The Epigraphs: The Spoken Words of Silence Silence is a major aspect of life, regardless of whether or not people choose to accept and acknowledge it. Silence is also integral throughout The Chosen, by Chaim Potok. Within this novel, silence is utilized through different relationships, in different circumstances, and for different purposes. Potok immediately introduces the idea of silence, and continues to do so, before he even gives the narrator, Reuven, his first line. The idea of silence is immediately approached in the first epigraph, or brief quote, at the beginning of Book 1, and another epigraph related to silence is introduced at the each of the beginnings of the following two books.
Do parents tend to push their children into a specific career path? In the novel The Chosen by Chaim Potok, David Malter and Reb Saunders have affected both Reuven and Danny’s way of life. The story starts out with Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter meeting. Later in the novel, Reuven learns that Danny’s father does not talk to Danny and Danny learns that David Malter has a strong relationship with Reuven. As the novel progresses, David and Reb influence the future path for their sons such as David’s Zionism affecting Reuven, Reb’s method of raising Danny, and both Reb and David influencing Danny and Rueven’s future occupations proves that parents can influence their children in both positive and negative ways.
Choices always have a consequence no matter what. In the novel Tangerine, by Edward Bloor, every critical decision that Paul makes, guides him to understanding success. Paul’s choices have a huge effect on his family when he tells them that he wants to go to Tangerine Middle School, when he jumps on Coach Warner and gets expelled, and when he tells the police about what Erik and Arthur did. Paul’s choices affect his life with every word he says, and every action too. Paul decides to attend Tangerine Middle School so he can play soccer.
Seeing Through Another’s Eyes In Chaim Potok’s book, The Chosen, blindness is a reoccurring theme throughout the book. The first example of blindness is Danny and Reuven live within five blocks from each other for fifteen years and have no idea that the other person exists. Because the boys have such a different culture, they live in their own world and are blind to each other.
In his novel The Chosen Chaim Potok uses vision as a motif to show the reader that someone’s perception of things can change. In the novel, vision symbolizes the ability to see the world. The importance of perception is shown throughout the book. One of the main examples of this is after Reuven leaves the hospital. He says that “everything looks different”, but he doesn't mean this literally.
Throughout Chapter Nine of The Chosen, Chaim Potok demonstrates Reuven’s growth as a character, utilizes symbolism to show the struggles Reuven went through, and reveals how important it is to appreciate things you may take for granted, or even hate, such as Reuven’s exams. Potok exhibits Reuven’s growth as a character using the phone call with Billy’s father. On the call, he learns that Billy’s surgery was not successful, which shook him almost enough to make him drop the phone. This exposes how close he grew to Billy in his short stint in the hospital with him. We as people tend to form greater bonds with others when we go through highs and lows together, as Reuven and Billy did.
In his book The Promise Chaim Potok leads the reader on a heartbreaking journey full of spiritual conflict and decision. As a sequel to The Chosen, The Promise picks up with Reuven Malter, the main character and a Jewish man now in his mid-twenties, attending Hirsch University, a Jewish seminary in Brooklyn, New York. Reuven keeps his friendship with Danny Saunders, whom he met on a baseball field during his teenage years and later went to college with, even though they now go their separate ways as Reuven becomes a rabbi, and Danny practices psychology. During the summer Reuven dates Rachel Gordon, the niece of Abraham Gordon, a man excommunicated from the Jewish society, and meets Abraham’s son, Michael, a stubborn teen with a mental issue. Also, over the same summer Reuven’s father, David Malter, wrote a controversial book about the Talmud.
Chaim Potok’s The Chosen is a mysterious novel with very interesting dialogue and detail. Although the narrator’s name is never said or mentioned, Potok still managed to write this thrilling novel that has readers at the edge of their seats. In this novel, a 15 year-old boy, who is a protagonist, has a deep love for baseball shares Jewish culture and habits. Him and all the boys who go to school together play baseball on their spare time and are all on the same baseball team. While being friends and sharing many hobbies, the boys finally meet anonymous narrator’s father.
I decided to read The Chosen by Chaim Potok because it is set during the 1940’s and about a culture that I do not have much experience with. This first person novel is narrated by Reuven Malther who lives in Brooklyn and forms an unlikely friendship with a boy named Danny Saunders. Reuven is a secular Jew with a very intellectual father, while Danny is the heir to a Hasidic rebbe position. The Chosen walks readers through the life of these two boys during their adolescence and also through a crisis of faith when the stories of what happened during the war begin to be told in America. During a very pivotal part of the book when the country finds out that President Roosevelt is dead and Reuven says, “Reb Saunders said it was God’s will”(Potok
Chaim Potok, the author of The Chosen sought to teach his readers that in a world filled with traditions and responsibilities that may trap us in a certain way of being, individual choice is a value that cannot be overridden, for it is far too important to wholeheartedly be
The books by Harper Lee and Chaim Potok can not be directly compared. Both range sepearte topics, and are well writen. Both novels were captivateing and though tprovokink, provinding a wonder read. The works of art are well worth their awards and provided a glimpse in to a forign world. The books in question were well writen and consiquently provided a captivateing read.
Friendship is a wonderful yet confusing thing. This concept is brilliantly displayed in Chaim Potok’s The Chosen. In the book, the main character, Reuven, and Danny Saunders become friends through an interesting turn of events during a baseball game, the short version being that Danny ended up putting Reuven in the hospital with a baseball in the eye. After Reuven gets over some feelings of bitterness towards Danny, the two grow to be great friends. There are many difficulties when it comes to friendship, but the beauty of a good friendship is that good friends can power through them.
In The Chosen, by Chaim Potok, various friendships influence numerous people. Danny and Reuven’s friendship influence both young men in different ways. Different friendships in the book influence Danny, Reuven and_____ In the beginning of the book, Danny and Reuven have not met, and Hasid Jews confuse Reuven. It seems that, although Reuven may have some friends, he does not have any friends he really connects with.
A choice is an act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities. But choices aren’t just a definition, they are life’s biggest challenges. Choices can be as big as life or death, but as small as what to eat for supper. They are just a part of everyday life. Everybody has to make choices, even characters in stories have to make choices, like Marilyn from Cold Equations, Jean from The Nothing, and Miss Geiss from This Year’s Class Picture.
Throughout history, multiple religions have budded heads, such as Christians and Muslims. In the book “The Chosen,” by Chaim Potok, the Hasidic and Modern Orthodox people conflict with each other because of their different views of belief. The religion itself doesn’t conflict, but the people of the different religions do. Hasidic and Modern Orthodox are the two sects of the main characters which were divided off from the four sects of Judaism, which are, Reconstructions, Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. Both religions are “types” of Jews; both of these are stricter than the “average Jew,” but Hasidism’s are considered the extreme.
