The Chosen - Historic Events :: essays research papers

Chaim Potok uses historic events to help shape the spot of The Chosen and create conflicts and challenges for the char spellers to overcome. Specifically, the Holocaust and the Zionist movement create a feeling 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 fond regard emerges just as healthy as it was prior to their estrangement. The characters reactions to these events shape the ideal second half of The Chosen.When the youthfuls of the intense Nazi persecution of the Jews reaches New York, the Malters and the Saunders be intensely disturbed. While David Malter is reading an account of the terror of the Holocaust, Reuven sees him "break fling off and weep like a child"(180). knot Saunders shows his grief when he sighs, "How the world makes us suff er"(181). Danny and Reuven atomic number 18 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 two families of The Chosen take a shit conflict between the two patriarchs and their sons. The Hasidic viewpoint, which is servingd by Danny and Reb Saunders, is that everything that happens on Earth is the result of beau ideals will. Therefore, the Holocaust is what God wanted. Reb Saunders relys that thither is nothing they can do but "accept the will of God"(181) and that no human intervention is necessary or even tolerable. Conversely, David and Reuven Malter believe that the Jewish people "cannot wait 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 completely in Gods ha nds as Reb Saunders is and says, "If we do not retrace Jewry in America, we will die 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 worsened by peoples thoughts and actions. Therefore, the Malters believe that people must either speak and act against injustices or expect the worst for the world and its populace.The ideas of David, Reuven and other reform Jews sparked new interest in the notion of a Hebrew state in Palestine. Zionism was an idea with a long history, but it starts to involve the characters of The Chosen and picks up intensity after the Holocaust.