The Chosen By Chaim Potok Analysis

Everything is Dark and Unknowable It starts with a baseball game, a flying baseball and a nearly blinded eye. That is how The Chosen by Chaim Potok starts. Throughout his wonderful book there are many themes that are tied through the book, Religion, Friendship, but most important of all is the theme of the eye. From literally seeing to the figurative eye, Potok ties the eye wonderfully throughout the entire book, making it a wonderful book to read from young to old.

One of the main themes through The Chosen is the use of eyes and sight. Beginning with the baseball game where Reuven loses his sight, this theme plays a large part throughout the book. The baseball game changes how Reuven sees his life in the literal fashion as seen when he says “I wish I was outside,” I said “I envy them being able to walk around like that. They don’t know how lucky they are.” (page 78) Once Danny starts visiting and becoming friends with Reuven another thing about the pair is changed. Bringing two unique worldviews to the table and one true friendship, Danny and Reuven both help each other see the world in a uniquely different way than how they saw it before.

Saying that the eyes are the windows to the soul has a special meaning in this story. When Danny hurts Reuven’s eye he is shattering the window to his soul in a infuriated way which is clear when he says, “Well that’s when I wanted to walk over to you and open your head with my bat” (page 71) However only once Danny looks into the broken windows of Reuven’s soul, he sees his ideal life. He sees Reuven with a father that loves him, and isn’t forcing him in any direction, in short he sees freedom. Although one of the small reasons that he forms this friendship I believe he wants to be friends because it is the closest he will ever have to a free life. This theme is easily overlooked and must dug into to truly discover its