Symbolism In Chaim Potok

>the sunlight and I stared at it. I had never really paid attention to it before. Now it seemed suddenly luminous and alive.”This shows how Reuven has realized for himself that the accident had brought about achange in him. When Reuven went to his synagogue he saw his fellow classmates, and he thoughtabout what it would be like to be blind, Reuven couldn’t comprehend it. After the servicesReuven was staring at the sky and noticed the blue. It was the same color as Danny’seyes, which were the same color as the innocent little Billy’s eyes. Danny is beingassociated to the little boy to the right of Reuven in the Hospital. When Reuven went to Danny’s synagogue, Danny’s younger brother sat to hisfather’s left and Danny and Reuven to the right. This may have been because Danny wasnext in line to become tzaddik and his little brother was therefore inferior to him which isthe reason he sat to the left of Reb Saunders and Danny sat to the right. Like the Saunders brothers, When Reuven went to Danny’s house to have Talmudwars he would sit to the left of Reb Saunders and Danny would sit to the right. This issymbolic of how Reb Saunders knows that Danny is favored more and is more religiousthan Reuven, not a Hasid. One day Reuven received a phone call from Billy’s father. Reuven asked him ifBilly’s operation went well and Billy’s father said that it had not. Reuven then asked if hecould visit Billy, and Billy’s dad said that he had moved away. Reuven suddenlyremembered Mr. Savo and the crazy, cockeyed world. Out of Reuven’s left eye he saw afly trapped by a spider on a web. This is symbolic of Billy’s situation. Billy was trappedby his blindness, and when someone attempted to alter his blindness it didn’t work and hemoved away. Just like Billy the fly was trapped and Reuven blew the web away and thefly disappeared. This is also symbolic of Danny’s situation. Danny is trapped by his father and thefact that he will someday have to take over as tzaddik. But when Danny alters hissituation by studying psychology and going to college he disappears as a Hasidic tzaddikand becomes a tzaddik to the world and a follower of the commandments. Also Danny’seyesight grows worse and worse as he studied psychology and the glasses he used hadlittle affect. He may have been going blind, closer to the right like Billy, and not the leftafter all. This symbolism can also help to describe Reb Saunders situation. Reb Saunders istrapped by his son’s brilliant mind. When he tries to change his son by raising him insilence he loses his son. Perhaps Danny lived his life viewing the world through his right eye only and nowhe is beginning to restore the balance so that he can see things in a new light. “Danny nodded, his eyes glowing, luminous.”Danny’s eyes are described exactly the same way as the snowball bush in Reuven’s frontyard. This obviously represents the fact that Danny is now seeing things he had not seenbefore. And he was being seen as never seen before, with no beard or earlocks. In conclusion, Reuven may have been illustrated at the left for more than onereason. The left provides balance for the right, an opposition. Danny was chosen as anopposition to his father and Reuven was chosen as an opposition to them both. Reuven atthe left helped Reb Saunders understand why his son was doing the things he was. Theright represents life devoted to one thing, in Reb Saunders case Talmud, and the leftrepresents the worldly things such as Freud and deductive logic, which includes the rightbut also has a balance. Perhaps this is the major difference between the Hasids and theapikorism. Although they have harsh differences they need each other to survive.

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