I have so many disjointed thoughts to share I hope you will forgive the jumps about as I try to get out all the thoughts rushing through my mind. My Name is Asher Lev has completely turned out to be entirely different than I had anticipated. The author did a magnificent job of bringing the story full circle yet leaving the reader with so, so much to contemplate.
Asher grew under the tutelage of Kahn. At times, Jacob seemed to stifle the joyful aspects of Asher's gift to mold him into something Kahn considered to have more depth. Kahn told Asher on pg 215, "you draw with too much love." I am not sure that was a bad thing, Asher's true heart in drawing began by producing beauty, it was his joy. How often do you think that a mentor may steer the student wrong by pounding out the simplicity of a gift or trait in the one they guide?
I had rented a movie, The Devil's Arithmetic last week not recognizing the significance it would have to me after reading this book. For those not familiar with the movie, it is about a modern day teenager who has an experience that allows her to fully understand the pain of the holocaust. I just watched the movie this evening and it brought much clarity for me in visually helping me understand the "why" and the "depth" of Asher's fathers pain in reference to his son's art. Asher's fathers life purpose was so deeply entrenched in his heritage, in the Jewish past. He referred more than once to his father who was killed on the eve of Easter and the pain of that. His father understood from personal experience that which Asher could not. He felt the immense pain of a people, his people, his flesh and blood who had been offered up in ignorant sacrifice by those who were filled with self-entitlement and hatred. Asher's father realized the danger of his son's gift in that it could draw him away from truly comprehending the sacrifice of his ancestors for the freedoms to worship his God. This movie really encompassed the dilemma within Asher's father to me in the line spoken so many other times throughout life and history, "I will never forget." Asher's father was trying to assure his son never forgot where his people had come from by trying to chain him to that tradition and the past. Unfortunately, a parent so often fails when they hold so tightly for all the right reasons in their heart.
The final pages of the novel were riveting for me. Throughout my reading, I rooted for Asher, I longed for him to be set free to use what had been given him. I believed it would culminate in that "happy ending", especially as in the final chapters, Asher's father seemed to be coming around to his son's gift, finding ways to celebrate it in his own way. I was devastated in how it ended. I actually cried. All along I had wanted Asher to be vindicated and right and I was left with such a raw taste in my mouth. I wanted Asher to stand on his feet, to make a decision that was right for him. This is what I saw developing in the story line, that Asher was learning how to reconcile his 2 worlds. But it seemed he was finally given the chance to be true to himself (and I realize this is my interpretation) and he caved. He allowed the history of the past to continue, he allowed another to make a decision for him he felt was not the right choice and it brought shame that for once, he had the power to have avoided. When Asher questioned Anna Schaeffer about the two paintings and suggested displaying something else, he allowed personal conviction to be trumped by motive of another instead of listening to his heart. I believe there is purpose in balance and Asher realized that too. I think, he just didn't have the courage to stand on his conviction after fighting for his right to go against the grain for so long. I felt an ache for him as it seemed he took the wrong moment to buckle or make his stand. Balance is a choice. It's intended to temper ourselves and help us align with what is true within us and outside of us. I feel Asher made a devastating decision that he knew broke his parents heart and for the first time, I believe he truly, truly, carried the responsibility of that pain. Growing up, he accepted it, struggled with it, chewed on it, spit it back out, experimented with it but in the exhibition hall when his parents walked away trying to maintain pride and honor, the pain pressed him in a way that was crushing. He was mature and grown and able to have caused a different outcome and still maintained his integrity in his art, his family and his faith but he neglected that responsibility.
Maybe I am not as understanding in regards to art as I should be; maybe I don't have a grasp of the intent of the artist to break boundaries that is expected in the genre, but I was saddened at what I perceived to have been such needless selfishness. Not intended selfishness, but selfishness none the less. How devastating to stand so alone at the end of that journey. It's as if Asher could see texture, color, feeling in art and his environment, but in gaining skill in his art, he lost the ability to see peace. He grasped the pain, the sacrifice his mother had given for so many years, but expressed it in a way that she could never process, that could never thank her for the realization that he experienced. Yes, it was his realization to have, it was his to express how he needed to, but what a lesson to learn how our need to express can damage those we love so deeply. So profound that his eyes were referenced so often and in the end, he saw truth but allowed it to undo him.
On page 203, Asher read the words of Robert Henri, "Every man who has shown the world the way to beauty, to true culture, has been a rebel, a "universal" without patriotism, without home, who has found his people elsewhere." I would say that the words of Henri became a self fulfilling prophecy for Asher. Asher began with sharing beauty in his world, he was a rebel who appeared to have no patriotism to his culture, his people, he never fit in his skin it seemed, so alone in a community that was so tight knit. And in the end, Asher was left to find his people elsewhere for his "true culture". I just am left wondering how "true" it really was in his spirit man.
