The Hasidic Community In Asher Lev's Struggle

911 Words2 Pages

Asher Lev, a young adolescent, grows up in a traditional Ladover Hasidic Jewish community in post-war Brooklyn. The Rebbe, a holy Jewish leader, keeps everyone aligned when it comes to faith and morals within the Hasidic community. Asher Lev’s father works as a missionary for the Rebbe. He travels to different countries converting people to the faith. Hasidic Judaism differs from other religions. They are dogmatic in their beliefs, and many strict rules exist among this branch of Judaism. Asher is introduced as an outlier in the Jewish faith. He brings shame to his family, and many in the Jewish community speak of the wrongs he has done while growing up. Yet, for the reader, relating to the book becomes difficult, because many people no longer …show more content…

His father returns home one day and breaks the news to Asher that the Rabbi has requested their family to move to Vienna. Asher is against this idea, because he possesses a special talent to create artwork. He finds satisfaction in drawing his city and streets of Brooklyn. If he moves, everything will be unknown and foreign.
And I was frightened of traveling...I was terrified of taking an airplane, terrified. Vienna. The name conjured up distorted horrors: dark foreign streets, evil shadows, incomprehensible words, menacing laughter at my sidecurls and skullcap. I would not go to Vienna(93). Asher also is afraid of the extreme persecution Jews are going through in Vienna. He is in a constant state of fear to protect his life and passion; …show more content…

He remembers a specific moment that brings back fear. Asher had just turned six, and still possessed an innocent conscience. Suddenly, his mother’s piercing screams reach his ears. Fear spreads rampant through his nerves. Relatives and friends quickly flood the apartment, and the crowd begins to sob. The circumstances became so horrible that the Rebbe comes. Asher experiences fear still unknown to him. “I was certain my mother was dead. I lay down on the floor in my room, and wept” (14). Asher’s mother had reached the peak of her mental illness. He had a special relationship with his mother, and fear struck deeply inside Asher at the thought of that relationship being annihilated by death or

Show More
Related

  • The Dangers of Fear

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fear can affect people in ways they never thought possible. Sometimes, they lose sight of who they once were and become a whole new person. The various experiences Elie faced in the concentration camps affected his whole world. Elie, a devoted Jewish believer, lost faith in God after realizing that he cannot have faith in a God who tolerates inhumanity such as he went through. Self-sufficiency was encouraged throughout the concentration camps, therefore Elie was forced to grow up and leave his innocence behind. Because of this self-reliance, many started to view their friends and family as a burden rather than a motivation. All in all, one can say that fear is the root of many catastrophes in the world today.

    Read More

  • Alicia My Story, Book Summary

    1341 Words  | 3 Pages

    They stayed here during the winter while Alicia still searched for food, in the process, making many friends. News came one day that the Germans were beginning to fall back from the Russian fronts and Germany’s grip on the Jews in Poland was weakening. This news made Alicia and her mother move away from the old man who helped them.

    Read More

  • The Struggle in My Name is Asher Lev and Naked Lunch

    712 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Color of Water by James McBride

    882 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin with, the dual narratives of the text here present a unique mixture of chronology and perspective. Moreover, noteworthy is also McBride’s usage of the rhetorical strategy of alternate chapters and parallelism. This can be seen when McBride remarkably places related chapters together to juxtapose the life of his mother and that of himself. This allows one to observe the parallelism in the two lives; and perhaps more importantly, understand the significance Ruth’s life has had on McBride. For example, McBride places the chapters “Shul” and “School” next to each other. Here, both Ruth and James are struggling and are trying to fit in but are rejected due to racial and social conflicts. Another example is, “The New Testament” and “The Old Testament.” Both of these chapters revolve around the embarrassment Ruth and James feel for their circumstances. In “The Ne...

    Read More

  • A Reason to Hope in There Are No Children Here

    1155 Words  | 3 Pages

    All through their lives Pharoah and LaFayette are surrounded by violence and poverty. Their neighborhood had no banks, no public libraries no movie theatres, no skating rinks or bowling allies. Drug abuse was so rampant that the drug lords literally kept shop in an abondoned building in the progjects, and shooting was everywhere. Also, there were no drug rehabilitation programs or centers to help combat the problem. Police feared going into the ghetto out of a fear for their own safety. The book follows Pharoah and LaFayette over a two year period in which they struggle with school, attempt to resist the lure of gangs, mourn the death of close friends, and still find the courage to search for a quiet inner peace, that most people take for granted.

    Read More

  • Asher Lev's Crucifixion Paintings as an Act of Disrespect Towards His Parents

    1543 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Color of Water, by James McBride

    782 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin with, the dual narratives of the text here present a unique mixture of chronology and perspective. Moreover, noteworthy is also McBride’s usage of the rhetorical strategy of alternate chapters and parallelism. This can be seen when McBride remarkably places related chapters together to juxtapose the life of his mother and that of himself. This allows one to observe the parallelism in the two lives and to understand the significance Rachel's life had on McBride. For example, McBride places the chapter titled “Shul” and “School” next to each other with each giving a view of the problems they faced in school. Here both Ruth and James are struggling and are trying to fit in but are rejected due to racial and social conflicts. Another example is “The New Testament” and “The Old Testament.” Both of these chapters revolve around the embarrassm...

