In the novel, The Chosen, written by Chaim Potok, the reader learns about some important events in Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter's friendship. One of the most important situations is where Reuven gets hit in his eye with a baseball which Danny has thrown. Another important aspect of their friendship is where Reb Saunders accepts his son's friendship with Reuven. Another significant event is Reb Saunders explaining why he raises Danny in silence. Finally, the last event is when the Saunder's family tells Reuven he is not allowed to have anything to do with the Saunders' family.…
Reuven wants to become a rabbi. But his father, who is a greatly respected teacher, hopes that he will become a college professor or some type of teacher. Danny's father is known virtually everywhere because he is the most respected rabbi of the Hassidic community. Tradition, sternly upheld by his father, dictates that Danny be the heir to his father's rabbinate, a hereditary position. But Danny loves the study of the human mind and wants to become a psychologist. For both boys getting away from their father's wishes for their futures is a tremendous challenge. The boys graduate from high school and enter a Jewish college in New York. They continue to live at home. College allows them to stretch their wings, and their American Dream continues to glimmer, however…
Chaim Potok in his novel, The Chosen, uses parallels between characters to compliment one another by sharing knowledge and contrasting one another. There are two particular characters that are especially prominent. Reuven and Danny are both raised as American Jews and are the same age, at times they build and learn off of one another as they grow up together. Danny’s photographic memory makes memorizing things easy, but at times he struggles with other subjects. Potok writes, “Two blatt?…
Both are referred to as brilliant, and David even refers to Danny as “a phenomenon. A Once in a generation mind” (Potok 106). Moreover, both boys are the son of a respected voice in their corresponding communities and are seemingly representations of their father’s ideologies. Reuven, in combination with his father, represents the less strict Orthodox Jews who are willing to adapt and accept modern ideals into their religion and fully integrate into modern society. On the other hand, Danny and his father, display a Hasidic, traditional perspective of Jewish life that remains separate from modern society. It must also be noted that neither boy chose their faith, rather it was chosen for them by virtue of birth. But, the friendship formed between Danny and Reuven will prove to be a bridge connecting tradition to…
Chaim Potok grew up in a Jewish family. Since Potok knew the Jewish culture so well, he was able to translate his knowledge into the book. Potok based the character of Danny off of himself. From Potok’s writing style, readers relate to the characters, feeling their emotion, whether happy or sad. It seems as if Reuven and Danny are telling readers their story. Readers also learn what it was like for the Jews during WWII and to discover the Holocaust happened. By the end of the…
One of the main conflicts in the novel is the struggle between Danny and his father, Reb Saunders. The tension between them escalates throughout…
In The Chosen, Potok describes the Jewish culture during the period of World War I. Beginning with the affluence of Polish Jews before the war, Potok established a circle of relationships. In the book, there are three main relationships. The first one is father-son, between Danny and his father, Reb Saunders and between Reuven and his father, David Malter. The relationship between Reuven and Danny is the second main relationship in The Chosen. The third main relationship is Hasidism verses Zionism.…
The way Potok sets up My Name is Asher Lev is to make the two worlds of Judaism and Secularism conflict. He does this with the use of many key icons and symbols of the two ways of life. He employs extreme Jewish symbols and symbol-systems, such as Hasidism, the Rebbe, Asher's father, Gemarah, Shabbos, and very symbolic holidays like Rosh Hashanah and Pesach, to portray a barrier between Asher, his community, and the rest of the world. He then uses extreme secular symbols such as, Russia, art, and in art, crusifixions, nudes, and Asher's art mentor Jacob Kahn, to show the radical differences between the two. At one point (in book 3, chapter 10) Jacob says to Asher, "You are too religious to be an Abstract Expressionist..." ... "We are ill at ease in the universe. We are rebellious and individualistic. We welcome accidents in painting. You are emotional and sensual but you are also rational. That is your Landover background...." Potok makes Hasidim out to be a dying culture by telling stories about them in the past, and a big part of Asher's consciousness of his heritage, and his dreams and perceptions of his Grandfather (chapter 3, pg. 98). "He came to me that night out of the woods, my mythic ancestor, huge, mountainous, dressed in his dark caftan and fur-trimmed cap, pounding his way…
