Danny Saunders From Chaim Potok

’s The Chosen Essay, Research Paper

A key charectar in the book The Chosen, by Chaim Potok is Danny Saunders. Throughout the book, one experiences the sorrow and joy of Danny, and relives the events that impact his life. Two events in specfic show how Danny grows over the course of the book. These isolated events illustrate how the huge the impact of such a relatively small thing can impact someone’s life. The first event, and maybe the most significant is Danny becoming friends with another boy Reuven Malter. Reuven is a fellow adolescent from a neighboring parochial school. Danny and Reuven live within blocks of each other, but only one thing has set them apart for the past fifteen years- they were from different sects of Judaism. While Danny was a Hassidic Jew, Reuven was Orthodox, and traditionally the Hassidim never mixed with other sects of

Judaism. However, Danny and Reuven become friends, although Danny’s father is the religious leader of his temple. Through Reuven’s friendship, Danny is able to communicate with his father, and establish who he is in life. Reuven’s friendship is in important aspect to Danny’s life, and has helped Danny relize who he really is. Another important aspect of Danny’s life is his Father’s raising him in silence. Untill the end of the novel, Danny and Reuven do not know why Danny has been raised in silence by his father, Reb Saunders. One finds out that it is because Reb wanted his son to be a Rabbi, and in his theory, the only way to raise a Rabbi or a ‘Tzadik’ is in Silence. Reb claims by raising one in silence he weel be able to feel the pain of others, and it is a Tzadik’s job to feel the pain of all in his community. The third event is Danny’s outside readings. By reading Freud and other physcologists, it enables Danny to choose his career path.