Asher Lev Essay Research Paper To the
Asher Lev Essay, Research Paper To the teacher: My Name is Asher Lev is the story of a young boy whose gift for drawing leads him on a course that sets him apart from family and friends. The book belongs to the classic literary genre of the Bildungsroman, or novel of education, in which a young person, through struggle with his environment, learns about the ways of the world and gains an identity. In this novel, the Hasidic community of Crown Heights in Brooklyn forms the backdrop for Asher Lev’s journey into manhood. For young people living in California in the nineties, that world is as exotic and distant as the eastern European shtetl, and shares some features with it. The strenuousness of the Orthodoxy, the close-knit family structure, the life of the yeshiva, and the ubiquitous presence and influence of the Rebbe will need to be explained to students. The text assumes knowledge of the origins of Hasidism and the fate of Hasidic communities during World War II and in the Soviet Union, and these are discussed in the student guide. Asher’s father’s work for the Rebbe on behalf of Soviet Jewry will require some historical background, which is only hinted at in the text. Discussion of the Doctors’ Plot and the Night of the Murdered Poets can be useful lessons to bring to class, and the bare outline of that history is provided in the student guide. The materials in this guide are designed to make teaching My Name Is Asher Lev easier and more rewarding. The contents include Understanding the Novel, Examining the Themes in a Jewish Context, Questions to Consider, A Brief Sketch of the Hasidic Movement, Post-War Jewish Life in the Soviet Union, a Glossary, and Suggested Sources of Additional Information. The students’ guide does not include Understanding the Novel, and Examining the Themes in a Jewish Context. Understanding the Novel The book centers on the growing separation between Asher and his family and community as he devotes himself to his painting. In discussing the book with students, it is important that the nature of this conflict be understood. In relating how Asher has alienated his family and community, you might focus on the following dimensions of his activity: His choice of vocation Asher’s devotion to painting is at odds with the values of his family and community: Painting human figures is not a tradition among religious Jews. As Asher’s mother says bluntly, “Painting is for goyim. Jews don’t draw and paint.” Painting distracts Asher from Torah study (which his community sees as the proper way for a boy to spend his time), and that is most sharply delineated by the episode in which he draws a picture on a page of the Chumash. Asher’s absorption in his art turns him away from the service to the Rebbe and Russian Jews that the other members of his family have accepted as their responsibility. His choice of subjects If the practice of spending his time painting sets Asher against his family and tradition, the subject matter he chooses makes it much worse: Nudes: By painting nude women (first copying pictures in the museum, and subsequently using live models in Jacob Kahn’s studio), he violates the religious standards of his community, which emphasize modesty as an important virtue. By exhibiting paintings of nudes, he increases the distance between himself and his parents. His father would like to support Asher by attending one of his exhibitions, but expresses repeatedly that he is unable to because of the Hasidic insistence on modesty. Asher’s Brooklyn Crucifixion paintings are even more problematic than the paintings of nudes: In representing his own parents prominently in the painting (so realistically that they are recognized by onlookers at the opening), Asher makes them unwilling spectacles, bringing negative public attention to them and the Hasidic community. In adopting the crucifixion to express the anguish of his home
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