The author uses a range of narrative elements to create individual characters and peoples identity’s. The main protagonist in the novel is Ben, however Ben is conflicted because he knows that he loves his parents but does not know if they are good or bad people. This conflict starts when
In his novel The Chosen Chaim Potok uses vision as a motif to show the reader that someone’s perception of things can change. In the novel, vision symbolizes the ability to see the world. The importance of perception is shown throughout the book. One of the main examples of this is after Reuven leaves the hospital. He says that “everything looks different”, but he doesn't mean this literally.
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.
I decided to read The Chosen by Chaim Potok because it is set during the 1940’s and about a culture that I do not have much experience with. This first person novel is narrated by Reuven Malther who lives in Brooklyn and forms an unlikely friendship with a boy named Danny Saunders. Reuven is a secular Jew with a very intellectual father, while Danny is the heir to a Hasidic rebbe position. The Chosen walks readers through the life of these two boys during their adolescence and also through a crisis of faith when the stories of what happened during the war begin to be told in America. During a very pivotal part of the book when the country finds out that President Roosevelt is dead and Reuven says, “Reb Saunders said it was God’s will”(Potok
"Change is the result of true learning." ~ Leo Buscaglia. Currently, many people become tricked into believing other's opinions because they are too afraid to voice their own. In the renowned novel The Chosen written by Chaim Potok, portrays Danny Saunders learns that holding strong to his beliefs are extremely important. A young boy destined to follow in his father's footsteps and become a Hasidic leader shows many that sometimes people must follow their convictions despite the expectations of others.
Unfortunately, the gift of free choice is taken for granted by those who have it, and is constantly dreamed of by those who weren’t granted such liberty. In the novel, The Chosen, Danny Saunders, the eldest son of a Hasidic tsaddik, was not granted the freedom to choose his own destiny as it was predetermined that he was to follow in his father’s footsteps. However, Danny wanted more from life, and for the majority of his childhood and adolescence, continued to struggle between straying away to make his own choices or to stick with religious and familial tradition. The novel is centered around this conflict and the choices that Danny eventually made in order to create the life he desired, even if it meant sacrificing years of tradition and responsibility. Therefore, the book’s preliminary focus of choice making and one’s ability to make choices would make “The Choice” a more suitable title for the novel.
He explains his guilt that “burns like acid in [his] veins” as the leftover feelings from his childhood remain “as though [he] were still concealing the family shame” (744). This descriptive language showcases how deeply and painfully this trauma has been within in as he has made his own life for himself. He saves this for the end of his essay so that he does not pull too much of the audience’s sympathy from other people who made need it “more.” He introduces the topic of physical violence by writing that “[his] own father never beat [them]” (740)—a curious phrase as he goes on to say that the image was so vivid in his mind that it felt tangible and real. There is an emphasis on the absence of physical violence, but also an admittance of how the threat of such can be just as painful and imprint such images on the brain for years to come.
Concerning Characters Concern ranks in the top of characteristics for a true friend to have. People with this quality care more for others. The Bible says “That there should be no schism in the body: but that the members should have the same care one for another. ”(1 Corinthians 12:25).
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.
INTRO: The novel The Chosen, by Chaim Potok, explores the coming-of-age experiences of two young men, Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders, highlighting the ways in which their changing vision and perception contribute to their personal growth and development; through their ability to see beyond their own perspectives, to appreciate the complexities of human emotion, and to understand the importance of tradition and community, Danny and Reuven are able to emerge as mature, thoughtful individuals. The use of vision to foster compassion for the pain and agony of others is portrayed as a crucial element of identity formation for both Reuven and Danny. As their physical vision worsens, the young boys are exposed to more suffering throughout the world.
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.
”(The Chosen, Chaim Potok) this shows how educated Danny is that he could quote and argue against a statement with father using the quotes.
The theme presented in the poem Temptation by Alden Nowlan is about men succumbing to the want of pride and recognition of their works. The boy exhibited in the poem is one of the many factors in which are tempting the father into allowing his arrogance to get the better of his decisions. This is shown when the boy states that his father’s “hands are strong,” which goads the father into accepting the challenge that his son had just initiated. If the father had refused his sons bait, then his pride would have been wounded through him not proving his physical strength. The structure of the poem shifts when the father refuses his son with no conviction in his voice.
Throughout history, multiple religions have budded heads, such as Christians and Muslims. In the book “The Chosen,” by Chaim Potok, the Hasidic and Modern Orthodox people conflict with each other because of their different views of belief. The religion itself doesn’t conflict, but the people of the different religions do. Hasidic and Modern Orthodox are the two sects of the main characters which were divided off from the four sects of Judaism, which are, Reconstructions, Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. Both religions are “types” of Jews; both of these are stricter than the “average Jew,” but Hasidism’s are considered the extreme.
In life difficulties may arise, but an “instructive eye” of a “tender parent” is a push needed in everyone’s life. Abigail Adams believed, when she wrote a letter to her son, that difficulties are needed to succeed. She offers a motherly hand to her son to not repent his voyage to France and continue down the path he is going. She uses forms of rhetoric like pathos, metaphors, and allusions to give her son a much needed push in his quest to success.