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9 comments:
Cari, you write: "Asher's father realized the danger of his son's gift in that it could draw him away from truly comprehending the sacrifice of his ancestors for the freedoms to worship his God. This movie really encompassed the dilemma within Asher's father to me in the line spoken so many other times throughout life and history, "I will never forget." Asher's father was trying to assure his son never forgot where his people had come from by trying to chain him to that tradition and the past. Unfortunately, a parent so often fails when they hold so tightly for all the right reasons in their heart."
The thing I find interesting is that Asher's grandfather, his father, and ultimately his mother all believed that they were fighting to secure the freedom to worship. In essence that was accomplished, but in reality there is very little freedom in the form of Ladover Judaism.
You have some very potent observations about choices. If you want the rest of the story you need to read "The Gift of Asher Lev".
For a moment in the reading while Asher was in Paris, I felt that he was going to go home and finish what his ancestors started. This is when he began to finally realize all of the pain and anguish his mother had suffered at the hands of the two men she loved. I believe if Anne hadn't told him to go for a walk and took all of the paintings while he was gone he would have gone back home and become a conformist. I believe at that point he was ready to give up his paintings to try and make his parents and community happy. Asher was selfish and so was everyone else in the community with the exception of Rivkeh. By this time in his life, I don't believe he had the strength to fight for himself and what he wanted. To me he was tired and was ready to quit. I do believe however that he did make an unconscious decision about his future when he began the crucifixion.
As for Jacob molding Asher into a better version of himself, he was probably correct, from an art standpoint that too much happiness rarely creates good art. Art often comes from the same place music and writing come from: despair. Sentimentalism is death to creativity. So I hear.
Carolyn, thanks for a passionate posting! While I felt the incredible pain of Asher's parents, I saw the ending as unfolding the way it was meant to be from the beginning: Asher was born to be a great artist. Anna says,"The apprentice has become a master" near the end (362). I hate that it destoyed his parents, and I'm hopeful there is some reconciliation in the next book.
Asher's family did not see his talent as a gift because it was pulling him away from his heritage. He did not want Asher to forget the his people and from where they came. He felt that Asher would lose this perspective in life. I found it interesting that at the beginning of the book Asher was often referred to as "the son of Aryeh Lev" and at the end his father says to Asher "Wherever I travel now, there is always someone who knows your name. "Are you the father of Asher Lev,the painter?" they ask me. It's a very strange feeling. Asher Lev, the painter."
I do not feel that an artist needs to have a life full of despair to create. If that were true, art and music would be filled with nothing but pain and anguish. It isn't. I think a major value of art is that it communicates incredible beauty that transports us beyond the mundane. Artists have deep sensitivities and insights just as Asher. I agree that Asher had another choice in displaying his paintings. If I remember correctly, the owner of the art gallery tells Asher his crucifix paintings have already been sold making it unnecessary to display them on that day.He is convinced by the owner to show them anyway. His parents would have eventually heard about them in some way but he could have avoided such a public embarrassment for them.
Your "disjointed thoughts" are powerful. I would love to converse with you in person; you really give me so much to consider.
I see Asher and his father as more alike in many ways than different. They both serve a purpose larger than themselves, and they cannot shirk that purpose for long. If Asher had come home without showing his crucifixtion pictures, I think he might have become as ill as he did in Vienna or as ill as his mother was in the beginning of the novel.
You captured the riveting nature of the final pages. I read them as if I were galloping on a journey - and I think that is what Potok sent me on - to see the balance Asher comes to. I want to start the next novel right now to understand how that balance works out for him. I can't explain exactly why (I hope I can in the mythic ancestor paper I am preparing to write), but I believe that Asher chooses balance - even though that balance causes so much pain.
I too had many thoughts in regards to this novel. There is so much conflict and you pick up on one main conflict of the responsibility to the community versus the responsibility to the individual. Asher chose the individual over the community whereas his father chooses the community over the individual. His father even sacrifices his son to this obligation. I know you think that Asher caved in at the wrong time ,but I do remember him debating whether having painted the pictures was enough. He painted them and was considering never showing them. He decides that to be complete, they needed to be viewed. I identified with the mother. Emotions kept building inside of me. I thought how I would have reacted to my beloved son depicting me in that way or some other way that would reflect the truth of my character. We love our children so much and Asher's mother was a true winner for the love and balance she brought to the family. The hurt and betrayal must have been enormous.
what is the page number for the quote "Are you the father of Asher Lev, hte painter?" that NurseKim wrote?
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