BOOK ONE
Chapter One
VOCAbULArY
acrid – sharp-smelling
affluent – wealthy
apostate – someone who no longer believes
blasphemous – mocking God or something thought to be sacred
brooding – deep in thought
cloying – very sweet smell
dejected – defeated
erratic – making irregular movements
fetid – smelling of decay
frenetically – frantically
futile – pointless
immutable – permanent
morosely – in a depressed state
notorious – well-known
nuances – slight differences
periphery – the outer edge
perplexity – confusion
pious – religiously devoted
protruded – stuck out
sallow – pale
specterlike – like a ghost
theologians – religious scholars
tonalities – variations
traitor – someone who betrays a group to whom allegiance is sworn
tremulously – with fear
1.
Describe Potok’s use of contrast in introducing Asher’s gift.
2.
How does Asher’s heritage affect his sense of identity?
3.
What event causes Rivkeh Lev’s illness?
4.
What was Asher’s childhood like before his mother’s illness? How did it change
following her illness?
5.
What flaw does Asher’s mother find in her son’s drawings?
6.
How does Asher’s father feel about his son’s artistic talent?
7.
What evidence do we see of Aryeh Lev’s devotion to the Rebbe?
8.
Explain the difference in personalities of Asher and his father.
9.
How does Asher answer when his mother asks if the drawing of his father is “pretty”?
10. What is the significance of Asher’s realization that “it’s not a pretty world”?
11. Describe the inner conflict Asher feels about the drawing his uncle purchases.
12. How does Asher’s dream of his great-great-grandfather demonstrate the inner conflict
that he feels?
13. Describe Yudel Krinsky.
14. What does the ice and darkness of Siberia represent for Asher?
15. What does Asher’s mother ask permission to do?
16. Why does Asher stop drawing?
17. What is ironic about the situation at the end of Chapter One?
Chapter Two
VOCAbULArY
adjacent – beside
doctrines – beliefs
emissaries – delegates
fervent – passionate
luminous – shining
persecution – oppression
temporal – brief
tenuous – flimsy
1.
Why is Asher treated with special care at school?
2.
Asher’s mother becomes a great organizer of her family’s schedules and becomes angry
when Asher comes home late from school. What does this reveal about her character?
3.
Why does Asher’s mother show alarm when her husband gets an office on the second
floor?
4.
After the news of the writers’ deaths, Aryeh Lev repeats the question, “Why am I here?”
What does this foreshadow?
5.
For what does Rivkeh apologize to her son?
6.
Why does Asher buy notebooks at the stationary store?
7.
With what region does Asher seem obsessed?
8.
What does snow symbolize in the novel?
9.
Why is the forgotten math test significant?
Chapter Three
VOCAbULArY
crescendo – increase
deliberate – thoughtful; purposeful
dominate – control
gesticulated – gestured
rigidly – firmly
tangible – substantial
1.
Discuss Potok’s use of diction and imagery in describing the Rebbe and the
congregation’s reaction to him.
2.
Discuss the significance of Krinsky’s reaction to the news of Stalin’s death.
3.
What news does Asher’s mother reveal?
4.
Discuss the significance of the dreams Asher has during his illness.
5.
Discuss the symbolism of Asher’s dream of his Jewish ancestor.
6.
What does Asher draw at the end of Chapter Three? What is his reaction to the
realization that he is drawing again?
Chapter Four
VOCAbULArY
atone – express regret and seek forgiveness
frivolity – waste
hasten – speed
1.
Discuss the irony and symbolism in Asher’s drawing of Stalin.
2.
Why does Asher dislike his uncle’s jewelry store? What does it represent to him?
3.
Asher says to his mother, “I don’t want to lose it again.” What is “it”?
4.
What does Asher daydream that his mother says while he is drawing her? What does the
daydream foreshadow?
5.
What does Asher realize is happening to his eyes?
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6.
Asher’s father finally admits that his son has a gift, but what concerns him about the gift?
7.
Asher’s father tells him that “nothing is more important in the eyes of the Master of the
Universe than a Jewish life.” What irony does Asher find in this statement?
8.
Why does Asher’s uncle try to downplay his nephew’s talent? Why does he take it back?
9.
What effect does Asher’s dream have on him?