This is faced mainly by Tom, who is facing a life threatening disease, Leukaemia. Tom throughout the novel acts as a catalyst for change, helping characters find who they are but also travels on an inner journey himself. Toms own physical journey is towards a fast approaching death which is shown through dialogue between Tom and Meg when he says, “I was told the infection was running its course”. But his acceptance of his fate enables others to be healed. This journey is shown when Tom’s doctor has given the short time period in which he has to live, prompting and encouraging Tom to have sex before he dies. His immaturity and teenager lifestyle is shown when he and Meg are on the beach and Tome tries to seduce Meg into having sex with him. Tom constantly uses repetition of his dying status to make people feel sorry for him. This is shown when Tom says,” So how about it? Help me. I’m going to get sick again. And I won’t get better. Your parents won’t find out”. Through the use of syntax, Gow emphasises to the audience how it is Toms Last chance and the great significance and importance this would have on Tom. Meg reluctantly refuses. This then prompted Tom as he learned to accept his illness he also learnt that family time is far more important than sex. He turned to listening to people such as Coral. Tom being the catalyst for change not only helped to change Corals and other…
Almost to hard to figure out completely, he seems to barely talk and not talk to his son but he also seems to care a lot. In everything Reb Saunders does he does to teach the Talmud or help people to better understand it. He lives his life very seriously and rarely smiles. But everything that Reb Saunders does he has a reason for, "My father himself never talked to me, except when we studied together. He taught me with silence. He taught me to look into myself, to find my own strength, to walk around inside myself in company with my soul.” Red Saunders says as explaining why he does not talk to Danny very often. He knows what he does and he knows why and he would not change for anyone…
It is possible that the plague is merely exacerbating tensions already present with in the village but it does so to an unprecedented degree. Thus, certain individuals of a somewhat antisocial and self-serving bent find their actions and inclinations magnified by the advent of the Plague. Josiah Bont, who is Anna’s abusive father, becomes a gravedigger, willing to pursue homicide as a stimulus to his profits; his wife, Aphra, shamelessly exploits the anxieties of her fellow villagers for monetary gain by pretending to be the ghost of the deceased Anys Gowdie. In what is, perhaps, a less culpable fashion, David Burton seizes the opportunity to advance his own interest at the expense of Merry Wickord, whose family mine has been left open to claim by the death of her parents. Instances such as these suggest that Michael Mompellion’s assertion that “the Plague will make heroes of us all”, however optimistic, is not well founded. Even more strikingly, the readiness of the villagers to turn against Mem and Anys Gowdie, whose service as healers have been much in demand, indicates that the plague deepens the rifts already exists in the community. As Jon Millstone comments, there is a grave danger that the time “will make monsters of us all”. Therefore it is the villagers own nature which acts as the catalyst for further tragic…
Raising children has always been a challenge for parents. In a perfect world, every child would be wanted and loved, and all parents would have the capacity and the desire to raise children who are kind and respectful to the people around them and especially their parents, but most of the time parents use different ways of educating their children. Such is the case in Harper Lee 's novel, To Kill A Mockingbird and in the short story The Veldt, written by Ray Bradbury. The two stories have the following characters who are related to each other: siblings, brothers and sisters who are showing the difference between…
"..the husband durable, receptive, gentle; the child a tender golden three. The sight of them made her so sad and sick she did not want to see them ever again."(38) This reveals to the readers that the woman is resentful of her husband's strong health and her child's young age thus, begrudges them as her own life is depreciating. This is a good example of the woman's characterization because it describes her physical appearance and thoughts, as it also give the reader a glimpse of the overall tone to the story.…
letter *A* embroidered on her chest. The A served as a symbol of her crime, was…
The Chosen by Chaim Potok is often described by critics as a distinctly American novel. I would have to say that I am definitely in agreement with this statement because the novel has a large emphasis on the concept of the American Dream throughout the duration of the story. That is the belief that in America one can pursue his or her dreams, whatever they may be, without regard to background or culture. Both Reuven and Danny reflect this ideal in their behaviors and action.…