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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 a vivid image inside the reader’s mind of the type of character and their importance to our understanding of the text. Each minor character listed has a deep impact on the resolution of Asher Lev
Yudel Krinsky is a Russian Jew from Siberia, in Russia. When he arrives in Brooklyn he is very grateful towards Asher’s father. “Did you know Asher that your father is an angel of God?” he says. When Asher first meets Yudel Krinsky his curiosity about Serbia and Yudel Krinsky begins. This curiosity soon makes him ask more and more questions about Yudel. “We saw a Jew from Russia,” he says to Mrs. Rackover. When asked about Siberia Mrs. Rackover replies, “What is Siberia? It is a land like the inside of this refrigerator. It is a land of ice and darkness where the Russian government sends people it hates. What is Siberia? No-one should know of it.” This gives a good impression to the reader the torment and struggle Yudel must have felt when living in Siberia. Asher of course does not view this information lightly and wishes to seek more answers about Yudel and Russian Jews. “The son of Reb Aryeh Lev,” is the name Asher is referred to during the beginning journeys of to Yudel’s store. It is important to note he is called the son of Aryeh Lev because they don’t really know each other but later called ‘Asher’. On the first encounter Asher does not ask Yudel any questions. On the second encounter though Asher begins to ask Yudel questions relating to the news in Russia and the relationship between Yudel and Asher begins to bloom like a rose bud.
On the next encounters to Yudel’s store, Yudel starts addressing Asher as ‘Asher’ and not ‘the son of Aryeh Lev’. Asher seems almost attracted to the store and is mesmerized by the metal glass showcase of oils and paints. When Asher steals the oils because he can’t afford them, Yudel starts nurturi...
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...en’t for Jacob’s significant contribution by offering Asher help and criticism Asher would have never prospered as a great painter.
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.
Reb Aryeh Lev, his father, becomes Asher's main antagonist. Asher's father expressed his disgust by calling Asher...
Confucius, a Chinese philosopher, once stated, “You cannot open a book without learning something.” Throughout time, books, molded by their authors, have been the key source of knowledge. Regardless of the subject, most works of literature often have a message or theme for the reader. Not only do authors use themes, but also well developed characters to bring a novel to life. In the bildungsroman, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, characterization is often found, especially regarding the protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Salinger also includes many themes in his novel relating to growing up in a corrupt society. Hence, this paper will compare, contrast, and evaluate literary criticisms regarding the themes and characterization of J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye.
Abraham Sutzkever was a Yiddish poet who was known as the “greatest poet of the Holocaust.” He was born on July 15, 1913 in Smorgon, Russian Empire, now Smarhon, Belarus. He wrote poetry from an early age, initially in Hebrew. He was among the Modernist writers and artists of the “Young Vilna” group in the early 1930’s. He wrote many famous Yiddish poems. His poems consist of his memories from his childhood in Siberia, his life in the Vilna during the World War II, and his escape to join Jewish partisans. Through his poems, he recalls his early childhood experiences. He became a major figure in Yiddish letters and throughout the world as he was one of the creative artists who had lived through and survived the devastation. His poems are imagistic and filled with metaphors. Through his works in, A Little Flower, Scorched Pearls, and A Moment, the impressions of hardships endured are more symbolic and metaphoric.
Philip Roth is the most prominent American novelist in American literature. His book, “Portney’s compliant” is one of the most important literatures for the ethnic group in the world especially for the Jews in America. According to Prof. Sasha Senderovich “Philip Roth’s book is the bible for the Jewish people.” (Lecture). Through the practice with cultural tradition and try to assimilate with the gentile world, Roth reveals his gloom with complain to his psychiatric, Dr. Spielvogel to free from orthodox Jewish tradition in the American society. Inversely, through goy’s behavior, lifestyle, food, and their anti-Semitic psycho, dragged up him back to his tradition. Therein, the juxtaposition between two cultures fabricates him with an enormous confusion and he felt rootless about his identity and end up with his complaint to the doctor. However, the experience of Alex life, established a statement that, “being minority in a society, for the first or second generation,
Wyndham uses the minor characters in the novel to convey the themes, which are represented in the text. Although the characters are in fact minor, their role in the conveyance of the novel's themes is crucial, as they help support the main characters presentation of themes. Wyndham successfully employs the use of personalisation, development of character depth, and character sympathy in order to present themes through the minor characters of the novel. Through use of the minor characters, not only specific themes are conveyed, but the minor characters of the text also enable Wyndham to develop his themes from a number of perspectives.
