Throughout Chaim Potok’s novel, The Chosen, great men make many appearances, but one stands out, Reb Saunders. Reb Saunders stands as one of the most admirable, yet intense, men in Chaim Potok’s novel. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force.” Mr. Saunders proves this brilliant quote due to his complete belief and trust in God throughout tough times. He also maintains a brilliant head and has great understanding of the Jewish sacred text, the Talmud. Finally, Reb upholds a rather serious demeanor, which, although necessary, eventually harms his family and friends. Mr. Saunders maintains three character traits that make him the man he is, belief, intelligence and seriousness. …show more content…
Belief remains so important to the making of Mr. Saunders due to his job as a tzaddik and because of his troubling life. As a tzaddik, Reb is looked up to as a messenger from God and this means he must believe in God more than any other and show true humbleness before God. Danny describes his father’s role as, “kind of a messenger of God, a bridge between his followers and God” (119). Reb must also have had great belief throughout his childhood in Russia, when he inherited his role as tzaddik from his father and he did not know what to do. He trusted God to lead him and empower him, so he brought his followers to America, not knowing how others would treat them. Clearly, Reb Saunders demonstrates belief …show more content…
He shows he seriousness specifically in two ways, in his encounters with his son and in his emotional explosion at Reuven. First off, Mr. Saunders shows his seriousness through his encounters with his son Danny. He never casually talks or communicates in any way about everyday things with his son, or his family in general. He only communicates about “important” things, like the study of the Talmud. Secondly, he shows his solemnity through his angry emotional explosion at Reuven, while he resided at their house during his father’s sickness. “Reb Saunders stared at me, his eyes suddenly wild with rage, his beard trembling” (197). Evidently, seriousness acts as the final and most important character trait of Reb
While Reuven is in the Hasidic synagogues, he sees how the Hasidic men treat Danny and Reb Saunders like their God. Reb Saunders Reuven about gematriya as a way of proving if he is worthy to become Danny’s friend. Reuven feels like he passed the test by pointing out a mistake in one of the gematriyot. The Hasidic
The Reb and Pastor Henry both were strongly committed to their religious doctrines and spent a great deal of their lives contributing to the well beings of others. Their stories began fairly similar, young men that strived for greatness, but came in contact with abounding obstacles in life . Pastor Henry grew up in an unstable home environment. The importance of school and God wasn’t reinforced constantly, but the use of drugs instantaneously became a way of life. During his adolescence, he developed a strong love for God and took him as his savior at the age of twelve, but then took a path in his teenage years that led him to drugs and violence.
Due to the strict religious views of Danny’s father, Reb Saunders, Danny is forced to investigate the secular world in secret. Keeping his true feelings, doubts, and opinions inside and away from his father weighs on Danny and is only eased through his friendship with Reuven. Danny is torn between wanting to be independent and respecting his father and his beliefs. To the reader, Danny is perceived as trapped in a tyrannical home. He is struggling to make up his own mind about his beliefs even as his father presses his own strong beliefs onto him.
Danny did not want to become a rabbi because it did not interest him. He was afraid to tell his father that he would not become a rabbi as his father wishes him to be. He thought that his father would be angry at him. On the contrary, Reb Saunders accepted his decision. “...Let my Daniel become a psychologist.
The first visit did not go well for Danny saunders due to Reuven representing a foolhardy behavior. “What the hell are you sitting here for? I thought you said you were going home!” “I came to talk to you ,” he said quietly. ”(page 62).
Although The Chosen focuses equally on both Reuven’s and Danny’s personal and religious development, it is Danny’s story that provides the central conflict of the novel and sets in motion both protagonists’ process of discovery. Danny and Reuven’s similarities—their love of learning, quick minds, and deep Jewish faith—allow them to relate to one another and become friends. At the same time, their differences in family situations, culture, and relationships to the non-Jewish secular world allow them to learn from one another. Throughout the novel, Danny learns restraint and introspection from Reuven. As Reb Saunders points out in the final chapter, Reuven entered Danny’s life when Danny “was ready to rebel.”
