The Chosen

The book The Chosen is about a young boy named Reuven and his "rival"  Danny.  It is taking place during the 1940s (probably 1945 or 1946), around the death of President Roosevelt and the end of World War II.  I have decided to focus in on the themes that are within the book.  

Chaim Potok (the author) introduces the theme, very subtlety, yet he still makes it very effective.  I believe that the theme is that  two ideas (or people) can contrast and conflict with eachother and can still be complementary.  He introduces this theme with Reuven and Danny.  Even though Danny is a Hasidic Jew and Reuven is an Ortodox Jew, they have a lot of things in common.  They are both devoted to their Religion and are important players for their respective baseball teams.   

Chaim also introduced a  symbol, the baseball game.  The baseball game represented a war.  The Author made the symbol explicit, by making Mr. Galanter use war metaphors throughout the entire baseball game.  He also brought in the fact that Reuven was begining to hate Danny, and from Reuven's perspective, this was a war that he couldn't lose.

I also think that there is an implicit theme that is introduced.  It is the seculsion that the Jews had from the rest of America.  Instead of having the children play a baseball game (like most of America) they were playing a softball game.  That really speaks to how they do not have much interaction with real American life.  It seems like the teachers at the schools are struggling to keep the boys true to their religion, and still be introduced to American culture and soceity.  People like Mr. Galanter were doing there best to introduce American culture to the boys, yet even when they did that, the boys were still isolated, playing softball vs. the all american sport: baseball.  I also think that, that is where the Author got the title from.  I think that he meant the Jews to be "The Chosen", since they were isolated from the rest of the world.

The themes of the book were introduced in many clever ways.  As I read more of the book, I'm sure I'll find more themes that are introduced.  If you want to read a detailed review on the book Click Here.