Chosen By Potok 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.