10. Discuss the symbolism of Asher’s violation of Shabbos.
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Chapter Five
VOCAbULArY
arabesques – elaborate decorations
conjugations – lists of the different tenses of verbs
conscious – aware
defiled – dirtied
desecrated – made impure
menacingly – threateningly
preliminaries – introductions; small-talk
resonant – echoing
rivulets – small streams of liquid
sardonic – malicious
stagnant – lifeless, still
1.
Characterize Asher’s mental state at this point in the novel.
2.
What does Asher’s drawing in his Chumash foreshadow?
3.
Describe the conversation between the mashpia and Asher.
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4.
How does Asher get supplies to paint?
5.
Discuss the irony in his mother’s answer when Asher asks why she lets his father travel?
What does this foreshadow?
6.
Why is Asher’s father angry after his day at the office?
7.
Why do Asher’s parents decide not to leave Asher with his uncle?
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BOOK TWO
Chapter Six
VOCAbULArY
adversary – enemy
enormity – vastness
habitually – consistently
intrigued – interested
triumphantly – proudly, as with victory
1.
Why does Asher begin to draw his father?
2.
Explain the symbolism of the dead bird.
3.
What gift does Asher’s mother bring him?
4.
Why does Yudel Krinsky call Asher “a scandal”?
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5.
Why do you suppose Rivkeh Lev is now encouraging her son’s painting?
6.
Which paintings in the museum does Asher not understand?
7.
Why do the other museum patrons look oddly at Asher?
8.
Why are Asher’s parents, especially his father, horrified by his drawings of Jesus?
9.
Why does Asher’s father grab his son’s wrist in such a violent way?
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10. What does Asher mean when he says, “My father dominated the apartment on the
nights when he was there, and dominated it, too, on the days when he was not.”
11. Explain the irony of Asher’s response to his father’s return to Vienna.
12. What does Asher begin to do after his father leaves?
13. Explain the significance of Asher’s conversation with the young Russian boy.
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Chapter Seven
VOCAbULArY
apprehensively – fearfully
perverted – corrupted
reconciled – accepted
righteous – virtuous
ruddy – reddish
subjugate – fight to defeat
1.
Who is Jacob Kahn?
2.
What assignment does Kahn give Asher?
3.
Why is Asher’s father devastated by the Rebbe’s decision?
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Chapter Eight
VOCAbULArY
acquainted – introduced
adroitly – with skill
idly – at a leisurely pace
paraphrase – restate
perfunctorily – carelessly
pogrom – persecution
prodigy – a child who shows extreme talent in a given area
rheumy – watery
wryly – slyly
1.
What part of Kahn’s assignment does Asher feel conflicted about?
2.
Explain one of the messages in the passages Asher reads from the book The Art Spirit.
How does this message compare to Asher’s previous experiences?
3.
What does Anna Schaeffer mean by her simile, “you will be like a nun in a…theater for
burlesque?”
4.
What does Kahn say Asher will have to do if he is going to survive as an artist?
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5.
How long does Kahn commit to working with Asher?
6.
When Kahn asks Asher if he feels any responsibility, Asher says that he feels
responsibility to his people. Why does he say this, and what is Kahn’s response?
7.
Why does Asher look at a picture of Michelangelo’s David?
8.
Why is everyone nice to Asher at the end of Chapter Eight?
9.
List and explain several allusions made in this chapter.
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Chapter Nine
VOCAbULArY
chasm – a large hole, as a canyon or gorge
degenerate – immoral
gaunt – very thin
Gestapo – Nazi police
hideous – very ugly
malevolent – intending to cause harm
oppressive – overwhelming
ornate – decorative
pendulous – hanging as a pendulum
pictorial – graphic
sanctifier – someone who attempts to cleanse or purify
stifling – suffocating
strident – harsh
subversive – revolutionary; rebellious
1.
Discuss Kahn’s insistence that a great artist cannot be happy. Do you agree?
2.
Why does Jacob Kahn sculpt and paint?
3.
Explain the symbolism in the following sentence. “My half-naked painter with dangling
payos and a paint-smeared skullcap.”
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4.
How has Asher’s father changed?
5.
Discuss the irony in Asher’s comment that his street “had begun to feel quietly hostile”
toward him. What other literary term applies here?
6.
Why do you suppose Asher’s dreams of his ancestor return?
7.
Of what does the Rebbe warn Asher?
8.
Why doesn’t Asher want to stay with his Uncle Yitzchok?
9.
What surprise does Kahn have for Asher?
