Summary Of Chaim Potok's The Chosen

There are over seven billion people on this planet, many of whom are parents, and each one has a slightly different way of protecting his child. A person can show this sentiment in many forms. Some are very lenient in their protection. Others are very strict, but both are trying to achieve the same goal, keeping their lineage safe. The Chosen written by Chaim Potok parallels the real world in that love is the backbone of this desire for parental protection. As a result of all the emotion put into safeguarding their children, many parents wind up controlling their child's life, and the children never see the sentiment behind the control. Through Reb Saunders's motivation behind his silence and its subsequent impression on Danny, Potok conveys that people attempt to protect the ones they care about by controlling how they live, even to a fault. There are various types of control a parent could use to protect his child. …show more content…
Reb Saunders decided to raise his son in complete silence and to only speak to him during Shabbat conversations. Why, however, would he choose such an isolative way to raise his son? This answer is one that has roots in Europe. Specifically in a small Russian town where Reb Saunders was raised. There he lived with his father who was also an infamous Tzaddik. Reb's father wanted very much so for his future predecessor to grow up with a sense of compassion. This lesson was learned through silence. In Potok's novel, Reb says, "He taught me with silence. He taught me to look into myself… to walk around inside myself in company with my soul…" (Potok). Not only did he wish for his son to have compassion, he also desired his son to be aware of the sufferings of others. This was accomplished in a very severe way. Reb's father would wake him every night when he was young and would tell him stories of the destruction of Jerusalem, so that he would cry. All of this was done in order to teach his son to understand the sufferings of others. Reb Saunders tried very hard to find another way to raise his son in which silence would not be involved, but in the end he decided it was the only way to give his son an understanding of compassion. Another reason that Reb raised Danny in silence was because he wanted his son to grow up with more than just a mind. Reb said in The Chosen, "A mind like this for a son? A heart I need for a son, a soul…compassion…righteousness, mercy, strength to suffer and carry pain…not a mind without a soul!" (Potok). Reb Saunders wanted Danny to look inward and find his soul like he once did, and along with it, he hoped he found some of the attributes he spoke about. Reb made a big sacrifice doing this because he knew it might push Danny away from taking his place. However, he was more worried that Danny, lacking a strong soul, would gain too much knowledge from reading so many books and would be driven from God and the Torah altogether. At the very least Reb wished for his son to grow up with the soul of a Tzaddik, and he believed he could control the way Danny would grow up by using silence early on. Danny’s impact by his father’s silent teaching demonstrated that control could be used as a form of protection. Throughout Danny's life, Reb Saunders did things so that Danny could feel the pain of loss and grow from it. Of course, at those times, Danny did not think of those moments as being character building experiences, and he carried a great deal of anger towards his father. On one occasion, Reb Saunders forced his son to abandon his best friend. He essentially banned Danny from speaking to or making contact to Reuven. Reuven was extremely important to Danny, but because he so revered his father's will, he obeyed. This led to a great deal of a sadness for Danny, but through it, he gained invaluable traits that would make him a great man. This suffering, however, also led Reuven to fear his father's thoughts, so he kept information from him. For example, that he got accepted to Columbia and planned on getting his