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Chaim Potok : The Chosen
Chaim Potok’s novel The Chosen is the story of the friendship between the Hasidic Jew, Danny Saunders, and the more liberal Jewish teenager, Reuven Malter, in Brooklyn during and after WWII. At the beginning of the novel, both are fifteen years old and live near one another, although they have never met because they go to different schools. The two boys meet during a softball game between their schools. During the game, Danny calls Reuven an apikoros, a Jew who denies the basic tenets of his faith, and the boys show outward hate for each other. Danny hits Reuven in the eye with the ball, and Reuven has to go to the hospital. While Reuven is in the hospital, Danny comes to visit him. They talk and become friends, discovering that despite their different beliefs, they are very similar. Reuven’s father encourages the friendship, recognizing Danny as an intellectual genius, and having the foresight to see that the boys will help each other understand their differences.
Through their friendship, Reuven becomes very close to Danny’s family. Reuven discovers the strange relationship between Danny and his father; one of complete silence except for when studying the Talmud. Reuven does not understand this silence, as he and his father have a very close and open relationship. When he questions Danny about this silence, Danny replies that his father was raised in silence, and he will raise his own son in silence – it is part of his family’s destiny. Reuven also discovers that Danny is destined to inherit his father’s position of tzaddik, despite Danny’s wishes to study psychology.
At the end of WWII, the boys enter college together, where Danny pursues his desire to study psychology, without his father knowing. Reuven’s father becomes actively involved in Zionist activities, pushing for a Jewish state. This greatly upsets Danny’s father, as a Jewish state is against his beliefs. He forbids Danny and Reuven to talk to each other. Reuven becomes infuriated at Danny’s father, “hating his laws of silence.” However, after Israel becomes a Jewish state, Danny’s father once again allows the boys to talk to each other. The boys finish college, and Danny applies to several schools to continue his study in psychology. He realizes that his father knows of his plans, and is perplexed because his father has not mentioned it. One afternoon, Reuven goes to Danny’s house. Danny’s father talks to his son through Reuven, saying that he may never understand nor forgive him, but he may continue his education. He explains the reason for raising his son in silence. He says a man is born into the world with only a spark of goodness that is God, and all the rest is a shell of evil, even if that shell is intellectualism. He explains the importance of knowing pain in order to realize how frail and tiny we are compared to God. He says this is why he treats Danny the way he does.
The book ends with Danny and Reuven talking to [next page]