MY NAME IS ASHER LEV

Chapter 6

Andrew Beck

Period 7 2/20/99

Mr. Luizzi

The beginning of chapter six starts with the description of old times, the good times. Asher's dad is now gone for long periods of time. His mother is working full time on her masters degree in Russian affairs. She is no longer the "big sister" for Asher to play with and laugh with. Those times are gone and will never return. Asher is finally realizing how much he misses his father after his absence in the first Shabbos. To compensate for his absence, Asher reminisces of the good old days through his artwork.

Before this Asher had not wanted to attempt drawing his father. This was a new experience. These memories force Asher to encounter a new level in his work. One particular memory involved Aryeh and Rivkeh on a parkway bench in front of the apartment house. Asher explains that he was to young to understand their words while he played but could remember their faces and gestures, the lowered eyes, the smiles and the light brushing of fingers across an arm or shoulder. This picture reflects the slight feeling of a foreigness, like something that used to be in their lives is missing. It goes back to the fourth chapter when Asher draws a picture of a brother and sister, innocently playing, chasing a butterfly in the midst of everything else going on around them. The drawings that are produced are Asher's way of dealing with his father's absence.

After a while, Asher acclimates to his father's absence. He begins to liberate his art, painting and drawing furiously. He begins to draw in class, while eating, in museums, in Yudel Krinsky's store and once on his bedroom wall in red crayon. It was a drawing of his recurring dream of his mythic ancestor. Though Asher never determined how he pulled that off. Even his mother gave into Asher's drawing fetish by purchasing all the materials necessary for oil painting. As he experiments Asher learns that he is a natural and feels that "he has been painting in oils all his life."

The gift from Rivkeh was an act of love, it was given for no specific reason. Yet Rivkeh’s intentions may be different than what she tells Asher. Asher’s mother stands between Asher and his father. She seems to “straddle both worlds” as explained later in the novel, to keep the rift between the two from growing too large. Yet Rivkeh can not prevent every problem. When Asher does not eat immediately and instead “draws” with his fork, his father becomes overrun with rage. Aryeh grabs Asher’s wrist and squeezes tightly while Rivkeh pleads with him to stop. This is only one of many arguments that sends each member of the Lev family into a downward spiral.