Danny also has a great amount of respect for his father even though he has been raised in silence. Even when Reuven questions that Reb Saunders sounds like a tyrant, Danny defends his father by saying “He’s a very strong-willed person. When he makes up his mind about something, that’s it, finished” (p. 116). Reb Saunders wants to raise a son that will be the leader for their people and Danny respects his father for doing anything that he needs to do to accomplish that goal and they both love each other
Unit Two Essay Murderers can be heroes too. In John Steinbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men” many of his characters are archetypes, including the outcasts. Three interesting pariahs have been deeply analyzed and compared to archetypal characters, settings, and objects. These characters are an unnamed woman labeled simply as “Curley’s wife,” a negro ranch worker named Crooks, and a “slow,” yet powerful “companion” called Lennie.
Friendship is a wonderful yet confusing thing. This concept is brilliantly displayed in Chaim Potok’s The Chosen. In the book, the main character, Reuven, and Danny Saunders become friends through an interesting turn of events during a baseball game, the short version being that Danny ended up putting Reuven in the hospital with a baseball in the eye. After Reuven gets over some feelings of bitterness towards Danny, the two grow to be great friends. There are many difficulties when it comes to friendship, but the beauty of a good friendship is that good friends can power through them.
Steinbeck’s use of rhetorical strategies throughout the passage enables him to illustrate his message about free will, emphasizing the potential and significance of timshel and creativity in the essence of humanity and the threats against it. He utilizes diction, imagery, and rhetorical appeals to elucidate his message and persuade readers of their role in asserting their individuality. Steinbeck’s use of imagery in the first paragraph illustrates the extent of the potential of free will through his vivid description of the “glory [that] lights up the mind of a man” (Steinbeck 131) and its transformative qualities. This is significant as it delineates the role of free will in humanity, defining a “man’s importance in the world.” (Steinbeck
John Steinbeck's novella 'Of Mice and Men' contains various important themes. One of the significant themes of this novella is hope, friendship and loneliness, determination that empowers a man to endeavour with a feeling of self-esteem. In this novella, Loneliness is presented to be one of the dominant themes. The composer outlines the depression of ranch life in the mid 1930's and shows how individuals headed from town to town in an attempt to discover kinship keeping in mind the end goal was to escape from forlornness.
In the novella Of Mice and Men by the author John Steinbeck, George Milton and Lennie Smalls deal with the pitfalls of migrant work while employed as ranch hands in the midst of the Great Depression. Steinbeck explores the theme of brotherhood through George’s responsibilities towards Lennie, Lennie’s downfall, and the ranch hands’ camaraderie. Throughout the work, John Steinbeck proves that brotherhood cannot outstand all of life’s challenges and necessary decisions. First, George’s dedication to Lennie shows an example of brotherhood in the plot.
Ever since the feisty assistant district attorney, Rebecca Jennings, entered the Cedar Cove landscape near the end of the show’s second season, I was captivated by the actress who breathed life into her. While I often found myself rolling my eyes disdainfully at the audacious Miss Jennings and once in while yelling out in frustration at her antics, the way in which the actress Cindy Busby depicted her added coveted drama and offbeat humor to the story. Furthermore, when she roomed with two other girls during season three, she was typically the prominent one due to her characteristic pessimism, her workaholic tendencies, and her pragmatic articulation. Recently, I had the opportunity to catch up with Cindy, and she granted me an especially
He is a man that knows not to assume based on how they appear, but the content of it. This is clear when Mr. Malter states “People are not always what they seem to be… Reuven, if you can, make Danny Saunders your friend” (74). Mr. Malter supports what he had previously said to Reuven; he tells
In the midst of the 1950 's, the Cold War begins. While in that period, William Golding creates Lord of the Flies published in 1954. This is a novel about young school boys crash landing on an island. The boys on the island let the fear of something inside of them be in control. In the story, there are lots of events that take place and characters that take part.