Dr. Kashen is one of Jude’s math professors at MIT. He dies sometime after Jude has graduated from college. When Caleb later throws Jude down the stairs, Jude recalls Dr. Kashen, who once asked Jude what his favorite axiom was. Jude had replied that his favorite was “the axiom of equality,” which states that x=x—that an assigned value is always equal to itself—though this is impossible to prove. As he falls down the stairs, Jude thinks that this beating has proven that x=x: Caleb’s cruelty proves that Jude is and always will be worthless.
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Dr. Kashen Character Timeline in A Little Life
The timeline below shows where the character Dr. Kashen appears in A Little Life. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 4: The Axiom of Equality: Chapter 1
...before he’s supposed to go to a friend’s wedding in Boston to tell him that Dr. Kashen has died. The next morning, Jude goes to the funeral, and then to the reception...
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Jude changes the subject then and describes a eulogy that Dr. Li gave at Dr. Kashen ’s funeral. It was about “the axiom of zero,” a mathematical concept that gets at...
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As Jude flies down the stairs, he remembers when Dr. Kashen asked him what his favorite axiom was. “The axiom of equality,” Jude had answered immediately....
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