Minor characters play a very crucial role in Shakespear's Hamlet. They serve as narrators for events that occurred outside the immediate play: the Dane's ghost. Distinct contrasts are created through the usage of the play's minor characters. The reader gains new perspective on Hamlet's character when he is compared with Laertes. The presence of these minor characters can also have a direct effect on the action of the play. The actors in the play within the play are used to expose the guilt of Claudius; Hamlet then has proof of the King's crimes. The expertise use of these characters - either to exemplify good and purity, or to spread the vile corruption which permeates Elsinore - is one of the main reasons for Hamlet's success as one of the greatest plays ever written.
The biblical naming of characters serves to reconcile the author’s contemporary work to a historically relevant epic as am means of representing an age old experience beyond the confines of time. Just like the biblical Hagar was abused by her husband Abraham in the Bible, the contextual Hagar in the novel too is a victim of similar patriarchal abuse. A skeptical view of the novel depicts a narration of a creative story, but the reality of the story still prevails in the anonymity of the fate of most of the characters. In essence, Morrison appreciates the significance of keeping alive the actors in a story to give a sense of
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
Perhaps the hardest of ideas to express through literature is the idiom “actions speak louder than words”. There exist an innumerable number of people who have much to offer through the simple means of words. Yet, there also exist several others who, though silent, express their emotions and beliefs via the medium of actions. Manya, an obscure character in Chaim Potok’s novel The Chosen, belongs to this limited group of “silent contributers”. Manya, the Malter family’s Russian Housekeeper adored the Matler family, Reuven Matler in particular. She frequently expressed her affection for the family by her actions and rarely through her words. Through different circumstances, Manya silently contributed to the Malter Family with her thoroughness, empathy, and dedication.
Introduction to English Literature. Course Reader. Drama and Poetry. Ed. Patrick Vincent. NE. University of Neuchâtel
The narrator depicts each of the characters in different lights so as to elicit certain perceptions from the readers toward Mr. Dombey, his son, and the seemingly irrelevant Mrs. Dombey. After the author establishes Mr. Dombey as a contemptible character, a man worthy of scorn, he invokes sympathy for Mrs. Dombey and the newborn child.
As of the characters of this short story, they all have various symbolic references hidden behind almost all of the characters. Mr. Summers, a very
In literature, minor characters are not usually focused on the story, but they still make an appearance. In Macbeth, a tragedy written by William Shakespeare contains numerous supporting characters, yet they significantly contribute to develop the plot and conflicts of the play; especially the witches and the murderers. It is evident throughout the play that Macbeth’s actions are influenced by them. Not only is Macbeth manipulated, but Macbeth encourages these characters to cause dominant conflicts of the play. Although the witches and the murderers impact the play in different ways, they display the importance of minor characters.
Minor characters contribute to the development of the theme of a text by making the story more suspenseful and more interesting by their actions, these speech , and effect on others in the story . Like the curious incident of the dog christopher's dad & mom , John the main character's husband in the yellow wall paper & Dr. watson in the Hound of baskervilles. By their Actions , they affected the main characters and made the story more interesting.
The construction of characters in literary texts plays a powerful role in conveying texts values. In Shakespeare’s ‘The tragedy of Othello, the moor of Venice’, or later known as Othello, there are many characters to discuss but Othello, the noble general, and Iago, the honest but jealous ‘Ancient’ are going to be discussed because of the fact that they are the main protagonist and antagonist of the play, the roles of ‘good’ and ‘evil’. In plays and scripts the audience can only really know anything about the characters is from what they have said, the audience isn’t told what they are thinking, like in novels, and the only way we get a glimpse is when the only character performs a soliloquy. How they speak or what they do is solely based on