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Character Analysis: The Chosen By Chaim Potok

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Reuven Malter, the narrator in Chaim Potoks novel, The Chosen, tells a story about his friendship with Danny. Reuven tells us that there are many differences between the two boys. Their fathers think differently. Reuven’s father, David Malter, is an orthodox Jew who is less strict in the Jewish tradition. Danny’s father Reb Saunders, however, is a stricter Hasidic Jew. Despite some obstacles and even though the fathers have different opinions, Reuven and Danny still managed to stay friends. David Malters views are very different from Reb Saunders for example, David Malter is a Zionist. He told Reuven, “Reb Saunders sits and waits for the messiah, he said I am tired of waiting. Now it is the time to bring the Messiah, not wait for him.”(Potok 220) Reb Saunders believes that there will be a messiah but David Malter does not. This shows that the two dads think differently. This makes the friendship with Reuven and Danny more complex and difficult. David Malter does not want to wait for the messiah but to bring the Messiah ourselves, both fathers have very different thoughts. …show more content…

Reuven thought to himself, ”silence was ugly, it was black, it leered, it was cancerous, it was death. I hated it, and I hated Reb Saunders for forcing it upon me and his son.”(Potok 235) Reb Saunders forbid Danny to talk to Reuven which makes the friendship with the boys difficult. Reb Saunders is also the problem why the boys are having a hard time being friends. Danny told Reuven, “he doesn’t talk much, either. Oh, he talks plenty when we’re studying the Talmud together. But otherwise he doesn’t talk much. He told me once he wiches everyone could talk in silence.” (Potok 72) Mr. Malter and Mr. Saunders think very

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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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The difference in views between the two faiths and fathers are very evident and a driving point of the movie. It also was very evident how they raised their children and the effects it had on them. They are different but also have similar goals for their sons. Reuven is raised to be independent, mildly observant, and to act like his father because his mother died when he was young. On the other hand, Danny is raised under the microscope of his father and community.

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Since Danny does apologize to Reuven later in the story, I believe he will not haves so much hatred for him. 5. “I lay still and thought about my eyes. I had always taken them for granted, the way I took for granted all the rest of my body and also my mind. My father had told me many times that health was a gift, but I never really paid much attention to the fact that I was rarely sick or almost never had to go to the doctor.

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Reuven's trusting father allowed him to become close friends with Danny Saunders. Mr. Malter knew he could trust his son always, he also confirmed with his son that if there were a problem Reuven could always

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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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David always carefully listens to Reuven

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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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He works hard at his daily homework assignments to try and succeed as best he can. Friendship with Danny Malter has it’s difficulties; however, Reuven displays patience and consistency with meeting Danny throughout the week when able. Readers also see Reuven’s dedication to his baseball team and coach, “Mr. Galanter was taking no chances and told me to pitch”(27). Moreover, the daily studies with his father, either with the Talmud or following the war with maps and the home radio, shows his discipline as well. Young men Reuven’s age should strive to pursue things as strongly as Reuven demonstrates in the

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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.

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For Danny its the only time his father will talk to him, on the other hand learning and studying give Danny comfort from the silence that he grows up from. Both boys inherit their love of learning from their fathers. Both David Malter and Reb Saunders are obsessed with knowledge, and are both scholars in their religious sects trying in different ways to pass on their teachings to their

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But I heard no bad news, so I assumed things were more or less all right”(239). This quote shows that something has come between their friendship and it is not allowing them to communicate like they used to. In this case the person that came between their friendship is Danny’s father because he since both Danny and Reuven are from different beliefs of the Jewish religion, Danny’s father considered Reuven a bad example for his son. As the books continues Potok makes us believe in true friendship when Danny and Reuven get past this rough patch and become really good friends

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574 Words | 3 Pages

In The Chosen, Danny's father Isaac Saunders, more commonly known as Reb, leads his family, and also his people by commanding respect and gaining admiration. "'He's more than a rabbi.' Danny said. ' He's a tzaddik'"(118) Even when Reb commanded Danny not to associate with his best friend for

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Chaim Potok’s Depiction of the Immigrant Experience Chaim Potok uses his novel, The Chosen, to captivate how hard the struggle is for Jewish Immigrants in America to assimilate and find their identity. Assimilation in America affects the characters ability to fully define their self-identity. Not only does Potok portray the internal struggles, but he also enhances the outer struggles of identity and assimilation by writing about the Holocaust. He does this while simultaneously portraying the appearance versus reality contrast throughout the novel.

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655 Words | 3 Pages

In “The Chosen,” Chaim Potok uses the relationship between Danny and Reuven to show the social and political problems that they dealt with. Reuven didn’t fully understand the Hasidic view on things; he asked his dad, Mr. Malter, many questions, that of which his dad knew most or just gave his opinions. Reuven was drug into Danny’s father, Reb Saunders’s, synagogue multiple times, where he learned more about the Talmud and the history behind the Hasidic religion. Reb Saunders’s was considered a tzaddik, by which everyone looked upon him as a god, but a tzaddik is just a pious leader that is a messenger between God and man. Also, with Reb Saunders being a tzaddik, he will have to pass down the role to his son, Danny.

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Silence can be excruciatingly painful to bare, but the silence can also allow one to grow and understand more than words ever would be able to bestow. Reb confronts Danny, through Reuven and he explains, "You think I was cruel? Yes, I see from your eyes that you think I was cruel to my Daniel. Perhaps.

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