The Chosen Essay

At the beginning of the novel, their whole friendship wouldn't have started if one, Reuven didn't listen to his urging father and forgave Danny, and two, if Danny didn't stubbornly persist in visiting Reuven in the hospital, where he patiently waited for him to vent his anger. "Also, yesterday I hated him; now we were calling each other by our first names. I sat and

Danny and Reuven’s relationship was a link between father and son, but this grew into something more, something life-long and unchanging. This friendship was true, it meant a lot to both of them, and their parents. However, after large disagreements in both Danny and Reuven’s religious lives and families, Reb Saunders excommunicates Reuven from the Hasidic community and Danny’s life.

The relationship between Danny and Reuven is a very big theme in The Chosen. Danny and Reuven are two boys who have grew up within a few blocks of each other, but in two entirely different worlds. They meet for the first time in at a school baseball game between their two Jewish schools. Even though at first their only feeling for each other is one of hatred, they eventually get over their differences and become the best of friends. They learn a lot about each other and about the others life and religion. The boys’ fathers have very different views and that’s gets them in trouble. Danny’s father disagrees with Reuven’s father’s point of view on a certain topic, and forbids Danny from ever seeing Reuven again. After some time Reb gets over himself and permits Danny to see Reuven again. This situation goes back to the fathers’ ways of raising their child and their view on their religion.

Another type of silence in The Chosen is the silence that exists between Danny and Reuven and is no product of their own; it is the silence that Reb Saunders enforced upon them when he forbade them to speak or spend time together. It was a silence that came into being because of the different beliefs of their fathers, though only Danny’s father acted upon it. “There had been an explosion yesterday at breakfast, last night at supper, and this morning again at breakfast. Danny was not to see me, talk to me, listen to me, be found within four feet of me. My father and I had been excommunicated from the Saunders family.” (pg.230). The silence not only deeply hurt the boys, who were true friends, but also infuriated Reuven. Reuven had never approved of or understood the silence that Reb Saunders had created between himself and his son, and Reuven thought it to be cruel—after all, he had seen Danny’s pain and confusion over the matter and knew how hard it was for him. He was furious at Reb Saunders for not only tearing apart their friendship, but especially for tearing it apart with that hated silence. “I hated the silence between us and thought it unimaginable that Danny and his father never talked. Silence was ugly, it was black,

As he talks to Reuven about the silence between him and his father, he remarks, “…you can listen to silence and learn from it… I feel myself alive in it. It talks. And I can hear it… It has a strange, beautiful texture… sometimes it cries, and you can hear the pain of the world in it. It hurts to listen to it then. But you have to” (249). Danny begins to understand what silence teaches him. He learns to listen to the pain of others because he suffers himself. Moreover, as Danny is about to leave to Columbia for college, Reuven describes, “His beard and earlocks were gone, and his face looked pale. But there was a light in his eyes that was almost blinding… There was a long, gentle silence” (270). Reuven notices that Danny is excited from the light in his eyes, and he now understands that silence is gentle. Because Danny realizes why Reb raised him in silence, he is no longer confused about his future. Likewise, when Reuven’s father asks Danny if he will raise his own child in silence, he replies, “Yes, if I can’t find another way” (271). Although Danny anguishes, he plans on raising his child the same way. He understands how silence taught him compassion, and he learns Reb’s purpose for raising him this way. Due to suffering, Danny understands how to listen to the world’s problems through

Danny’s father feels like this silence will make Danny become a better individual and teach him about compassion. However, Danny’s father does not realize how much this silence hurts Danny and how it causes him suffering. Even though Danny isn’t suffering physical pain like Reuven did in the beginning of the book, he is however, suffering emotionally, which to some extent, hurts just as much, if not more than physical pain. For a long time, Danny doesn’t understand his father’s methods of interacting or treating him like the reason why he won’t talk with him outside of their faith. Danny asks himself the “why,” but still doesn’t have any answers. Throughout the book, both Reuven and Danny go through suffering. Even though their suffering is different, it does not lessen the pain that they each face throughout this book.

In the novel The chosen the main characters Danny and Reuven have very different relationships with their fathers. At the beginning Reuven has a very close relationship with Mr.Malter but later on as his father becomes ill and goes in and out of the hospital their relationship is distanced. On the other hand, all of his life Danny and his father had been distanced. When Danny`s father understands that the way he grew up is not incontrovertibly the best way for danny to grow up he decides to change his ways and grow closer to his son.

