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Differences In Chaim Potok's The Chosen

667 Words3 Pages

The challenge finding almost perfect friends is strenuous and difficult. Every person has their own likes and dislikes. In Chaim Potok’s heart-wrenching book, The Chosen, two completely different boys and one father named Danny Saunders, Reuven Malter, and David Malter. Each person has extremely different experiences in their life with the hobbies they play, the religion they study, and their views of certain religions. Just because one person has different religious views does not mean they can not good friends. In their own unique ways, all three men show the importance of a strong friendship.

Danny Saunders portrays a young man waiting to leave for college and do as he pleases. His father, Reb Saunders, loves Danny very much, but he never shows his affection for Danny openly. As a young teenager, Danny starts to assume his father does not talk to him because he is too busy. Progressing into the book, Danny meets a young teen around his age named Reuven Malter. Growing older Danny starts to crave attention from Reuven, but Danny does not realize he reaches out for the wise advice of his great friend more than the friendship. Once Danny speaks to his father, “He [Reb Saunders] did not …show more content…

His wife passed away shortly after giving birth to her son, Reuven. Mr. Matler takes on the role of raising his son as best as he can, and forms a bond with Reuven, which continually grows stronger. Reuven despises Danny for crushing his eye, which landed him into the hospital. Danny comes with his apologies, but he only receives bitterly muttered spiteful words in return. Mr. Malter despises the words his son chooses to reply with towards Danny’s apology. Mr. Malter chastises Reuven sternly, stating, “How can you say something like that if you are not sure? That is a terrible thing to say”(49). Later in the novel, Reuven realizes David, Danny, or himself would have never become so close if it had not been for his father's wise

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573 Words | 3 Pages

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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1866 Words | 8 Pages

He is taught to be exactly like his father when he becomes an adult and he is extremely observant. I was raised like Reuven and completely agree with his father’s approach of raising Reuven. I completely disagree with Reb Saunders way of raising Danny because it was essentially a “radical” way of

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1116 Words | 5 Pages

Both ultimately share insight with both Danny and Reuven including the importance of their friendship.

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270 Words | 2 Pages

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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569 Words | 3 Pages

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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478 Words | 2 Pages

Reuven found a new appreciation of his health since he could have gone blind. Another example of perception change from the novel is when Reuven realizes Danny isn't how he appeared to be. During the story, Mr. Malter says “Things are always as they seem to be, Reuven?”. He says this because Reuven told him that it seemed like Danny hit him deliberately.

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1558 Words | 7 Pages

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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1310 Words | 6 Pages

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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500 Words | 2 Pages

Reb Saunders looked exhausted and sickly. Reb Saunders talks to Danny through Reuven, never speaking to Danny. He then explains why he raised the Danny the way he did. Reb saw that his son had a brilliant mind, but had little soul in his father’s eyes. Reb wanted Danny to realize the immense suffering in the world so he could develope a great soul.

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747 Words | 3 Pages

Obstacles of Intelligence The definition of intelligence is “the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.” Chaim Potok has created many incredibly intelligent characters in his novel The Chosen. These characters have many trials they must overcome. Some must overcome sickness, or possible overcome losing a dear friend, even one may be helpless to what his father wants. Nevertheless, they overcome these obstacles.

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1215 Words | 5 Pages

To choose or to be chosen; which is better? The gift of choice is something not bestowed upon everyone, and this is especially true for the main character of Chaim Potok’s The Chosen. The novel describes the life of two boys, Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter, one of which has been granted the freedom to choose his own destiny, and the other has already had his life mapped out since the day of his birth. Throughout his childhood and much of his adolescence, Danny struggled between the life he wants and the one chosen for him by his father, Reb Saunders, the rabbi a Hasidic congregation. As the eldest son of his family, Danny has been born into the position of the future rabbi of his temple, however, he yearns for something much different.

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476 Words | 2 Pages

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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250 Words | 1 Pages

Reuven notices that Danny is very different from whom he had expected him to be. As the son of Reb Saunders, Danny shows many signs of having an intellectual passion, however he admits that studying just the Talmud is not enough and that his school life is quite boring. He feels that the teachers are too afraid of his father to challenge him, thus, he reads many books as a replacement for experiencing the challenges and excitement that he could never achieve at school. Rather than judging Danny by his appearance or position, Reuven uses this opportunity to actually listen to him, as a result, he was able to learn many things about his new friend. Prior to the novel, the same reoccurring theme of friendship seem to play an important role in

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635 Words | 3 Pages

Max and freak the quest of friendship (working together) When I was a kid in Sherman Oaks Elementary School, I changed when I became friends with Ethan into a happy person in school. When Ethan came along, I felt happy because he’s being all nice and helping me a lot and he challenged me to a foot race with me too and all of that made me have all the fun In his novel, Freak the Mighty Rodman Philbrick uses the literary devices of characterization and dialogue to reveal the theme of the power of friendship to face one’s problems.

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967 Words | 4 Pages

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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