Asher Lev and his Ruling Passion

A ruling passion in an individual’s life has the ability to demonstrate an effect on a person’s life including the atmosphere surrounding them. In the novel My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok, the author traces the making of a great painter from the time of Asher being an ordinary boy, to his response to his ruling passion, leading to his successful yet controversial exhibitions of being a distinguished painter. The book …

…Hasidic values, yet his talent and gift of art consumed him and made him look past the effects it created. His family and community were against painting, Asher’s gift tore his own family apart. The effects of a ruling passion are determined by the nature of the passion itself. In Asher’s case, the profoundness of his nature dominated his life, in some ways for the better, and in some ways for the worse.