How is family loyalty portrayed in The Chosen by Chaim Potok? The main male characters show an array of dedication towards their families and Jewish congregation. The Malters and Saunders both are tied down to two different Jewish communities, although using their friendship, Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders seem to bring two different views on the world together. Their fathers, David Malter and Reb Saunders, show that they hold two very different opinions on political occurrences, but both seem to respect each other.“I am not surprised you have such a head. Your father(Reuven's father) is a great scholar. But what he writes, ah what he writes!” (126). Because of different situations between both families, the Saunders, the Malters , and …show more content…
Their loyalty to their Jewish family. The Malters and Saunders are both devoted to their families in two different ways, David is out doing speeches and planning rallies, with Reuven supporting him, and Reb Saunders, as a Rabbi for a Jewish community, is keeping the order inside his community. The members of Reb Saunders' community all go to him for advice and sometimes it overwhelms him. “He(Reb Saunders) really worries about his people. He worries so much that he doesn't have time to talk to me.”(153). The devotion the Saunders and Malters hold for their people is truly inspirational. Loyalty is distinct in many locations of The Chosen through the characters. It is seen through the Malters, Saunders, and their Jewish families. The love they all display for one another is admirable. Especially Danny's devotion to his father's teaching, when Danny is banned from seeing Reuven for a quite sizable amount of time. “He's a great man,” Danny said evenly, “He must have a reason.” (261). That is the type of understanding and respect people should attempt to portray for one another everywhere. Even through the times where life seems unjust and rough, people must put devotion and trust forward. Because, at the end of the day, your family can be all that's
The short story, The Rabbi in the Attic, written by Eileen Pollack (Curtis, 1998), enlightens the reader to the difficulties experienced by religious congregations as a whole, in a very regimented and legalistic form or religion. Pollack’s story also alluded to the fact of how ordered types of religions can lead to conflicting views and ideals from within the congregation over the same God (Schultz, 2015). The theme of The Rabbi in the Attic is undeniably about the harmful effects on congregations that adhere to ritual, tradition, stringent religious law and the emotional upheaval that follows dogma (Schultz, 2015). The Biblical allusion in The Rabbi in the Attic was highlighted by the characters and mimicked the adversity experienced by Jesus Christ with the Scribes and Pharisees in the New Testament gospels. Rabbi Heckler could be considered representative of the high priest Caiaphas (Pollack, 1998, p. 237) in enforcing the law, and the congregation, as those being oppressed by the law and wandering in darkness (Pollack, 1998, p. 240). After Rabbi Heckler’s ouster enters orthodox Rabbi Marion Bloomgareten, who represented the essence of reform similar to Jesus Christ (Pollack, 1998, p. 255). Like Christ, Rabbi Bloomgarten
Just because people within a family are blood related and living together, it does not mean they are identical in their beliefs and actions. In some cases the generations of people in the family have the same way looking at things and understand the same sets of rules and believe in same kind of moral behavior. Unlike that, in the novel, “The Chrysalids”, the protagonist, David Strorm and his father, Joseph, the antagonist have very different characters and conflicting points of view.
The third main relationship is Hasidism verses Zionism. The relationship between the two fathers and the two sons is a very important theme in this book. Because of their different backgrounds, Reb Saunders and David Malters approached raising a child from two totally different perspectives. Despite the obvious differences in the two men’s beliefs, both did what they thought was right for their sons. Reb Saunders was a Hasidic tzaddik and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps.
This news literally gives David a heart attack, sending him into the hospital. David is bedridden for quite a while, causing Reuven to move into Danny Saunders home temporarily. In this period of time, Reuven now is vulnerable to Isaac Saunders, Danny’s father, and is not learning about him through the words of others but through his own eyes and interactions with the Reb. At this point, Reuven is now attached to the Saunders family, in a therapist way. Danny shares many details of his confusing life, and Reuven guides him through it; being a diary for Danny to write in essentially.
“Stitches” by David Small is a graphic novel where he visually describes his childhood. Small shows how he perceived his family relationships as a child and his own perspective of the world at the time. He clearly depicts his family’s dysfunctionality that prevented him the ability to display his self expression. Small encountered various events throughout his novel that added a different element to his understanding of relationships, specifically with his parents. As Small matured, these events played a critical role on his ultimate understanding of their complicated relationship.
Judaism is a prominent feature in The Chosen, but it is presented in many different ways. Danny’s father is a rabbi and holds sermons in the synagogue. Reuven’s father, however, is more of a radical and a scholar. While Judaism is very common in the story, there are a few characters that are nonreligious, such as Billy and Mr. Savo; they provide a bridge to the rest of the world and a contrast to the Jewish culture which the reader is able to comprehend. At the same time there are historical landmarks in the making that impact the cultural aspect of the story. Hence, the cultural and historical values in Chaim Potok’s The Chosen are important to that era.