Danny Saunders and Reuven Malters could not be more different in appearance. Following Hasidic traditions, Danny had long earlocks, wore a tzitzit, and wore shoes with a metal bottom. Also, by he is in college his beard is full-grown. The only aspect, appearance wise, that the boys had in common in the beginning of the story were their black skullcaps. Reuven had always worn glasses, but after spending countless years reading every chance he got, Danny needed them too. The stress caused by the reading and from the pressures of his family became too much on his eyes and they started to turn red and develop bags underneath them. As the firstborn son, Danny had known, for as long as he could remember, that he was to take his father’s place as tzaddik and lead his own congregation. But Danny knew that he did not belong up on a podium preaching, just like Reuven knew that he was not meant to be a math professor. Reuven’s father, David, was one of his best friends. He talked to him

Danny and Reuven represent deeply committed friends. Their live intertwine when historical circumstances , religious realities, and their father's differences in child rearing dramatically affect their respective senses of security and happiness.

… “Why don’t you ask Appleman? I said quietly. “I think I will,” Danny said. “I think I’ll do just that. Why not? What have I got to lose? It can’t make me any more miserable than I am now” (Potok 211). Reuven helps Danny make decisions about his future encouraging him to follow his heart and become a psychologist. It would mean deviating from the expected career of following in his father’s footsteps and becoming a Rabbi. This would be frowned upon. Danny’s father states, “For six generations now we have led our people. I will not live forever. Daniel will one day take my place ---” (Potok 166). Danny lives his dream in silence until his father finally realizes that Danny wants to attend college and pursue a career outside of the faith.. ”And my son, my Daniel, he will - he will go another way. I saw Danny’s mouth fall open…’I know Reb Saunders murmured’…” (Potok 282). If it wasn’t for Reuven’s kindness, encouragement, and compassion for Danny, then Danny would have followed in his father’s footsteps and lived a life of misery in silence. Reuven’s character demonstrated a level of maturity by his actions. This newfound maturity continued to grow.

You and I live in a world were modernism is reaching new heights every day. One day that touchscreen phone is considered new, and then next week it’s old news. These two stories that I am going to compare are about the role of technology, science and how it affects me and you. Based on how it uses new technology and modern science A Sound of Thunder is a better sci-fiction story.

The two most noticeable and important opposite pairs are Reuven and Danny and their fathers Reb Saunders and Mr. Malter. These character foils are an important element to the story by helping to teach the virtue of tolerance to it’s readers. Danny and Reuven are almost complete opposites, Danny is a Hasid and Reuven is a Traditional Orthodox Jew this difference alone should prevent the boys from even conversing but it doesn’t. Somehow Danny and Reuven manage to overcome their differences and gain respect for the other’s beliefs. Mr. Malter and Reb Saunders differ greatly in their parenting styles. Mr. Malters approach is loving and caring, he is always their for his son to talk to about anything that troubles him. He also gives Reuven valuable advice and encourages him in his goal to become a rabbi. Red Saunders has a rather extreme parenting style. He has made the decision to raise Danny in silence. He only speaks to his son about religion and nothing else. He is strict and has a cold demeanor although he does care for his son deeply he masks his emotions. These opposites show that there are two sides to every story and teach that tolerance is

Chaim Potok’s The Chosen is the story of a lasting friendship that blossoms between two Jewish boys, Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter, during and after World War II. On a deeper level, much of the plot focuses on the character of their fathers–Reb Saunders and David Malter–whose beliefs and ideals are rooted in two separate worlds. Reb Saunders is a zealous Hasidic rabbi who wants to impart his knowledge of his religion upon Danny and expects his son to follow in his footsteps. David is a professor and single father who comes from a liberal Jewish background. As the friendship between Reuven and Danny grows, both fathers try to reconcile their views with their sons and with their own

In all of their conversations, Mr. Malter seeks to pass his moral wisdom onto Reuven. At the beginning of the novel, after Reuven refuses to listen to Danny’s apology, his father visits him at the hospital to discuss his

The book The Chosen written by Chaim Potok can be very relatable to people especially teens. It starts in Brooklyn, New York in the 1940s and it is a story about how two Jewish boys meet and deal with the same issues during the end of World War ll. In the beginning they started as two strangers who lived fairly close to each other and played baseball against each other. During their game Danny Saunders hits a ball straight to Reuven Malter’s eye and puts him in the hospital. Danny comes to apologize to Reuven and that is how their friendship started. They realized that their dads wanted them to do something else as their job when they got older, but both wanted to do something else and this is how the story can relate to people. Danny Saunders is a relatable character because he is hardworking, he follows his dreams, and is respectful.