How we cite our quotes: (Page.Paragraph)
Quote #4
'Your father journeys through Europe bringing Jews back to Torah, and here his own son refuses to study Torah. Asher, you are a scandal.' I told him I wanted one tube of cobalt blue and one large tube of titanium white. My mother was giving me money now for the things I needed. (165.10-11)
Asher has this conversation with Yudel Krinsky in Yudel's stationery store. During this time, Asher is struggling to pay attention in school and spending all his time doodling in his Hebrew notebooks, but he's not ashamed of it. As this quote demonstrates, Asher is full of confidence and self-assurance when Yudel attacks him. If that doesn't spell individuality, then nothing does.
Quote #5
On the way to the Picasso, I stopped at one of the paintings of Jesus. I did not copy the painting; I merely looked at it. My eyes moved across it. The wounds intrigued me. How had he made the wounds so real? Had there really been wounds like that? I wondered what it felt like having wounds like that. (180.10)
Here we see Asher in his natural habitat—the art museum—looking at images of Jesus on the cross, which is something that Hasidic Jews are typically pretty uncomfortable with looking at. If anything, this act is an excellent example of Asher striking out on his own: as an individual, an artist, and a rebel.
Quote #6
'Asher Lev, are you really thirteen years old?'
'Yes.'
'Why not?' she murmured. 'Why not? Goya was twelve. Picasso was nine. It could happen in Brooklyn to a boy with payos.'
(211.12-212.1)
Asher has this conversation with Anna Schaeffer once she sees his artwork, and you better believe that she thinks it's amazing. We also learn from this that Asher is commonly regarded as a special person—a genius on par with great artists like Picasso and Goya. This is another way that Asher is distinguished from his community: as a capital-I Individual with real artistic promise.