The Lesson of The Chosen
The Chosen, written by Chaim Potok, is about two boys from different religious sects that become friends despite all of their conflicts. Danny and Reuven participated in a baseball game against each other and Danny smacked the ball directly into Reuven's face, shattered his glasses, and a piece of glass penetrated his eye. Danny went to visit him in the hospital but, before he could say anything, Reuven started screaming at Danny and commanded him to leave while Danny only wanted to say that he was sorry. When Reuven's eye healed, Danny went over to Reuven's house and they apologized and forgave each other. From then on Danny and Reuven help each other achieve their foremost important ambition in life. Reb Saunders poses an important question, "How can we raise ourselves above the dust?" which is the main theme in the novel. Danny searches for intellectual truth, Reb Saunders, Danny's father, tried to become as spiritual as possible while still on this earth, and Reuven desires to help other people.
Danny Saunders yearned for more knowledge other then Talmud and wanted to raise his intellectuality higher then what he obtained in his isolated world. He learned Talmud most of the day and "After a while it gets a little boring"(69). The first time Danny met Reuven properly, Rueven was astonished because, " [Danny] recited about a third of [a] page [of Talmud] word for word, including the commentaries and the Maimonidean legal decisions of the Talmudic disputations. He did it coldly, mechanically, and, listening to him, [Reuven] had the feeling [he] was watching a sort of human machine at work"(69). He studies Talmud as if it were involuntary. Danny himself sometimes even "...gets the feeling we are all ants" because he has the same routine everyday, and learns Talmud over and over as if he was programmed. Also, ants do not do what they wish but are programmed and have natural instinct. This is beneficial in some ways, because if they all do the same thing their work pays off. They are capable of building magnificent mounds that are amazing knowing that they are still ants and if it is destroyed they can speedily and sufficiently rebuild it exactly as it were before.
In "The Perils of Obedience," Stanley Milgram conducted a study that tests the conflict between obedience to authority and one's own conscience. Through the experiments, Milgram discovered that the majority of people would go against their own decisions of right and wrong to appease the requests of an authority figure.
In the book The Chosen the four main characters have different views on how children should be raised. Danny Saunders was said to be raised in silence. Danny was raised in silence in that communication was cut off between Danny and his father, except when they were studying Talmud. The reason Danny’s father did not speak to his son is because Rabbi Saunders wanted to have Danny think things through himself. Reb Saunders also wanted Danny to grow up in the same manner he himself was raised.
In The Chosen, Potok describes the Jewish culture during the period of World War I. Beginning with the affluence of Polish Jews before the war, Potok established a circle of relationships. In the book, there are three main relationships. The first one is father-son, between Danny and his father, Reb Saunders and between Reuven and his father, David Malter. The relationship between Reuven and Danny is the second main relationship in The Chosen.
Intriguing with sapphire eyes, a face chiseled out of stone, and golden ear locks stands Danny Saunders. In Chaim Potok’s book The Chosen Danny Saunders is a dynamic character. Son of Reb Saunders, a tzaddik, Danny lives a life infused with the Talmud. He studies and Talmud by heart but longs to study beyond religious manuscripts. The reading of non-religious books in Danny’s sect earns social rejection¬¬¬, but Danny yearned to study more and did so. Danny Saunders possesses a brilliant mind, a theological understanding, and an inquisitive sprit.
As the story evolves, Danny and Reuven become very good friends. This is a highlight for Danny, given that he has never had a close friend before Reuven. Danny has lived a very lonely life. He has not had any friends because he feels that no understands him. Reuven's father realizes Danny's loneliness, and gives Reuven some fatherly advice. He comments, "Reb Saunders' son is a terribly torn and lonely boy. There is literally no one in the world he can talk to. He needs a friend." (pg. 110) David Malter continues by saying, "The accident with the baseball has bound him to you and he has already sensed in you someone he can talk to without fear. I am very proud of you for that." (pg. 110) Reuven's father expresses his confidence to his son very openly which is an important aspect in comparing with Danny and his father's relationship.
The novel The Chosen is a story of two Jewish boys who become friends and go through lots of hard times together. The book starts out at a baseball game, one boy on one team and one boy on the other team. The game quickly turns more into a war rather than a game. Reuven was pitching when Danny came up to bat, Reuven threw the ball and Danny hit the ball straight back at him. The ball hit Reuven in the eye, shattered his glasses, and got a piece of glass in his eye. Reuven was taken to the hospital where doctors fixed his eye and he stayed there for five days.
In The Chosen, Reuven is very easily influenced by the people around him as he goes through his adolescence. It is a time of learning and self-realization for him, and at this time, he turns to his father for guidance and wisdom. His father shows him the ways of understanding and compassion. He also prepares him for what lies ahead, whether his son chooses to be a rabbi or not. Through his father’s teachings, Reuven develops the personal traits essential for becoming a rabbi.
