The pimply-faced boy Character Analysis in My Name is Asher Lev

The pimply-faced boy is Asher’s bullying yeshiva classmate. He mocks Asher as a “desecrater” and a “goy” after Asher gets in trouble for drawing in his Chumash. After he leaves cruel limericks in Asher’s textbook, Asher gets back at him by leaving him a terrifying drawing of the pimply-faced boy’s head on the bodies of the dead in Michelangelo’s Last Judgment.

The pimply-faced boy Quotes in My Name is Asher Lev

The My Name is Asher Lev quotes below are all either spoken by The pimply-faced boy or refer to The pimply-faced boy. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

I did not understand what had happened to bring on the idea […] I drew with a pen, working slowly, calmly, and with ease, the segment from Michelangelo’s Last Judgment of the boat beached on the Styx and Charon striking at his doomed passengers with an oar, forcing them onto the shores of torment and hell. I drew much of it from memory, but I wanted to be as accurate as I could, so I checked it repeatedly against a reproduction in a book I had purchased on Michelangelo. I drew the writhing twisting tormented bodies spilling from the boat. I drew the terror on the faces of the dead and the damned. I made all the faces his face, pimply, scrawny—eyes bulging, mouths open, shrieking in horror. I exaggerated the talons and painted ears of Charon; I darkened his face, bringing out the whites of his raging eyes. I folded the drawing and went to bed. […] He said nothing to me about the drawings. But he began to avoid me. His thin face would fill with dread whenever he caught me looking at him. I had the feeling he regarded me now as evil and malevolent, as a demonic and contaminating spawn of the Other Side.

Related Characters: Asher Lev (speaker), The pimply-faced boy

Page Number and Citation: 241

Explanation and Analysis:

The pimply-faced boy Character Timeline in My Name is Asher Lev

The timeline below shows where the character The pimply-faced boy appears in My Name is Asher Lev. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...what he is doing. Asher doesn’t understand. Soon there are murmurs and stares. Then, a pimply-faced boy shouts in horror, “You defiled a Chumash!” Asher realizes he has drawn a face on... (full context)

The next day at school, some of the boys, including the pimply-faced boy , ask Asher if they should let him, “this goy, this destroyer of Jewish books,”... (full context)

Over the next week, students, especially the pimply-faced boy , continue to bully Asher as a “desecrater.” One day, after this happens, Asher goes... (full context)

...Asher that someday he will understand this. When he sees Asher painting a classmate (the pimply-faced boy ), he tells Asher that the painting “reeks of cowardice and indecision.” He must paint... (full context)

...the next day, he falls asleep in class and is mocked by the teacher. The pimply-faced boy starts leaving cruel limericks about Asher and famous Jewish artists inside Asher’s Gemorra. Kahn tells... (full context)