Book Report Essay, Research Paper
The Chosen, Chaim Potok
The Chosen is about two Jewish boys, one a Orthodox Jew and one a Hasidic Jew, and how different and yet the same their lives are. The orthodox Jew, Reuven, is the main character of the story. He lives with his father and his mother is dead. Reuven is a very nice boy who is fourteen years old and aspires to be a Rabbi when he grows up. Daniel the other boy, is the son of a Hasidic Tzadik (which is like a Rabbi) and so when his father dies he will have to take his place even though he wants to be a psychiatrist.
Reuven, like I said before lives alone with his father in their Brooklyn apartment. His father is a teacher of Jewish law, the Talmud, and teaches at Reuven?s Yeshiva(school). Reuven gets along very well with his father and talks with him very often.
Daniel, on the other hand , lives with his mother ,father, sister and little brother. Daniel?s father is Tzadik which to Hasidic Jews is like a messen!
ger to god. Daniel?s father never talks with him except when teaching him the Talmud. this behavior makes both Daniel and Reuven uncomfortable when they are with him. Daniel is a very bright student and has an almost photographic memory. He also has a craving to learn more which turns him against his religious faith because he wants to know how man really came to be and how man thinks.
I admire Daniel because he was brave to stand up to his father and the entire community and tell them that he would not become a Tzadik but that he wanted to become a psychiatrist. I loathe Daniel?s father because he is mean and not understanding at all.
Reuven and Daniel met while playing an interschool baseball game .
Reuven was pitching and Daniel hit the ball into his which shattered Reuven?s glasses and sent Reuven to the hospital for immediate eye surgery. After Reuven?s eye heals Daniel went to Reuven to beg his forgiveness and the two boys became fast friends.
The stor!
y takes place during world war two and when the war ends the people of America find out about all the horrible things that happened because of the Natzis. This naturally upsets all the Jews and forced them to take side s about having Palestine turn into a Jewish homeland(this is called Zionism). this made Daniel?s father forbid him to speak to Reuven because Reuven?s father believes in Zionism and Hasidic?s believe it violates the laws of the Torah. But after a mass murder of Jews in Europe after the war because they still hated the Jews. So the Hasidic stopped hating the Zionists because they decided that making Palestine a Jewish homeland was the only way to preserve the Jewish culture.
One of the last conflicts in the book is when Daniel decides to tell his father that he wants to become a psychiatrist not a Rabbi like he?s supposed to become. And this causes a conflict because he wants Reuven to be there when he tells his father.
I believe that this book is w!
orthy of being named a classic because it is extremely interesting and well written. I t was fascinatingly real and the ending is extremely real and spell-binding. The characters seemed so real that I felt like I was there. The story was extremely moving because it helped show how people interact.