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Chaim Potok The Importance Of Silence Analysis

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The Importance of Silence The Chosen is one of the famous works of Chaim Potok’s numerous books. It was published in 1967, and it portrays the cultures and norms of two Jewish sects: the Modern Orthodox and the Hasidic. The story takes place during the Great Depression, a period when Jewish tradition was threatened to become extinct all together. The main protagonists of the story, Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders, represent the two opposing sects. The story depicts how these two sects looked at each other on unfriendly terms at beginning, but learned to set their differences aside and got along very well at last. Reuven and Danny experienced multiple hardships, as their cultures clashed and nearly destroyed their friendship. The author …show more content…

Danny’s father, Reb Saunders, is a tzaddik (a leader acting as intermediary between God and man) who is highly respected by the Hasidic community. He rarely communicates with Danny, except when discussing about the Talmud. Reuven grew up in a Zionist community, so he is unable to understand why Danny’s father is subjecting him to arbitrary teachings of the Jewish faith through silence. Even though Danny has been subjected to these trials for his entire life, he cannot understand why his father does this either. All he can do is tune in to the silence, because that is the only way he can connect with his father. Even when Danny tried explaining that silence can teach those that are willing to listen, Reuven was still unable to comprehend what he meant. Whenever Reuven asks his father why Reb Saunders is doing this to his son, his dad keeps muttering to himself that there are much better methods to teach their sons than through silence. Those words confuse Reuven, but at the end, he understands what his father meant. It is not until the near-end of the novel that he heeds Danny’s advice and tunes his ears to the never-ending silence of Danny and his

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His father told him to talk to him that he needed a friend because he was special. The time Reuven was in the hospital they learned about each other and became friends. Reuven learned that Danny wasn’t allowed to read any secular books and his father would not like it (who was the rabbi of the Brooklyn sect of Hasidism), and that Reuven’s father had been recommending those books. Shabbat dinner Reuven asked his father more about Danny, his father used history from as far backs as the early 1800s of the first Jews in

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In the historical fiction novel, The Chosen, by Chaim Potok, people from all different backgrounds in judaism, decide how they will choose to live their lives. Reb Saunders, the Rebe, raises Danny in silence while David Malter, raises Reuven as an orthodox Jew. Each at some point question their part in their religion and the world, struggling to accept the life they have. After crossing paths at a baseball game, Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter seem to both evoke daunting opinions, clearly condescending each other. When Reuven injures his eye, ending up in a hospital both their fathers, David Malter and Reb Saunders try to bring them closer.

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Reuven was glad that Danny came to visit again despite their previous encounter. after sending Danny away, he was surprised at his own actions and had come to regret it at the end. His own father reminded him that the Talmud says that if a person is willing to apologize for his own wrongdoing, then you must at least try to understand and forgive him and that is exactly what Reuven intends to do after feeling angry and depressed with himself from what he had said to Danny. Throughout this chapter, an unlikely friendship between the two boys develop. They begin to talk and learn more about one another rather than dwelling in fateful day of the ballgame; in other words, they let bygones be bygones.

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When describing scenes in the story, the author uses many vivid settings that paint a perfect picture in my mind. This quote is also very crucial to how Reuven became to hate Danny. This was the start of the nervousness Reuven was experiencing while playing baseball against Danny. 3. “I found myself growing more and more angry, and I felt the anger begin to focus itself upon Danny Saunders, and suddenly it was not at all difficult for me to hate him.”

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When they meet at the baseball field they judge each other based on rumors they have heard or by the actions of the team. Reuven thinks of them as the “whole snooty bunch of Hasidim” (Chosen 62). Reuven thought Danny was a malicious person because he knew that Danny purposely tried to hit him. But later when Reuven opened up to Danny and stopped being so judgmental, Reuven realized that Danny was kind and just needed a friend. When Reuven is hit with the baseball, there is a chance he might be blind.

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War is a harsh reality that is inflicted upon the unwilling through the “need” of it’s predecessors and those whom wish it. All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is about 19 year old Paul and his friends in the “Second Company”. Even though they are just out of school age, they have already seen things that many could not bear to even think about. Eventually, all of his friends die, and even Paul too, dies. Remarque uses diction and syntax as literary devices to express his anti-war theme, or lesson.

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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.

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Reb Saunders is not understood by many because of the way in which he raises his son, Danny. Danny grew up in complete silence from his father. Reb Saunders would only speak to his son about the Hasidic religion. For Danny’s childhood and much of his young adult life, he had no one to turn to for advice on life. This style of parenting was not understood by Mr.Malter, who viewed it as a cruel way to raise a child.

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When Danny’s father left the family back to Mexico, Danny became more isolated from his mom. “Ever since his dad took off, Danny’s drifted apart from his mom. He hardly even acknowledges her presence these days. She’s the reason he went quiet in the first place. The reason his dad’s gone.

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“He was coughing a great deal, she told me and was exhausted from the sulfa he was taking. Yes, she would give him my wishes for his speedy recovery.” This small excerpt from The Chosen by Chaim Potok illustrates what kind of character Reuven Malter is. Reuven Malter is a Jewish boy who befriends w another Jewish boy, Daniel Saunders, even though their fathers do not agree with each other on what to believe as a Jew. In The Chosen Reuven has several notable attributes that make him fascinating to read about.

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“I [Reuven] saw Danny all the time in school, but the silence between us continued. We had begun to communicate with our eyes, with nods of our heads, with gestures of our hands. But we did not speak to each other.” (Pages 255-256) Reuven and Danny were not allowed to speak to each other, so they communicated without speaking. They kept their friendship alive even though Danny’s father had tried to kill it.

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Philosophy Of Out Of The Silent Planet The book Out of the Silent Planet (C.S. Lewis) Is a brilliant example of a science fictional allegory. In this compelling story we are met with multiple characters. Amidst the action of being kidnapped and whisked away to an unknown planet our main character, Elwin Ransom, reveals his many skills, fears, and philosophies.

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Mr. Malter teaches at an Orthodox Jewish high school and writes religious articles. Reb Saunders’ congregation reveres him as their tzaddik, or spiritual leader. Though these differences seem worth noticing, more substantial ones appear as the story continues. While Israel forms as a political state, Mr. Malter works hard and long as a lead Zionist supporter. Meanwhile, Reb Saunders violently opposes this and prohibits Danny from speaking to Reuven ever again.

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Danny was brought up in silence from a young age, and while he at first was “bewildered and frightened” by the abrupt change in his relationship with his father. As he grew though, he adapted to the silence and accepted it as part of his life although he appears to regret the missing closeness with his father. In an attempt to rationalise his father's silence Danny explains to Reuven, “He really worries about his people… so much he doesn’t have time to talk to me.” Danny explained away his father’s silence and continually attempted to accept this life of silence as the Hasidic teaching said he should. “I’m the inheritor of the dynasty… because one day the son will be the father.”

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A silent voice by Yoshitoki Ōima, The book starts off with a new girl who went to a new school but when she was introducing herself to the class she wrote down on a notebook saying that she is deaf and hopes to get to know everyone and if people want to talk to her just write on her notebook. The teacher was telling people to read some sentence on the book he tells this one girl to speak up and then when he called on the deaf girl she tried to speak and the teacher called on someone else and it was a boy who hated her he made fun of how she was talking. There was some reason that the boy hated her reason 1 was that she gave him the creeps and reason 2 was that she dragged everyone else down with here her the third reason was that they all got tired of dealing with her. In choir she tried to sing but everyone could not sing well

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