The Chosen - Historic Events :: essays research papers

Chaim Potok uses historic events to help shape the plot of The Chosen and create conflicts and challenges for the characters to overcome. Specifically, the final solution and the Zionist movement create a whim of aversion between the Malters and the Saunders by setting the Malters reform Jewish, Zionist beliefs against those of the Hasidic, anti-Zionist Saunders. In the end of The Chosen, after the strength of Reuven and Dannys friendship has been thoroughly tested, their bond emerges just as whole as it was prior to their estrangement. The characters reactions to these events shape the entire second half of The Chosen.When the intelligence activity of the intense Nazi persecution of the Jews reaches New York, the Malters and the Saunders are intensely disturbed. While David Malter is interlingual rendition an account of the terror of the Holocaust, Reuven sees him "break down and weep like a child"(180). Reb Saunders shows his grief when he sighs, "How the world mak es us contribute"(181). Danny and Reuven are also "tense and distraught"(181) after an original feeling of shock. Although both families initial reactions are identical, their solutions to the persecution of the Hebrews are radically different.Differences in ideology between the both families of The Chosen cause conflict between the two patriarchs and their sons. The Hasidic viewpoint, which is shared by Danny and Reb Saunders, is that everything that happens on Earth is the precede of Gods will. Therefore, the Holocaust is what God wanted. Reb Saunders believes that there is nonhing they chiffonier do but "accept the will of God"(181) and that no human incumbrance is necessary or even tolerable. Conversely, David and Reuven Malter believe that the Jewish large number "cannot remain for God"(182), and that they must "replace the treasures the Jewish people have lost"(182). David Malter is not as sure that the future rests solely in Gods ha nds as Reb Saunders is and says, "If we do not rebuild Jewry in America, we will conk as a people"(182). The Malters share a more widely accepted view that they live in a world that can be changed for better or for worse by peoples thoughts and actions. Therefore, the Malters believe that people must either speak and act against injustices or expect the shoot for the world and its populace.The ideas of David, Reuven and other reform Jews sparked new interest in the ruling of a Hebrew state in Palestine. Zionism was an idea with a extensive history, but it starts to involve the characters of The Chosen and picks up intensity after the Holocaust.