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Reuven In Chaim Potok's The Chosen

717 Words3 Pages

In Chaim Potok’s, The Chosen, Reuven does not change over the course of the book. Reuven allows his emotions to make him act and think rashly rather than learning more about the situation. In the early chapters of, The Chosen, Reuven makes assumptions on people without understanding what they may have been thinking. When Reuven is in the hospital after the softball game and his father comes to visit, they discuss Danny and him hitting Reuven’s eye: “[Danny] said his team would kill us apikorsim” “Apikorsim?” “They turned the game into a war.” “I do not understand. On the telephone Reb Saunders said his son was sorry.” “Sorry! I’ll bet he’s sorry! He’s sorry he didn’t kill me altogether!” My father gazed at me intently, his eyes narrowing. …show more content…

Reuven is stubborn and willing to hold on to his own opinions even when there are evidences showing that he is not right. As the story approaches its end, Reuven is still continuing to make rash choices based off of his feelings rather than learning more about the situation. When Danny tells Reuven that his father wants him to come over for Passover, Reuven has no intention to, and tells his father about the invitation. However, Reuven’s father is oddly upset when he learns Reuven has been refusing the invitations: “[Reb Saunders] has been asking all long” “Reuven, when someone wants to speak to you, you must let them speak to you. You still have not learned that? You did not learn from what happened to you between you and Danny?” “He wants to study Talmud,

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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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Comparing Reuven And Danny's Culture

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Due to the fact that Reuven and his dad have frequent conversation, they have a much closer relationship and Reuven loves and admires his father very much. Danny is showing Reuven his house, “Danny took me to the third floor rooms. They were identical with the ones in which my father and I lived” (161). Because they grew up in the same neighborhood, the places where their families lived are basically the same. While they may have their differences, because Reuven and Danny grew up in the same area, family living dynamics are very

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Blindness In Chaim Potok's The Chosen

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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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Vision As A Motif In Chaim Potok's The Chosen

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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Character Analysis Of Reuven In The Chosen, By Chaim Potok

534 Words | 3 Pages

Earlier in the chapter, he demonstrates sympathy for the soldiers invading France and their struggle, something he may not have done before his trauma. After the call, he “kept hearing Mr. Savo saying, ‘Crazy world. Cockeyed’” (173). This is a great example of the struggles we face throughout life, because many times, we don’t do anything at all to deserve what happens to us, like Billy in the car crash, who lost his vision due to the recklessness of another person. As Mr. Malter said, the way the world works “‘is a little cruel, Reuven.

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Spiritual Conflicts In The Promise By Chaim Potok

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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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Summary Of The Chosen By Chaim Potok

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In Chaim Potok’s novel, The Chosen, Reb Saunders, who is Danny’s father, is a very interesting and wise man. His techniques and beliefs for raising his son is strange and unorthodox but it is what he believes will help grow his son’s soul. He is not your typical father and being Jewish plays a role in his decisions. In the book we see how his actions are used and end with fruitful results. Reb Saunders grew up in a “small town in southern Russia” and was raised in the Jewish Orthodox customs.

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Reuven Malter's Character In The Chosen

717 Words | 3 Pages

His baseball coach shows genuine concern for him during and after the game by continually asking him how he feels. Also, Billy and Mr. Savo, Reuven’s roommates at the hospital, quickly become warm and sociable with him. Danny, Reuven’s enemy during the baseball game, takes the initiative to begin a friendship with Reuven after a hospital visit. Even Reb Saunders, who dislikes his son to mix with “outsiders,” expresses his fondness of Reuven and approves his son’s friendship with him. He tells Reuven, “...I am happy you are friends.

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Characters exemplify great depth and dimensions through the course of their actions and choices. In the novel, The Chosen, Chaim Potok exhibits crucial messages and significant teachings through the intimate friendship between two boys from similar, yet different worlds. He utilizes David Malter, Reuven’s father, as a mentor who provides reasoning and patience. David Malter delivers sincere characteristics to portray his morals and virtues. David Malter’s judgments allow him to observe and rationalize situations.

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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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Friendship In Chaim Potok's The Chosen

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Genuine friendships are excellent things to have. It’s nice to have somebody to confide in when you don’t know where to turn. In The Chosen, Reuven states that he “didn’t mean to offend you [Danny] or anything, I just want to be honest.’ ‘I want you to be honest’ Danny said.” (Page 119)

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Coming Of Age Experiences In Chaim Potok's The Chosen

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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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Instead of selfishly wanting to experience all of the world that he can, the Reb is content to make an impact on the lives of those he encounters while he is still here. For example, Mitch may have just forgotten about his old rabbi and his faith if the Reb had not asked Mitch to do his eulogy. The Reb decided to invest in Mitch and trust him to carry on his memory, especially by doing his eulogy. He must have had a lot of faith in Mitch to trust him in this way. This could have also been the Reb’s way of “touching everything”; he takes chances on people whenever her can in hopes of them remembering him and his

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