The Chosen Character Analysis

One might say the main focus of The Chosen, by Chaim Potok, deals with the friendship between Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders. Early in the book, Reuven’s father observes the adversarial relationship between the two boys and tells his son that it would benefit both youths if Reuven tried to cultivate a friendship with Danny. Quickly the tone of the friendship manifests itself as a tone of mutual self-improvement. Reuven and Danny provide outlets for the other’s feelings, thoughts, and aspirations. Throughout the book certain passages reveal that Reuven’s father slowly becomes less capable of providing the same outlet that Danny gives; and Danny’s father, for reasons of his own, never has. Their friendship keeps both parties sharp intellectually, sane emotionally, and teaches both about the larger world of Judaism beyond their own persuasion.

All through the book, the characters clearly recognize Danny’s brilliance, leading the readers’ emphasis to the same fact. However, Reuven also appears higher then average in understanding. His fascination with symbolic logic, a form of advanced mathematics, speaks to his large mental …show more content…
Malter and Danny. Often, Danny appears to enjoy the sympathy of Reuven, perhaps drawing strength from it although he does not agree with the motivations behind it. As the book begins to draw to a close, Reb Saunders confides in Reuven that his friendship with Danny, in his view, saved Danny from rebellion against his father. “” During the period in which Danny is forbidden to speak with his friend, Reuven struggles through a particularly difficult time at school, as well as with his father’s illnesses. At the conclusion of the period of silence, he tells Danny that the lack of sympathy from him made it all the more burdensome a time. In the end, however, the renewal of the friendship seems to rectify the ills of that stretch of