ASHER CHAPTER SIX JOURNAL

Chapter six of My Name is Asher Lev seems to me to be possibly the single most important chapter thus far. Similarly, it has hit me the hardest of all the chapters. Every time I thought something couldn’t get worse, or more ironic, Mr. Potok found a way to make it happen. For the first time in the book I really, truly felt for Asher. The scene (or couple of scenes) where Asher’s dad gets so incredibly, almost insanely upset at Asher for his drawings I found quite powerful. It wasn’t just that I was like "Yup, he’s getting yelled at." I could sense the tension, and hatred in that room, and hear Asher’s father screaming. It was rather scary and sad at the same time, and I could see it from both sides.

It is strange how Asher’s mother seems to support Asher, yet only when his father is away. In fact, she is acting much like Asher himself, who earlier acted the same. (I’m talking about going to the museum.) Is she really just trying to have Asher stop stealing, and answer his questions about the museum? Or has she seen that Asher cannot be stopped from doing such things, so she might as well keep him out of trouble at least a little bit. Or is she actually trying to help him, actually in a way supporting what he does? Does she see Asher as the same as herself?

The entire Asher drawing Jesus, and naked women thing is simply very interesting. However, as I sit here, I find that it’s going to be very difficult to put my "ideas" on this topic to paper. It is the last thing one expects, yet in the back of my head I saw exactly what was coming quite a bit earlier. It is just plain out interesting. To ask more of these questions :Why is Asher drawing these things? Is he trying to hurt his father? I very much doubt this, as Asher is narrating the story, and doesn’t really hint at this. I also doubt he is trying to go against his culture, and religion. He seemed to take his mothers word that Jesus was not the messiah as fact. Is he simply doing more of the odd subconscious thing that he has developed throughout the story. I feel this probably is contributing a small bit, but not in a major way. It’s more like he’s not thinking it through. After all, it took him an entire day to figure out why people were staring at him, an Hasidic Jew, drawing pictures of Jesus. Part of just seems to be his on and off shutting out of the outside world. However, I think a large chunk of it is that Asher doesn’t see what he is drawing as Jesus really. He doesn’t see the drawings as nude women. He sees the colors, evidenced by the fact that the first thing he pointed out on the Jesus picture, was not what was going on, but the color of gold that was used. He just sees the colors, how they work together, the composition of the drawing/painting and how it works, and what new ideas he sees from them. He doesn’t really apply any bias, or right or wrong to any of the paintings. He just sees them as art.

I’m going to downgrade to simply stating the story again here, but I also found it interesting that this seems to be the chapter that everyone, and I mean everyone, turns against Asher. The teachers, his father, his classmates, the other Jews around, even his old buddy Yudel Krisnky suddenly, and unexpectedly bugs out on him, calling him a "scandal" to Asher’s face.

And Oh yes! This is that all important chapter in which the title is finally said somewhere within the story itself. (meaning I’m not counting the first line which also says the title.) Obviously, this is an important moment in the book. To be honest, I really don’t know exactly what It’s symbolic meaning is. The one thing that sticks out though, is the uncertainty, the distrust between the new Jewish boy from Europe and Asher. The Jewish boy doesn’t believe all he says. In short I’ll put it this way, because it sounds cool: It is in question.."as if His name isn’t Asher Lev."