Intelligence By Chaim Potok: Character Analysis

Friendship certainly plays a significant role in Chaim Potok's novel The Chosen. This fascinating story follows the lives of Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders as they develop and strengthen an intimate relationship. In addition to befriending Danny, Reuven initiates touching friendships with Billy Merrit and Tony Salvo, two of his fellow patients during his tenure at the hospital. An only child who suffered the loss of his mother after birth, Reuven thirsts for the loving companionship of others. Yet throughout the book, Reuven constantly has to overcome hardships in his dealings with his friends. By highlighting Reuven's relationships with Billy Merrit, Tony Salvo, and Danny Saunders, Potok effectively exemplifies how to foster a successful friendship.

In “A Rounded Version: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences”, Howard Gardner illustrates how there are a variety of intelligences. Gardner starts off with an example how IQ tests may predict achievement in school but may not predict achievement in life. After finding out certain parts of the brain are responsible for certain functions, such as “Broca’s Area” which is responsible for sentence production, Gardner proposes the existence of multiple intelligences. Multiple studies later led him to propose seven distinct intelligences; Musical, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Each intelligence has certain classifications. According to Gardner’s classifications, I realized my intelligences are bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, and intrapersonal.

After Reuven initially wakes up, Danny visits him in the hospital to apologize. “‘I am sorry,’ he said quietly. ‘I’ll just bet you are,’ I told him. He…turned and walked slowly away.” After Reuven tells his father of the events, his father tells him that he should have listened. This response on David’s part initially caused Reuven to listen to Danny when he returned the second time.

Gerald Graff questioned the core components of the school curriculum in relation to intelligence throughout his essay titled, “Hidden Intellectualism.”. He believes that schools should attempt to base their studies around the interest of the students, rather than the foundations that many students are disinterested towards. Developing a syllabus revolving around youth culture may translate to better arguments that focus on the analysis, debate, and reflection from the scholars. He explained that arguments are the key to learning, as it allows people to obtain facts and use it to form opinions and interpretations to share with others. Integrating topics obtained by society may alter the definition of intelligence, as pupils will be engaged in their studies. In addition, the stereotype of what it means to be clever will also adapt to be more accepting if a balance between interests and academics is generated.

By relating Reuven’s knowledge of Danny with his father’s opinion of Reb Saunders, Potok shows that Reuven thinks of Danny as only a mirror of his zealous father instead of judging him by his own

Chapter Three The Trouble with Geniuses, part 1 by Malcolm Gladwell. This chapter describes the threshold to intelligence and explains that the domain of intelligence is only good up to a degree by which the author describes. The chapter goes on to discuss a very intelligent person named Christopher Lanagan. It tells how Lanagan was on a television show and earned a lot of money for answering questions.

During Reuven and Danny’s last conservation with Danny’s father, his father says, “[The Master of the Universe] sent [Reuven] when my son was ready to rebel. He sent you to be my closed eyes and my sealed ears… What an effort it was for him to talk to me…Let my Daniel become a psychologist. I have no more fear now.” (pg 286-87) Reb Saunders was able to communicate with his son through Reuven, and understand that he did not want to become a rabbi. Danny’s strained speech about becoming Reuven’s friend is because he did not want to go against his father’s religious beliefs. However, after becoming Reuven’s friend he considered telling Reb Saunders that he was going to become a psychologist, completely destroying what his father believed in. At the end of the book, Reuven describes Danny: “His beard and earlocks were gone, and his face looked pale. But there was a light in his eyes that was almost blinding.” (pg 290) Thanks to Reuven, Danny is able to pursue his own career. The absence of Danny’s beard and earlocks proves his freedom from his father’s religious bindings, and the newfound light in his eyes show that he knows he has his own future ahead of him now. Danny becomes much less depressed, due to Reuven’s

The many layers of Reuven and Danny’s friendship make it hard to summarize. The ironic way they met comes up first; at a ball game. Danny batted the ball straight into Reuven’s eye, after which Reuven got rushed off to the hospital, where doctors told him, rather vaguely, that he

The explanation of wisdom shows gain in knowledge and skill. Throughout the story Reuven and Danny invariably gain more wisdom. Despite gaining their wisdom from their fathers in actuality they benefit their knowledge from each other. They mostly consult each other about other finding that they learn,” I asked him how he was coming along with German , and he said he had finished memorizing the grammar text and was reading a book he had borrowed from the German section of the library”(159). Advising one another about knowledge that they both gain from books shows another act of wisdom. This vital interaction allows them to move on and advance in wisdom as they mature.

Fact makes knowledge, but exercise makes brilliance. Just as a dancer must employ extreme effort and time in order to ever acquire the measure of perfection demanded, so must a thinker practice his method in order to truly rise to the culmination of his facility. Therefore, utilizing and stimulating the mind in study proves the brightness of a man, for by deciphering the different puzzles of life, he has made theory into reality. In Chaim Potok’s masterful narrative, The Chosen, he contemplates the genius of man through three different individuals, perspectives, and personalities: the remarkable yet restless mind of Danny, the cold intellect of Reb Saunders, and the astuteness of Reuven. In each character, Potok discusses the joys and also the difficulties of possessing so great a mind, for though it can make the most complex of things simple, it can also make the simplest of things, such as conversation, complex. Notwithstanding, the three persons, Danny, Reb Saunders, and Reuven, each

Reb Saunders also proves how strongly he feels about his beliefs. He and Danny would have Talmud studies and battles on Shabbat. When Reb Saunders gave his sermons, he would make a mistake on purpose and quiz Danny to see if he would catch his father’s mistakes. Reb Saunders’s father kept silence between himself and Reb. Because Reb Saunders was raised that way, he also did not talk to Danny either except for discussing Talmud. “And when he was older, I drew myself away from him…. ‘Why have you stopped answering my questions, Father?’ he asked me once.” (266) Reb Saunders holds fast to the traditions that his father instilled in

Supporting, encouraging, and helping may not always fit on the agenda, but family loyalty gives back in full. In The Chosen by Chaim Potok the characters he created show love towards their family by helping each other. Instead of focusing on their personal needs, they help each other work through challenges they struggle with. Chaim Potok crafts characters that understand caring for family pays back more than anything they could do for themselves. In The Chosen Reuven Malter, Danny Saunders, and Reb Saunders support their families even when it proves difficult.

Since Reb wanted him to follow in his footsteps, Danny had to be brought up essentially by himself. He couldn’t look to anyone else when he had trouble and when he was in pain, he had to look into himself. This really did shape the man that Danny became. He ultimately grew up without a father, which may have made him a stronger man. Reuven struggled with the fact that his best friend was being raised so differently and in his eyes, so poorly.

Two Jewish, teenage boys living parallel lives in New York City meet each other and realize the challenges that are faced during a friendship, especially when their religious beliefs are very contradictory. In The Chosen by Chaim Potok, the narrator, Reuven Malter, is a Modern Orthodox Jew and Danny Saunders, the other protagonist who is a Hasidic Jew, become friends after a tragic incident at a local baseball game. After reading The Chosen, I realized how much knowledge about the Jewish faith I gained, as well as, how much of my knowledge of the Jewish faith was clarified. My knowledge of their faith was expanded in many ways for example, how much hatred and discrimination the Jews have suffered from for over a thousand years and the different

As he enters the congregants try to touch him and honor him. He comes directly to Danny, who introduces him to Reuven in front of a crowd. He asks the son of David Malter, if his eye is healed, and things such as how he knows so much about mathematics. This is a very crucial part of the story, due to David Malter. Knowing that Jewish people worship the Son of David.