The Chosen :: essays research papers

Plot Summary of The ChosenThe action of The Chosen unfolds in the immigrant community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, against the backdrop of land War II. It is seen through the eyes of Reuven Malter, a boy who would appear to have much in common with Danny, for they are both brilliant, Jewish, closely tied to their fathers, and near-neighbors who represent only five blocks apart. Still, they attend separate yeshivas and inhabit very different worlds. A base dinner dress league is begun. When Danny Saunders school plays Reuven Malters, the Hasids are determined to show the apikorsim a thing or two and the competition is fierce. Dannys murderous hitting is remarkable, but when Reuven comes to pitch he does not back away. A hard ball shatters his glasses and smashes into his eye, sending him to the hospital for a week. At his fathers insistence, Reuven permits the repentant Danny to visit him, and they travel friends. Danny dazzles Reuven with demonstrations of his photographic mind, w ith the quantity of scholarly work he bears each day, and with the intellectual prowess of his English and Hebrew studiesqualities greatly revered in traditional Jewish culture. Dannys revelations startle Reuven he confesses he would or else be a psychologist than accept his inherited role as spiritual leader of his fathers sect. Reuvens confessions surprise Danny he reveals his desire to become a rabbi, though his scholar-father would prefer him to follow his talent and become a mathematician. Danny cannot understand how anyone would choose the very position he secretly wishes to reject. At a time when conflicts are churning within him, Danny finds Reuven as an empathetic listener who is highly intelligent yet safenot a Hasid, but a Jew who follows orthodox religious traditions without rejecting the secular possibilities in the world around them. As the boys become friends, Reuven begins to learn about Hasidism. He learns that there are tzaddiks who were believed to be powerful l inks between the people and God. In some sects it was believed that a leader should take upon himself the sufferings of the Jewish people. Such a leader is Reb Saunders. His ways and his teachings are the ways of seventeenth century Hasids and it is this role that Danny is expected to fill when he becomes the tzaddik. In the long initial visits that Reuven pays to Reb Saunders congregation to be pass as fit company for Danny, Reuven observes the way Hasidic philosophy permeates his friends life.