Fatherhood In Chaim Potok's The Chosen

“Mommy, where’s Daddy?” All over the world, children, some barely old enough to talk, ask this question, as more and more men refuse to step up to the role of a patriarch. While a single mother is certainly a capable parent, the lack of a father in a child’s life still leaves a certain empty space. If the child is a boy, he will never experience the feeling of his dad teaching him how to shave or giving him advice on being a dad some day. If it’s a girl, she will never have her dad there to deny a boy he knows is bad news, or to walk her down the aisle when she finds a boy that he does approve of. The world needs more dads, and the sad part is, many cases of a missing father are simply because of boys refusing to step into manhood and the role they need to play. Chaim Potok’s novel, The Chosen, showcases fatherhood in the characters of Reb Saunders, David Malter, and Danny Saunders.

Throughout history, people have searched for the perfect way to bring up a child. Debates went on between child psychologists about corporal punishment, how much a child should be allowed

However, all three of them provide a shining example of how patriarchy should be done and why a father’s role is so important. In our broken and sinful world, it is far too easy to become a parent, and negligence and horrible acts leave millions of children in broken homes. These characters, even though they are fictional, perform their roles tenfold that of many “fathers” across the world. A mother is incredibly important to a family, but in the household, a father serves equal importance by raising them in the way that is best for them, advising them on any issues they may have, and passing on their own knowledge of fatherhood. God made man and woman to raise a family together, not by themselves, and more men need to take a lesson from these characters and step up to responsibility, no matter how hard it