time, friends are people to talk to during both pleasant and trying circumstances. In Chaim Potok’s renowned novel The Chosen, Danny and Reuven share such a friendship. Both boys strive to assist and comfort each other even in problematic, slightly tense situations. Exhibiting his care for Danny, Reuven relates to him what he must hear, rather than what he wishes to hear, and Danny mentions first the friendship emerging between them. Through more subtle ways, the boys display their caring by their
The theme of friendship courses through Chaim Potok’s book, The Chosen. Potok desires to show the reader what a strong friendship looks like and how it stands up to the test of time. When two people know each other well and spend a lot of time together, there are bound to be misunderstandings, fights, and other trials. Yet God says in His word “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” (New American Standard Bible, Proverbs 27:17) Even when friendships are difficult, they can “sharpen”
Without friends, life is dull and tiresome, dragging slowly on until it feels too heavy to reverse the effect. In The Chosen, by Chaim Potok, at first, Danny is lonely and sad without anyone who he can openly talk to because of his distant relationship with his father. When Reuven, the protagonist, coincidentally meets him in a baseball game, they start as enemies but quickly become great friends. With a friend to help him, Danny suddenly brightens up and can open up about his difficulties. Also
see many different themes of friendship throughout Chaim Potoks book, The Chosen. For example, Reuven and Danny have a ‘classic friendship,’ while Reuven has a silent friendship with his father. Furthermore, Reuven has a father-son friendship with his dad at first, but later it changes into a ‘friend-friend’ friendship, where they are no longer in the classic state, in which the father guides and teaches the son; but that they guide each other. Three different types of friendship display themselves
Chaim Potok’s The Chosen set in Brooklyn, New York, tells the story of two Jewish teenagers, Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter, as they experience the effects the Second World War has on their religious traditions. Their friendship faces trials but is eventually re-strengthened. The boys’ relationship fluctuates as it moves from trust to compassion and then to restoration. Danny and Reuven’s relationship progresses from tension in the beginning to an intimate friendship because of a mutual trust
Friendship is a state of mutual trust and support between two different parties. "One theme is that of friendship, exemplified in the relationship of two boys from very different backgrounds who learn to become friends, to understand and empathize with each other, and to deal with conflict” (Young 764). In “The Chosen” two boys, Danny and Reuven, which originally dislike each other from the beginning grow to become best friends. Reuven and Danny connect to one another through the activities they