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Religious Choices In The Chosen By Chaim Potok

459 Words2 Pages

Picking sides Throughout life we all must make choices whether we want to or not. Choices can bring pleasure and they can also tear you apart. In the book The Chosen by Chaim Potok there are countless chooses completed throughout the story line. In life we need to have support, Reuven has a very different religious life then Danny’s. His religious customs are much more relaxed and flexible in allowing worldly things. Danny’s religious habits are much more stricter and rule following, in the fact that he never brings in worldly stuff, his parents cover him from that. Choices bring the boys closer and they reflect on both boy’s past. "He told me once he wishes everyone could talk in silence." p. 76 Danny belonging to a strict religious family has a tough decision to make as he gets older. He must make the choice of becoming a phycologist or taking on the part of his father. Phycology is a secular subject as it takes on the world view on human nature. Tackling his father’s role is a task in its self, because it embraces so much control for a young boy. Through the book he is caught reading secular books. Danny needs to decide to keep sneaking out or to stop doing what he loves. “Books are an extension of our imagination” ― Danny Saunders …show more content…

Teaching comes easy to him and he’s a teacher who loves to learn. He may not know all the answers, but he has a love of learning. Being the narrator of the story, he puts more of the focus on other stories, rather than it being all about him. His story is captivating, but he dedicates most of the story to others more than himself. "If a person has a contribution to make, he must make it in public. If learning is not made in public, it is a waste. But the business about the mistakes I never heard before." p.

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The Influence Of Parents In The Chosen By Chaim Potok

802 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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Friendship Between Reuven And Danny In Antigone

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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Blindness In Chaim Potok's The Chosen

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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The Chosen By Chaim Potok Analysis

619 Words | 3 Pages

(page 78) Once Danny starts visiting and becoming friends with Reuven another thing about the pair is changed. Bringing two unique worldviews to the table and one true friendship, Danny and Reuven both help each other see the world in a uniquely different way than how they saw it before.

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Differences In Chaim Potok's The Chosen

667 Words | 3 Pages

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

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Free Choice In Chaim Potok's The Chosen

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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The Malter And Saunders Families In The Chosen, By Chaim Potok

1048 Words | 5 Pages

He raises his son, Danny, in a highly disciplined environment, where silence and obedience are valued as essential virtues. He told me once he wishes everyone could talk in silence. " Chapter 3, p. 76. Reb Saunders' approach to parenting is influenced by his own traumatic past, having witnessed the atrocities of the Holocaust firsthand. His silence toward Danny stems from a belief in the importance of transmitting Jewish tradition and spirituality through nonverbal means, such as through the study of Talmudic texts and communal

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Friendship In Chaim Potok's The Chosen

476 Words | 2 Pages

“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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The Influence Of Friendships In The Chosen By Chaim Potok

412 Words | 2 Pages

He wants Danny to become a Tsaddik when he becomes of age. When Danny befriends Reuven, a non-Hasid, he gets a glimpse into a different world. When Danny spends time with Reuven, he is able to relax a little bit and does not have to constantly worry about studying and his religion’s incomparable number of laws. Their friendship lets Danny almost ‘switch’ worlds and learn about different things he would not normally be able to learn about, like Freud. Danny and Reuven’s friendship lets Danny relax and glimpse into a different

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The Chosen By Chaim Potok: Character Analysis

589 Words | 3 Pages

Character traits are all aspects of a person’s behavior and attitude that make up that person’s personality. Throughout The Chosen, the author, Chaim Potok gives his characters countless positive traits including Mr. Malter. First, Mr. Malter displays great intelligence as he teaches the Talmud a confusing Jewish book. Next, he expresses skill in articulation as he explains complex subjects easily and thoroughly.

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Summary Of Chaim Potok's The Chosen

663 Words | 3 Pages

A terrorist may have been raised cruelly, but the fact that someone is raised cruelly does not mean they will become a terrorist, and the same is true for this. As a Hasid, Danny may have been raised in silence, but the fact that he may raise his son in silence does not mean that he will raise them to be a Hasid. As such, the way that he was raised has no impact on the faith he chooses to have during his time at Columbia and after except to make him open to other ways of living and raising his own

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Friendship Exposed In Chaim Potok's The Chosen

497 Words | 2 Pages

Reuven is inspired by Danny to become more involved in his religious community, and become a rabbi. The character transitioned from someone with a burning anger towards the Hasidics, who were incredibly religious, to someone near that level. While this is interesting to watch across the pages of the novel, it leads to a simple and basic plot line. Despite the lack of plot, the characters incite some build up in the story. There is a visible inciting incident, but the climax is difficult to define because of the lack of build up the book exhibits.

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What It Means To Be Chosen Research Paper

1254 Words | 6 Pages

What was Danny chosen for? He was chosen to be the next rabbi, but in the book it is noticed that he is in battle between philosophy and religion, and because he is studying German so he can read more of Freud’s philosophy says that philosophy is winning. Philosophy and religion both give views on life and how the world works, the only difference

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Im Just A Kid And Life Analysis

173 Words | 1 Pages

, the psychiatrist explains how reclusive and strange behavior is blindly accepted because parents are used to their children being irrational. Danny can actually see ghosts so he gets frustrated when his parents push his ‘imaginary friends’ under the rug. Along with the majority of teenagers around

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Analysis Of George Orwell's 'Shooting An Elephant'

2027 Words | 9 Pages

There are lots of tough situations in our life that put us in a difficulty of making a true choice, so that in the end we finally decide to be on our own side or the side

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