MVHS bookclub: how to balance familial expectations and self-actualization?

My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok, 336 pages
Many of us have experienced, to some extent, the weight of expectations to carry on familial or cultural tradition or exhortations to do life as it "has always been done", despite wanting to forge a new path towards self actualization and self expression. Let's delve into these experiences through the tension of Asher Lev, a young Hasidic Jewish man growing up in Brooklyn who desires to become a painter of religious works. In his community, such depictions are seen as blasphemy and idolatry, grounds for exclusion.
*** Please sign up here https://www.mvhs.de/kurse/programme-in-english-460-C-U244680 ***

Author Chaim Potok (1929-2002) has said that Evelyn Waugh and James Joyce were his initial introductions to the world of writing, but critics compare his themes of alienation, meaning of suffering and literary style to that of Ernest Hemingway.

In an unpublished interview, Potok says, ''It was essentially a fundamentalist atmosphere, which by definition is both joyous and oppressive simultaneously. Joyous in the sense of knowing you belong to some cohesive community that will care for you; in whose celebrations you can participate fully; and who will help you mourn if you need a support group in time of personal tragedy. And repressive because it sets boundaries, and if you step outside the boundaries, the whole community lets you know.'' from his New York Times obituary https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/24/books/chaim-potok-73-dies-novelist-illumined-the-world-of-hasidic-judaism.html