattle cars and sent to death and labor camps. Their personal rights were taken from them, as they were treated like animals. Millions of men, women, children, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, disabled people, and Slavic people had to face the horrors the Nazi’s had planned for them. Many people witnessed and lived through beatings, murders, and humiliations. Throughout the memoir, Wiesel demonstrates how oppression and dehumanization can affect one’s identity by describing the actions of the Nazis and how it changed the Jewish
“Whenever my environment had failed to support or nourish me, I had clutched at books...” ― Richard Wright, Black Boy this is a quote from the famous Richard Wright an African American author. This quote means that no matter what was placed in his way or what he lacked that others had he hung on to what he had and did what he could. And the more he read about the world, the more he longed to see it and make a permanent break from the Jim Crow South. "I want my life to count for something," he told a friend. Richard Wright wanted to make a difference in the world and a difference he did make. Richard Wright was an important figure in American History because he stood astride the midsection of his time period as a battering ram, paving the way for many black writers who followed him, these writers were Ralph Ellison, Chester Himes, James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lorraine Hansberry, John Williams. In some ways he helped change the American society.
The Letters of Abelard and Heloise details the relationship between Abelard and Heloise, whose relationship is, from a personal perspective, tragic at best. This paper will explore Abelard and Heloise’s relationship through their correspondence and will demonstrate how Abelard and Heloise view the societal roles of women in a patriarchal Christian society, how Heloise is able to negotiate the constraints placed on her gender by society, and how this is reflected in the letters of Abelard and Heloise.