The Power of Imagination

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how in Chaim Potok's "My Name is Asher Lev" the main protagonist uses his imagination to create a new world of art that is antithetical to the community of his past. The paper then looks at Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five," where the protagonist Billy Pilgrim uses his imagination as a coping method to help deal with the stress of a traumatic event basically ignored by his country, family, and friends. The paper brings out how both works show the necessity of the imagination in an unforgiving world, and how it can provide solace and comfort when one's current environment provides none.

From the Paper:

"The imagination is a powerful force. So powerful, it can change people's methods of expression and help heal deep wounds with were left untreated by normal methods found within normal society. In the works of Chaim Potok's My Name is Asher Lev and Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, the imagination is seen as a force which can foster further personal development in an unconventional way in order to help save particular individuals. Asher Lev uses his imagination to reconvene his past experiences with his current world of art, condemned by the community which fostered his past experiences. Billy Pilgrim uses his imagination as a coping method to help deal with the stress of a traumatic event basically ignored by his country, family, and friends."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Potok, Chaim. My Name is Asher Lev. Anchor publishing. 2003.
• Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five. Dell Publishing. 1991.

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