Danny Malters And Reuvens In The Chosen

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Chaim Potok’s novel “The Chosen” is the compelling, heartwarming story of two Jewish boys with an extremely unlikely friendship. The only question that remains unanswered at the end of the story is why the book is entitled “The Chosen.” This question is never directly addressed in the text, but is most likely left for the reader to answer. The phrasing suggests that someone in the book is “chosen,” or destined for some unknown purpose. The most likely choices for who the “chosen” person would be are either Danny Saunders, Reuven Malter, or the Jewish population as a whole. Danny Saunders could be the “chosen” person for any number of reasons. This is most likely because of his very unlikely friendship with Reuven Malter. Even the way that…show more content…
It is more likely to be him, because Reuven was the one that ultimately decide to catch Danny’s grand slam straight to his face. The only reason that he decided to catch it was because he hated Danny. Reuven hated Danny for his stuck-up, superior attitude. He also hated him for being Hasidic. Somehow, Reuven changes this hate into love when Danny comes to apologize for the second time. “There was Danny Saunders, sitting on my bed in the hospital . . . talking about wanting to kill me because I had pitched him some curve balls. . . . Also, yesterday I hated him; now we were calling each other by our first names” (67). The friendship of the boys, though unlikely, grows to benefit them both. Mainly, Reuven is able to “liberate” Danny from his father. Danny’s father is very strict and cold, and seemingly unloving. Reb Saunders uses the silent parenting style on Danny, where he only speaks to him while studying religion. When Reuven and Danny become friends, Danny is being forced into being a rabbi, like his father, although he desires to become a psychologist. Reuven helps Danny to break away from what his father wants and realize his own dream of studying psychology. When Reuven helps a fly escape from a spider’s web, it is symbolic of him helping Danny escape the web of his father. When viewed from this perspective, Reuven could be considered “chosen” to be the one that liberates

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