The Chosen (Chaim Potok)

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Title The Chosen
First edition cover
First edition cover
Author Chaim Potok
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Novel
Publisher Simon & Schuster
Released June 1967
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 146 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN ISBN 0-671-13674-7 (first edition, hardback)

The Chosen is a book by Chaim Potok published in 1967. It is about two teenage Jewish boys who form a friendship, though they come from different worlds. It is a first-person narrative from the point of view of Reuven Malter. It consists of eighteen chapters divided into three larger sections.

Contents

[edit] Plot introduction

The Chosen is set in the 1940s, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City, New York. The story takes place over a period of seven years. Furthermore, there are many different settings over the course of these seven years. Some places of significance are the baseball diamonds at the beginning of the book, consequently the hospital, and synagogues.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Reuven and Danny meet at an inter-yeshiva baseball game. A ball hit by Danny hits Reuven's glasses, and almost blinds one of his eyes. Danny comes to visit Reuven in the hospital, and the two strike up a friendship.

The story follows Reuven and Danny through their high school years. Reuven once comes to visit Danny at his shul. He sees that every Shabbat afternoon, Danny and his father engage in a battle of wits regarding knowledge of the Talmud. During high school, Danny becomes interested in psychology and teaches himself German to be able to read Freud in the original. Reuven hides Danny's reading from his father, but his father already knew about it.

Danny and Reuven go to Hirsch College, a Modern Orthodox institution in Brooklyn. While there, discussion about the State of Israel arises, and Reuven's father, prompted by the Jewish genocide in World War II, becomes an active Zionist leader. Unfortunately, Danny's sect is very anti-Zionist, as they believe that any Jewish nation that exists before the coming of the Messiah is a desecration to God, and so Reuven and his father are put in cherem, a Jewish form of excommunication, until the Israeli War of Independence, where a student from Reuven and Danny's yeshiva is killed in the fighting. Reuven becomes very depressed while this is going on. Meanwhile, Danny becomes serious about going into psychology, as opposed to taking over leadership of his sect from his father. He becomes ever more fearful about facing his father. However, in the end, Reb Saunders gives a highly meta-spiritual speech, referencing the Kabbalah, and allows Danny to pursue his studies.

[edit] Characters in "The Chosen"

  • Reuven (Robert or Bobby) Malter, a Modern Orthodox teenage boy. Smart and has a head for mathematics.
  • Daniel (Danny) Saunders, a Hasidic teenage boy. Brilliant with a photographic memory. Interested in psychoanalysis. Feels trapped by Hasidic tradition.
  • David Malter, Reuven's father. Talmudic scholar, teacher, Zionist. Considered a heretic by fundamentalist Hasidim.
  • Rabbi Isaac Saunders (Reb Saunders), Danny's father. Rabbinic sage, leader of a Hasidic sect. Wants Danny to succeed him.
  • Mr.Galanter, Reuven's baseball coach. Mr.Galanter rushed Reuven to the hospital when he got hit in the left eye with a baseball, causing extensive damage. He cares genuinely about Reuven--although is a somewhat insignificant character.
  • Manya, the Malter's housekeeper, is a Russian lady with broken English but loves Reuven very much. An insignificant character, she brings to Reuven a slight feeling of a mother.
  • Rav Gershenson, Danny's, and then Reuven's Talmud teacher at the university.--static character

[edit] Major themes

[edit] External themes

While the story is taking place, many references are made to outside events, including World War Two, the Holocaust, and the founding of the State of Israel. Potok reveals the reactions of different groups to each of these events.

[edit] Literary themes

Literary themes within the book include widespread references to senses (especially sight), the pursuit of truth in a gray world, the strength of friendship, and the importance of father-son relationships. Many themes common to Potok's works prevail such as weak women and children, strong father figures, intellectual characters, and the strength and validity of faith in a modern secular world. Potok accentuates the importance of silence, and its form as a medium of communication. Throughout the book, there are numerous instances where both Danny and Rueven both receive and process information in a non-verbal form. Potok explicitly introduces this topic by alluding to the relationship between Danny and his father, where there is no verbal communication except for argumentative discussions of a religious nature. The two-year long silence between Danny and Rueven, imposed by Danny's father, is also rich in communactive interactions between the two friends, however it effectively shows the constraints that silence can impose between individuals.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The Chosen was made into a movie in 1981 and into a play in 2004. Potok wrote a sequel titled The Promise.

[edit] Release information

  • 1967, USA, Simon and Schuster (ISBN 0-671-13674-7), Pub date 28 April 1967, hardback (First edition)
  • 1967, UK, Heinemann (ISBN ?), Pub date ? ? 1967, hardback
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