Throughout My Name is Asher Lev, Asher himself appears to be a child, regardless of his actual age. One of the constant themes that is prevalent to many, many novels is the theme of maturation, the growth of a young person. However, in My Name is Asher Lev, Asher almost seems to remain juvenile regardless of his actual age. “Asher, please don’t be a child,” Asher’s mother remarked to him at age ten. Asher, throughout his conflict with his parents always whines about going to Vienna. “I don’t want to go. Something inside me tells me that I shouldn't go.” He also argues about his art with his parents and even in his teenage years, defies them through his art and trips related to art (when he was young he would disobey his parents by going to the Metropolitan Art Museum, When he was older, he would defy his parents by taking trips to Provincetown and skipping out on the family summer trip). So it boils down to what is Chaim Potok trying to prove by not allowing Asher to develop and mature while his art matures.
The reasoning for this might be that Potok is criticizing the almost cultish Hasidic culture, which he may be trying to say stunts the growth of the individual. It appears to me that the strict codes and rules of the Hasidic community with its censoring and regulations, does not allow the individual or the Hasidic community to grow. There is a philosophy that says that accessibility leads to interaction which in turn leads to change. The Hasidics, by obeying the 612 commandments of the Torah to the letter and not allowing their members to deviate from their strict norm, disable their accessibility by other outside peoples, thereby stunting their interaction and growth. This is proven through the experience of young Asher Lev. He is attempting to increase his interaction by accessing the Goyish forms of art and grow as a human, but the strictness and regulation of the Hasidic community (run by the Rebbe) tries to isolate him and further decrease his accessibility. The pressure put on Asher by his community forces him to try to isolate himself further from his home and increase his interaction with the outside world. In the end, his only choice is to leave his heritage behind, because of their de-evolutionary views.