In the novel The Glass Castle, there are many reasons why a family might be unhappy.
The term “blood brothers” usually refers to two or more males who accept each other and have decided to create a bond by fusing one another’s blood together; this would mean that these males chose to be bonded. But when it comes to ones own bloodline, it is not possible to choose ones parents. For this reason, one must learn to analyze what is right and wrong, even if it’s not something the parent(s) want him to believe. In William Faulkner’s short story Barn Burning, loyalty versus righteousness is one of the struggles in the father-son relationship between Abner and his youngest son Sarty.
And choose wrong?” (P.98). From reading this, I feel that the community was able to control problems such as divorce, rape, teen pregnancy, and AIDS. They all are given a life that is predictable, orderly and painless. Mostly, they have no memory or experience. In reality, we learn from our mistakes to be better each day. Experience is the best teacher in the world; unless one goes through sorrow, he or she will never know how it feels. “Warmth, Jonas replied and happiness. And let me think. Family, that it was a celebration of some sort, a holiday. And something else I can’t get the word for it. Jonas hesitated; I certainly liked the memory, though. I couldn’t quite get the word for the whole feeling of it, The Giver told him the feeling that was so strong in the room is love” (P.125). Family in the novel is described as a group of people that have a unit or bond that they share each day together.
“A happy family is but an earlier heaven”(Brown). The importance of family is shown in the book “Into the Wild”,and how it is important to keep this relationship. Chris’s relationship with his family was terrible, and led to him regretting it. It also tells a story about Chris and his journey to live in the wild in Alaska. There are many people that he met that impact his life on his way. Although to do this he stopped contacting his family, and his relationship with them was ruined. It is possible to have a close relationship with your parents or family by keeping in touch, spending quality time with them, and talking to them about any concerns or problems that come up.
How does these two families show their values? The Logan family demonstrate positive like family,pride,learning and courage, The Wallaces demonstrate negative like how there are wealthy, racism and how they think they are more powerful than blacks.
They believe the act Larry performed was extremely amazing and brave. Once the marriage is broken up, the two families begin an extremely loud and passionate argument. Both families unify with each other causing an extremely passionate argument when the other begins to trash their beliefs. The American Jewish Historical Society wrote a piece titled Appeal to the Israelites of the United States for a Founding of a College. This writing compiles a variety of stories told in the first-person comparing and contrasting the treatment of Jews in various time periods. The American Jewish Historical Society focuses on how Jews are perceived in America, often as minority group with a constantly growing voice. The Jewish Role in American Life, written by Bruce Zuckerman notes that, “From inception of the United States, American Jewry has identified with the key social norms and political symbols of this society, and Jewish institutions have reflected not only the core terminology of American society but also the structural characteristics of the federal governmental system,
Friends are a universal necessity in most people's minds. Friends provide support and help one another flourish in life. When the “going gets tough,” as some will say, friends will be there to help you get back up on your feet and keep going. In The Chosen Reuven and Danny were two very good friends. At first they were complete strangers that had this unnecessary hatred for each other. This pointless hatred came to be because of their different beliefs. Once they actually got to know each other they quickly became the closest of friends. They did not let their differences define them and who they should or should not be friends with.
However, the focus of loyalty was the whole family. Loyalty remains as an important personal value, however modified to be applied to individual family members, each with different perspectives, instead of the family as one unit. Loyalty is an important value when engaging in dual perception because it is based on faithfulness to what is important to me and the other person. Even when two people have similar values, such as loyalty, their perspectives can differ greatly. A friend and I are equally loyal to our children and their well-being, however our perspectives on vaccinations differ greatly. Although we may never agree on our differing perspectives, I respect and understand her perspective because it is based on her loyalty to responsible parenting, a value I share. Her perspective is quite persuasive, so I don’t rely on loyalty alone when comparing it to my own
All humans are frightened by anything that is likely to take away their love life, family or joy. “The Exchange” by Alice Ostriker is a poem that tells the story of a woman, frightened by the possibility of losing the precious things and people she values. In many of her interviews with media personalities and literary critics, Ostriker observes that we always experience both disappointments and joys of love; at least at one point in our lives, regardless of the means it is manifested. This paper examines the theme of family in the poem, and specifically the ever-present trepidation that some “ghost woman” could take the speaker’s place in her marriage, an aspect of her life that she truly treasures. The paper also analyses the poetic aspects used and how they enhance the theme.