Asher Lev and The Window
Looking Beyond the Glass Could humiliation and pain come from something as simple as a glass in a wooden frame? Throughout the novel, My Name Is Asher Lev by Chiam Potok, much of inner characters are revealed through the symbol of the window. The mother, the father, and Asher all face many struggles and the use of the window helps one to understand them. To begin with, the mother, Rivkeh, is shown a great deal by the window. Potok writes, “About an hour after supper, it began to snow heavily. My mother and I stood at the living-room window, watching for my father. ‘I hate this,’ my mother murmured, staring out the window” (79-80). This expresses the worry that she has for her husband, Aryeh, and his journey back home. For example, the author says: “Coming up to the apartment house along the parkway, I raised my eyes and looked through the snow at our living-room window. I saw my mother framed in the window, staring down at me. She met me at the door. ‘Where were you?’… ‘Your father is in Detroit, and you come home almost an hour late. What do you want from me? What are you doing to me, Asher?’” (83).
This also contributes to the anguish Rivkeh feels. She displays the worry she has for her husband and her son often while looking out of the window. Her suffering is so evident that her young son even notices. Potok states, “I drew those moments of her asleep at her desk because they served me as a balance for those moments when she would stand by the window staring at the street seeing neither the trees not the traffic nor the people of the parkway but my father on a different street, in a different traffic, with different people” (160-161). Asher talks about illustrating his mother in this way because when she is asleep, she does not appear to have the anxiety that is ordinary when his mother is near the window. Rivkeh also tells Asher, “I’ve waited at the windows of almost half the cities of the world for your father. I’m used to it now” (294). By this
This also contributes to the anguish Rivkeh feels. She displays the worry she has for her husband and her son often while looking out of the window. Her suffering is so evident that her young son even notices. Potok states, “I drew those moments of her asleep at her desk because they served me as a balance for those moments when she would stand by the window staring at the street seeing neither the trees not the traffic nor the people of the parkway but my father on a different street, in a different traffic, with different people” (160-161). Asher talks about illustrating his mother in this way because when she is asleep, she does not appear to have the anxiety that is ordinary when his mother is near the window. Rivkeh also tells Asher, “I’ve waited at the windows of almost half the cities of the world for your father. I’m used to it now” (294). By this
Cited: Potok, Chiam. My Name Is Asher Lev. New York: Anchor Books, 2003. Print