The Chosen Essay, Research Paper

THE CHOSEN

With dramatic force, with a simplicity that seizes the heart, the chosen illumines- for us, for now- the eternal, powerful bonds of the love and pain that can join a father and son, and the ways in which these bonds are, and must be, broken when the boy has to become a man.

The novel starts out in the 1940’s, in the Willaimsburg neighborhood of Brookline. Two boy who have grown up within a few blocks of eachother, but live in two entirley different worlds, meet for hte very first time in a bizarre fashion, a baseball game between two Jewish parochial schools that turns into a holy war.

the assailant is a young boy name Danny Saunders, a moody, but brilliant boy who is driven to anger by his pent-up torment, who feels imprisoned by the tradition that destines him to succees his father in an unbroken line of great Hasidic rabbis, while his own intelligence is leading him towards other areas of knowledge.

Reuvin Malther is the other boy. The victim of Danny’s rage. Reuvin is struck in the eye by the ball Danny hit with fury at him. He is a gentle son of a scholar, who has a dream of becoming a rabbi.

from the moment of their first furious meeting, the lives of the two boys became intertwined. In the hospital room their hate turned slowly into friendship and wonder. The discuss why Danny was so angry and how Reuvin envied him for having the great honor of continuing tradition and becoming a rabbi. Slowly Danny’s cruel up bringing is unraveled and Reuvin is able to see things trough his eyes.

The book can be easily related to life. Envying what another has, then finding yourselve feeling sorry for every envyiny them.