The Struggle in My Name is Asher Lev and Naked Lunch Although many of the experiences and actions revealed in William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch directly contradict the philosophies that believes the Jewish faith. , there is a definite connection between My Name is Asher Lev and Naked Lunch. This connection lies in the artistic roles of the narrators in society. Both Lev and Burroughs move away from the surrealist aspect of their mediums: art and writing, respectively, and describe life as they see it really is. There is no embellishment on their part or any glorification of the events happening around them. William S. Burroughs wrote Naked Lunch as a conclusion to his fifteen years of opiate addiction, primarily heroin and morphine. In his "tell all" story of himself as a drug addict, he never tries to lie about the events that took place during this time and he never exaggerates anything to create a better story. Burroughs clearly described the helpless and delusional life he once led, including his experiments with almost every drug possible and his encounters with sexual relationships and situations that went against the status quo of the time (such as this is still the case today). Burroughs' role as an artist in society, however, was that he was one of those who clearly showed why the life of an addict was not as glorious and "cool" as people falsely make it out to be. . The phases of drug addiction are clearly visible throughout the novel as Naked Lunch is a book written before, during, and after his detoxification. Just as Burroughs reveals the drug underground as it really is, Asher Lev is a reality artist. . His talent for art was recognized early in his life, but it was not until a few years later that his worldview became more evident. He was neither a pessimist nor an optimist, but his drawings capture a bit of both areas. He drew what he felt: what he saw as reality in his mind. However, more often than not in the book, we see Asher's pessimistic views on the world manifest because of the events that unfold in his life. "I don't like the world, mother. It's not pretty. I won't draw it pretty." (52) Much like Burroughs, Asher does not consider what would be acceptable to those who view his works, or the beliefs of his religion, or whether what he draws could be considered false; he just draws what he really feels at that moment.