My Name is Asher Lev Themes

Is it better to go it alone than pretend you're someone you aren't, or is one truly the loneliest number that you'll ever do? In My Name Is Asher Lev, the theme of individuality is explored in grea...

There's strength in numbers, right? For Hasidic Jews, community is everything: orthodox religious practices are highly unique and can be both isolating (especially since people outside the orthodox...

Creativity is a pretty big deal in this book because it's basically what makes Asher Lev so unique. He's creative, innovative, and single-minded where others aren't, and that rubs a bunch of people...

Religion is a really huge deal in this book. Perhaps the hugest deal. And that's because Asher Lev is a member of a community of Orthodox Hasidism who don't take kindly to painting, acting out, or...

It's all in the family, as they say. And in this case, it really is: religion, art, and love tend to feed the feuding-fire in the Lev household. Asher loves his parents dearly and feels he's betray...

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes! Asher Lev is always confronting his past—and the Jewish people's past—and facing those strange changes David Bowie once sang about. The history of the Jewish people is invo...

Representation and objects: lots of stuff going on there, lots of potential for misunderstanding. All paintings are representations of something, whether it's an emotion or just a bowl of pears sit...

Learning: it's not always an easy matter. Asher's education is important in this book because he comes from a pretty bookish family, and they come from a line of famous Jewish European scholars. As...