An Imperfect Offering is a powerful personal memoir from a James Orbinski, a Canadian who has spent most of his adult life in front-line humanitarian work in the world's worst conflict zones. Despite its dark chapters, it is also a hopeful story about the emergence of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) as a new and independent agent of civil society, and the possibilities of making the world a better place. In “An Imperfect Offering”, James Orbinski tells the story of people who have been harmed by war, and humanitarian workers who have come to heal them when possible. He engages in deep reflection on the nature of humanitarian response and the many threats to this most human activity. He has sharp criticism for governments who act to cause suffering or to prevent its relief. He asks, “How am I able to be in relation to the suffering of others?” His life as a doctor, and a humanitarian worker illustrates this answer. Accordingly, the books main thesis is that humanitarianism is about the struggle to create space to be fully human. However, he illustrates how this struggle is becoming increasingly difficult with the imperfect offering of politics, which has resulted in the blurring of boundaries between humanitarian assistance and the political objectives of military intervention.
In The Chosen, silence plays an important aspect in the characters lives. Reb Saunders forced silence and suffering upon his son Danny by not talking to him about anything other than his studies. He says he does this because he feels that Danny is so brilliant that he might not understand the suffering of others. Reb Saunders feels that silence is suffering by imposing non-communication, however, silence is really how Reuven, Danny, David Malter, and Reb Saunders communicate with each other and the world around them.
In today’s society, sacrifices play a big role in our everyday lives. They range from small, such as sacrificing that piece of cake to keep you feeling healthier and a little better about yourself, to big sacrifices such as a firefighter sacrificing his life for a complete stranger. At the end of the day, they all all make a difference for better or for worse. In the play “The Crucible”, many various sacrifices were made during the process of exposing the possible witchcraft that was going on in Salem. These sacrifices were a result of fear. People were afraid that they would be accused of witchcraft and would do anything to avoid being pinned. A few of the sacrifices that were made were people 's lives, the happiness
Chaim Potok’s The Chosen shows how people with traditional ideas view the world differently than those with modern ideas. For example, David Malter has modern views of his faith, whereas Reb Saunders cannot let go of traditional practices. Also, Reb Saunders and David Malter have different methods of raising their children. Finally, David Malter believes in Zionism, whereas Reb Saunders wants to wait for the coming of the Messiah to preserve his religion. Such differences can cause similar faiths to seem very different.
In the play the Life and Death of Julius Caesar (just as in all of Shakespeare’s tragedies) there is much death, much tragedy, and of course, a tragic hero. However unlike most of Shakespeare’s plays this time the tragic hero is not particularly obvious. Throughout the play a few main characters present themselves as possibilities for being the tragic hero. But as being a tragic hero is not only having a tragic flaw but also entails much more, there really is only one person to fit the mold. The character Brutus is born into power and is higher/better then we are. He has a tragic flaw that causes his downfall and at the end he realizes his mistake (a trait none of the other characters can really claim).
In the matter where they are the same, both Danny and Reuven learn lots from their father and have their religious viewpoints learned from their father. For Danny, he comes from a long line of Hassidic rabbis which most likely led to his upbringing as a Hassidic Jew too. Danny learned his religious stance from his father just as how Reuven learned about his religious viewpoint as a Zionist from his father. When Reuven is excommunicated from speaking with Danny and their family, Reuven grows even more closely to his father and truly takes the initiative to push for the Jewish homeland, just like how Danny obeys his father’s commands and stays out from helping the creation. While Danny and Reuven are similar in the sense that they learn of their Jewish traditions from their father, they are also different in the sense that they were brought up differently. Danny is brought up in silence, as Reb Saunders believes in “speaking through silence.” Danny’s father doesn’t talk to Danny four years. Reb speaks through his wife and Reuven or other people too. Reb Saunders explains why he decided to do this when he is speaking to Reuven and Danny towards the end of the
Thirdly, he is the father of all western playwrights. Everybody from Ibsen to O'Neil uses techniques and ideas which can be traced back to Shakespeare. Whatever dramatist in whatever language you are required to study, familiarity with Shakespeare can only be an advantage.
Puritanism played a very big role in The Scarlet Letter, and it is clear that the religion affected the lives of all the characters. The life of a Puritan was very difficult, which is seen during the whole novel, and it is clear how the harsh punishments changed the lives of many people. Even the people who were not punished lived in fear, hoping that the consequences of certain actions would never happen to them. The Scarlet Letter perfectly displays the difficulties and hardships people faced while being part of a Puritan colony.