Theme Of Children In Silence In Chaim Potok's The Chosen

In Chaim Potok’s The Chosen, Danny Saunders learns about the value of raising children in silence. At the beginning of The Chosen, Danny can’t stand the silence between him and his father, but then begins to realize that the silence allows him to be independent and think for himself about what he wants to do in life. This helps him break away from his family’s dynasty, and in turn he decides to become a psychologist so he can help other people as they go through troubling times.

Danny and his father, Reb Saunders, never talk unless it’s about their religion, Hasidic Judaism. At a religious service, when Reb Saunders quizzes Danny on gematriya, Reuven Malter, a friend of Danny’s, “saw Danny’s body go rigid again, as it had done before his father

As Reuven and Danny walk through the hallways of Danny’s family’s brownstone, all of Reb Saunders’s supporters step aside for Danny. Danny explains to Reuven, “Number one on our catechism: Treat the son as you would the father, because one day the son will be the father” (122). Reb Saunders’s supporters treat Danny very well, believing that Danny will continue the dynasty and take over his father’s position as a rabbi eventually. Later in the book, when Danny and Reuven are in college, Reuven is shocked to learn that Danny’s future wife has been promised to him. Danny says to Reuven, “That’s another reason it won’t be easy to break out of the trap. It doesn’t only involve my own family” (268). Danny has to juggle his loyalty to his family and religion with his loyalty to his ideas and what he wants to do in life. When Mr. Malter and Reuven talk about Danny breaking away from his family’s dynasty, Mr. Malter says, “Danny is now like a person waiting to be let out out of jail. He has only one desire. To leave the jail. Despite what may be waiting for him outside. Danny cannot think one minute beyond the moment he will have to tell his father he does not wish to take his place” (270). Mr. Malter is right, since Danny thinks more about telling his family what he has decided than what he wants to do as a psychologist. However, he’s surprised when his father tells him that he knew all along that Danny would not continue the