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BOOK THREE
Chapter Ten
VOCAbULArY
circumspect – indirect
1.
Discuss the significance of Asher’s realization that his prayers sometime “seemed more
appropriate to this beach than to the synagogue on [his] street.”
2.
Discuss Potok’s diction in the following sentence: “I painted my father eating an
indistinct meal at an indistinct table near a window overlooking vague gabled buildings
and blurred lights.” How does this sentence add to our understanding of Asher’s
relationship with his father?
3.
What does Asher do that causes Kahn to accuse him of cowardice?
4.
What function does Kahn’s three-day illness serve?
5.
Discuss the symbolism in the sand sculpture Asher creates.
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Chapter Eleven
VOCAbULArY
aesthetic – relating to what is perceived as beautiful
affinity – affection
banality – commonness
bereaved – sad, as if with grief
exuberant – enthusiastic
glutted – flooded
nihilism – terrorism
1.
Discuss the symbolism of Kahn’s awkwardness in the synagogue.
2.
Contrast the ways in which Asher’s father and uncle view his painting.
3.
Why does Asher feel betrayed by the Jewish museum?
4. What is symbolic about the painting Asher does three days after his return from Vienna?
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5.
What evidence leads Kahn’s wife to say that her husband missed Asher?
6.
Why does Asher resist learning Russian?
7.
Explain the metaphor the Rebbe uses to explain his decision to Asher.
8.
Discuss Potok’s use of imagery and metaphor in the following sentence. “I walked the
streets and tasted the golden sun that lay across the city.”
9.
Is Asher’s first gallery show a success? His second?
10. What national tragedy causes Kahn’s week-long illness?
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Chapter Twelve
VOCAbULArY
insatiable – unsatisfied
tacit – unspoken
vigor – vitality
1.
How has Asher’s relationship with his father changed? Why?
2.
What major does Asher choose at Brooklyn College? What does his choice of majors say
about Asher’s goals?
3.
Discuss the conversation between Asher and his father about feelings.
4.
Why is Asher’s father angry that he was not informed of Asher’s trip to Chicago?
5.
What cultural tradition does Asher abandon over the summer? Were you surprised by
his decision?
6.
What emotion does Asher feel after each show?
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Chapter Thirteen
VOCAbULArY
dilapidated – crumbling
gendarme – police officer
inarticulate – unspoken
multilingual – speaking many languages
1.
Asher says that his hours spent in Florence were “hours in a Renaissance city lived by
a man born in a Brooklyn street, a man wearing a red beard and ritual fringes and a
fisherman’s cap.” Discuss Potok’s use of contrast in this excerpt.
2.
What is ironic about Asher’s fascination with the Pietà?
3.
What does Asher find interesting about the David? What might the statue symbolize?
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4.
What does Asher realize, to his horror, about the drawings of the Pietà and the old woman?
5.
What does Asher consider for the first time about his mythic ancestor?
6.
What does Asher wonder about his family’s penchant for travel?
7.
Explain the symbols in Asher’s crucifixion painting.
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Chapter Fourteen
VOCAbULArY
abide – endure
culminations – completions of a body of work
disarray – an untidy state
disgorging – spilling
exultation – celebration
preoccupation – lost in thought
puerile – childish
regal – royal
smorgasbord – buffet with a variety of foods
1.
Where are Asher’s parents when he arrives home?
2.
What does Asher notice about his old room?
3.
Explain the symbolism in the placement of the crucifixion paintings.
4.
Describe Anna Schaeffer’s view of Asher.
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5.
Why does Asher’s father begin to think that maybe his son’s gift is not evil after all?
6.
For what does Asher’s father give his blessing?
7.
Why does Jacob Kahn tell Asher that he must be a great painter?
8.
How does Asher justify using the crucifixion in his paintings?
9.
Aryeh Lev says that wherever he goes people ask if he is the father of Asher Lev. Explain
the significance of this.
10. Why does Asher ask forgiveness of the Master of the Universe?
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11. Discuss the irony of the Viennese music at the gallery show.
12. Discuss Potok’s use of imagery and syntax when Asher’s parents first see the
crucifixions.
13. What does the Rebbe order Asher to do after the showing of the crucifixion?
14. What does Asher realize about the power of art?
By the end of the novel, Asher’s relationship with his mythic ancestor reaches a new level. Discuss the
evolu
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