When Asher decided to stop drawing in chapter 2. How did this affect who he was as a person and how did the people surrounding him change there view on him as a person?

Asher's mother immediately noticed that he had ceased drawing and questioned him..... he tole her that drawing was "from the sitra achra (other side), like Stalin." His family is worried, as Asher spends a lot of time away from home, and even more times studying the plight of Russian Jews.