Now that Asher's mother has gone back to school, everything in his life has now completely changed. He no longer sees his mother as an older sister, but a mother now. Asher takes it hard at first because when he is late for school she gets mad at him. It was one of the first times she has ever scolded, and Asher senses his mother's coming of age. She finally got over her sickness and was ready to take on new challenges. I feel that in the future it will prove to be useful to Asher to once again have a strong figure in his presense. Asher's father has also changed to Asher in the way that he has his old job back. Areyah Lev us now back to traveling and saving more jewish epole. Although Arehay is now happy, Rivekah is not. She is so worried about him not coming hime like her brother. She tries to appear clam for Asher's sake, but in the end it is always Asher comforting her. Rivekah wants to be a strong figure, but she keeps running into many obsitcles. I predict that throughout the book she is going to continueally try to strngthen her character, but run into many problems along the way. The last change in in Ashers life is the fact that he started going to school. Now he is able to interact with children his age. What I have noticed in many coming of age storied si the main character has a hard time making friends, and Asher fits into that statement. They don't mention him having any playmates or close friends. Another thing i noticed about his schooling was although he had artisdt genius he was failing his school. I don;t know if it is because he is so artistic or he is stil adjusting.
I found it very interestin that Asher became very interested in the whole Jewish situtation in Europe. Now that Areyah has returned to his old job, Asher wants to know everything that is going on. He is learning about all the pain and suffering to his people, and learning more about how the world is not a pretty place. Once Asher starts to draw again he will have a lot of materail for drawing. Asher has oddly befriended Reb Krinski. Asher's mother and father hold back some of the truth, so he seeks the company of Krinski. He also has first hand expirence of Siberia. Eversince Asher learned it was a place of ice and darkness, he has created a mini obsession with it. I think that Asher can't believe its true, so he seeks to learn as much as he can about it.
As the conditiond became worse Asher's father started to feel as if it were his fault. This caused discouragement and Rivekah always came running to his side. I feel as if the parents started to bond togteher because they understood what was going on in Russia, while Asher did not. As a young boy Asher became curious and he turned to Reb Krinski because there was no one left. Krinski was just what Asher needed, a straight answer. Since Areyah Lev saved his life he treated his son with respect and was patient with questions. This gained knowledge could rpove to be useful to Asher and I predict in the futer his parents will be shocked about all that Asher knows. If the problem in Russia starts to die down Areyah and Rivekah will start to realize what is going in in their own lives and maybe Asher will stop being neglected.