    Read More

  • Organized Crime In Rich Cohen's Tough Jews

    626 Words  | 2 Pages

    In what ways does Rich Cohen's Tough Jews add to our understanding of the development of organized crime? This book is regarding the obscure stories of Jewish gangsters, who in the '20s and '30s were in association with the Sicilians and in a lot of ways just as influential. But it's much more than merely a story of organized crime; the writer links the legends and thoughts of Jewish kids growing up amongst those gangsters to the value system of his father plus his friends, and how their attitude regarding "Tough Jews" gave them an option to the stereotypical roles permitted them by America at large. In its own strange, violent way it's a luminous, striking explanation of the eastern European Jewish immigrant experience in America. (Kaminsky, Stuart M. "The Individual Film: Little Caesar and the Gangster Film." American Film Genres. Pflaum Publishing, 1974: 13-32.) When organized crime reared its ugly head in the late 1920s in Brooklyn, at the base were men like Meyer Lansky and Ben Siegel, both Jews. Rich Cohen's romantic story of Jewish gangsters, Tough Jews, brings to life the ta...

    Read More

  • The Berlin Boxing Club

    817 Words  | 2 Pages

    Karl Stern is an artistic, lanky, beat up, Jewish fourteen year-old boy whose only refuge is drawing cartoons for his younger sister and himself. All that changes in an instant when he meets the boxer, Max Schmeling in his father’s art gallery. In exchange for a painting, Karl will receive lessons from the world renowned fighter and national German hero. Suddenly he has a purpose: train to become a boxing legend. As the years go by and he gets stronger, both physically and emotionally, so does the hatred for the Jews in Germany. This new generation of anti-Semitism starts when Karl gets expelled from school and grows until his family is forced to live in Mr. Stern’s gallery. Though the Stern’s have never set foot into a synagogue and do not consider themselves “Jewish”, they are still subjects to this kind of anti-Semitism. They try to make the best of it, but Karl can see how much it affects his family. His mother is getting moodier by the day, his sister, Hildy, hates herself because of her dark hair and “Jewish” nose and his father is printing illegal documents for some secret buyers. On Kristallnacht the gallery is broken into and the family is torn apart. Karl must now comfort his sister and search for his injured father and his mother. With the help of some of exceptional people, he manages to get over these many obstacles and make his way to America.

    Read More

  • Struggles of Cultural Identity: An Analysis of Philip Roth's 'Portnoy's Complaint'

    967 Words  | 2 Pages

    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,

    Read More

  • Christian Symbolism In Chaim Potok's My Name Is Asher Lev

    659 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Louis Brandeis and Jewish Political Identity

    715 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Whence comes this combination of qualities of mind, body and character? These are qualities with which every one of us is familiar, singly and in combination; which you find in friends and relatives; and which other doubtless discover in you. They are qualities possessed by most Jews who have attained distinction or other success. In combination, they may properly be called Jewish qualities. For they have not come to us by accident; they developed by three thousand years of civilization, and nearly two thousand years of persecution; developed through our religion and spiritual life; through our traditions; and through the social and political conditions under which our ancestors lived. They are, in short, the product of Jewish life.” – Louis D. Brandeis

    Read More

  • Eliezer Wiesel and His Father in The Holocaust

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    • At the beginning of Night, Eliezer describes himself as someone who believes “profoundly.” How have his experiences at Auschwitz affected that faith?

    Read More

  • Philip Roth's American Pastoral

    1455 Words  | 3 Pages

    American Pastoral written by Philip Roth is a novel that revolves around the character Seymour “Swede” Levov, a prosperous Jewish American business man and a former high school star athlete from New Jersey. During the 1960s the Swede’s pastoral life is thrown into havoc when his daughter Merry, a teenage war protester is the main suspect in the bombing of a post office in which the town’s doctor, an innocent bystander, is killed. Through a variety of literary devices, Roth makes the point that in the end, no matter how much effort goes into keeping things orderly and upright, chaos eventually overtakes everything.

    Read More

  • Dehumanization in Night

    2056 Words  | 5 Pages

    Many themes exist in Night, Elie Wiesel’s nightmarish story of his Holocaust experience. From normal life in a small town to physical abuse in concentration camps, Night chronicles the journey of Wiesel’s teenage years. Neither Wiesel nor any of the Jews in Sighet could have imagined the horrors that would befall them as their lived changed under the Nazi regime. The Jews all lived peaceful, civilized lives before German occupation. Eliezer Wiesel was concerned with mysticism and his father was “more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (4). This would change in the coming weeks, as Jews are segregated, sent to camps, and both physically and emotionally abused. These changes and abuse would dehumanize men and cause them to revert to basic instincts. Wiesel and his peers devolve from civilized human beings to savage animals during the course of Night.

    Read More

More about The Hasidic Community In Asher Lev's Struggle

Open Document