In this quotation, Reb Saunders is telling Reuven how brilliant he thinks Danny is, but also tells him how he saw him reading a story when he was four years old. He talks about how he didn’t read the book, but he “swallowed” it. He also talks about how it was then that he found out that there “was no soul” in his four-year old Daniel, and there was only his mind. Later, he talks about how this is the reason that he raised Danny is silence. This shows that although Reb Saunders thinks his son is brilliant, he also thinks that it was important for him to raise him in silence so that he could develop emotions and feelings for others. This shows that Danny’s character in the book is highly influenced by Reb Saunders’ way of raising him. On this page, Danny explains how he reconstructed the text from the talmud by himself. Rav Gershenson is proud of this and tells him that his father is a good teacher and that he is blessed to have such a father. This shows that Reuven and his father are very much …show more content…
Danny strategically also asks Reuven to help him in math, to which he agrees. Reuven starts coaching him in math at lunch every day and begins to learn a lot about psychology through him. This shows that Reuven is a good friend and a good person. His coaching Danny every day also shows how committed he is to things. This is a key feature of Reuven’s personality and can be seen multiple times in the book At the beginning of Chapter 14, on page 224, Reuven talks about how he and Danny attended the same classes, ate in the same lunch room, rode in the same trolley car, and didn’t say a single word to each other. He also talks about how this begins to affect his school work. This shows that Reuven has an emotional personality and can take it to an extreme at times, even to the point where it starts affecting his school