The Chosen Essay, Research Paper

Malter’s Development in The Chosen

One of the most emotional scenes from Chaim Potok’s The Chosen is when

Reuven goes with Danny Saunders to talk to his father. Danny has a great

mind and wants to use it to study psychology, not become a Hasidic

tzaddik. The two go into Reb Saunders’ study to explain to him what is

going to happen, and before Danny can bring it up, his father does. Reb

Saunders explains to the two friends that he already known that Reuven

is going to go for his smicha and Danny, who is in line to become the

next tzaddik of his people, will not. This relates to the motif of

“Individuality” and the theme of “Danny’s choice of going with the

family dynasty or to what his heart leads him.”

The most developing character from the novel is Reuven Malter. One of

the ways that he developes in the novel is in hus understanding of

friendship. His friendship with D\fanny Saunders is encouraged by his

father, but he is wary of it at first because Danny is a Hasid, and

regards regular Orthodox Jews as apikorsim because of the teachings of

his father. Reuven goes from not being able to have a civil conversation

with Danny to becoming his best friend with whom he spens all of his

free time, studies Talmud and goes to college. Reuven truly grows

because he leans, as his father says, what it is to be a friend. Another

way that Reuven grows is that he learns to appreciate different people

and their ideas. He starts out hating Hasidim because it’s the “pious”

thing to do, even though his father (who I see as the Atticus Finch of

this novel) keeps telling him that it’s okay to disagree with ideas, but

hating a person because of them is intolerable. Through his friendship

with Danny, studies with Reb Saunders, brief crush on Danny’s sister

(who was never given a name), and time spent in the Hasidic community,

he learns that Hasids are people too with their own ideas and beliefs

that are as valuable as his. He learns why they think, act, speak, and

dress the way that they do and comes to grips with the fact that he

doesn’t have a monopoly on virtue. A third way in which Reuven grows,

though the book doesn’t really talk about it a great deal, is in his

appreciation of life, or cha’im in Hebrew. He almost loses his vision,

his father nearly works himself to death, six million Jews are

butchered in Europe, and Danny’s brother’s poor health threatens Danny’s

choice to not become a tzaddik. When his eye is out of order he can’t

read, and indeed does remark that it’s very difficult to live without

reading, especially with a voracious appetite for learning such as his.

His father almost dies twice and he talks about how difficult it is to

live all alone in silence (which is a metaphor alluding to Danny’s

everyday life) for the month while his father is in the hospital. He

sees Reb Saunders and his father feeling the suffering of the six

million dead, Saunders by crying and being silent, David Malter by

working for the creation of a Jewish state and being a leader in the

movement, in addition to teaching at a yeshiva and adult education

classes. And of course Danny is very worried by his brother’s illness

(hemophillia?) because if he dies it will be even harded for Danny to

turn down his tzaddikship. By the end of the book, Reuven Malter is a

very changed character.

Potok is an expert with using allusion and metaphor. Very subtly

throughout the book he uses this for the purposes of renforcing his

points, foreshadowing, and to make the book a better read when you’ve

read it previously and know the outcome. One example of this, one that I

missed the first time I read the book in 7th grade is the paragraph at

the end of chapter nine where Reuven is sitting on his porch and sees a

fly trapped in a spider’s web with the arachnid builder approaching. He

blows on the fly, first softly, and then more harshly, and the fly is

free and safe from the danger of the spider. This is a metaphor to Danny

being trapped in the “filmy, almost invisible strands of the web” (165)

that is a metaphor for the Hasidic clan that has Danny somewhat captured

and expected to become a tzaddik.