Asher was now entering into a new phase in life. He was spending more time away from his family to work on his art with Jacob Kahn. Even though Asher was mature for his age he was still just a young boy who needed the love and support of his family. I'm sure it was difficult to be torn between the love of a God given gift (although his parnets did not feel it was a gift from God) and your religous heritage. I give credit to Potok and his writing .....when reading the book his words had me feeling the lonliness and pain felt by Asher and his parents.


Asher did not receive much encouragement for his "happy" art work. His mother often asked Asher to draw something pretty but rarely was it given much accredidation when he did. It seemed that any art work that received recognition was that of pain and sorrow. Kahn told Asher that he drew with too much love. "No man can love as much as you and survive as an artist."(215) I actually find this somewhat contradictory. With any "talent" that a person has...artist, professional athletes, dancers.etc... they put their hearts and souls into their talent so how could too much love interfere? Just a question.


It is sad that Asher had to expierence so much pain before he could make it as a painter. Pain that caused Asher to even doubt his gift....(350) "I used to think the gift was a blessing."


I think it is sad that Asher ended up having to leave his home because of the lack of understanding but if he did not leave he would not have been able to pursue his dream. I do wonder if Asher would have had the encouragement from his parents.... would he have become a great painter displaying the pain that Jewish people suffered? Would he have been a master painter depicting the pain ad suffering from the holocaust? What a great compromise that could have been.