The Chosen

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1967

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Book 1, Chapters 1-2

Book 1, Chapters 3-4

Book 2, Chapters 5-7

Book 2, Chapters 8-12

Book 3, Chapters 13-14

Book 3, Chapters 15-18

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Book 1, Chapters 3-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Book 1, Chapter 3 Summary

Noises and a blaring radio wake Reuven. The announcer mentions French areas, and Savo tells Bobby today is D-Day—the Allies are landing on mainland Europe to fight Nazi Germany.

Reuven prays with his tefillin and talks with Savo about religion. Reuven wants to be a rabbi, but his dad wants him to be a mathematician. Savo says he should’ve been a priest, but he made a poor choice and became a boxer.

A boy, Mickey, around six, enters the room. Savo says he’s been in the hospital half his life due to stomach issues. Mickey guilts Savo into playing catch until Mrs. Carpenter stops it—Savo needs rest.

Galanter arrives and discusses the logistics of D-Day and the myriad of troops, weapons, and supplies involved. Billy keeps talking about how his uncle is a bomber, and Galanter thinks the uncle is flying right now. Billy asks Galanter why he’s not a soldier. Galanter says he couldn’t “make it.” Billy’s dad isn’t a soldier because his mom died in a car crash so he has to care for him and his younger sister.

Danny shows up with his yarmulke, earlocks (the Torah says Jews shouldn’t shave their face or cut the hair around their temples), and “fringes” (tzitzit; Jews wear them on their clothes to remind them of God). Danny is sorry and wants to talk, but Reuven won’t listen, so Danny leaves.

Before dinner, Reuven’s dad visits again. He scolds Reuven—the Talmud says if a person comes to say sorry, the other person must listen and forgive them. Reuven apologizes, and his dad switches to World War II—it’s a big day: the start of Hitler’s collapse.

Billy’s dad visits again and thanks Reuven for being kind to Billy. Billy wants to visit Reuven after the operation, and Billy’s dad tells him to look them up in the phone book under Roger Merrit (Billy’s dad’s name).

Reuven listens to radio soap operas. As Savo complains, Danny visits again and admits he wanted to kill Reuven, but he doesn’t understand why. Danny’s English amazes Reuven—there’s no Yiddish accent. They agree to call each other by their first names and that they’re “rough” ballplayers.

The boys discuss their Talmud studies. As long as Danny studies his daily quota—two blatt (four pages)—his dad lets him do what he wants. Reuven can barely study a page a day. Right now, Danny studies the Kiddushin, which focuses on marriage, and Danny recites some of it for Reuven. Danny also studies English and asks Reuven if he wants to hear the Kiddushin with Walter Scott's chivalric novel Ivanhoe (1819).

Since Danny’s dad is a rabbi, Danny must be a rabbi, but if he didn’t have to be a rabbi, he’d be a psychologist. He’s read books on the topic, including ones by the 20th-century Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.

The boys return to the hit. Reuven calls it “murderous.” Danny claims Reuven should’ve ducked. Reuven couldn’t duck: He didn’t have time, and he didn’t want to—he wanted to stop it. Danny clarifies the rabbi's presence—he’s there to keep Danny’s team away from the supposed apikorsim. Danny can’t imagine how his dad would've reacted if they lost. Danny’s dad reads, but he doesn’t write, and he doesn’t like to talk about things except for the Talmud. Reb Saunders wishes people could communicate in silence. Neither Danny nor Reuven understands what that means.

Book 1, Chapter 4 Summary

Malter visits his son and says Reuven can come home soon, and they can have a pleasant Shabbat (the Jewish day of rest, lasting from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday). Reuven recaps his visit with Danny, and Malter reminds his son that the Talmud says a person should get a teacher and a friend. Reuven’s dad commands him to make Danny his friend.

Savo admires Reuven’s dad but remains suspicious about Danny. Savo calls him a “fanatic,” but Reuven doesn’t think so. He restates his belief that Danny accidentally hit him. The next day, Savo requires medical attention, and a curtain encloses his bed.

Danny returns, and Reuven is overjoyed. To give Savo quiet, they talk in the hall. They look out the window, and Danny says the people look like ants. Danny tried talking to his dad about feeling like an ant, but Reb Saunders just talks about obeying God.

Aside from schoolwork, Danny reads seven to eight books a week. A man at the library suggests books, and so does the librarian, who stares at him. Last week, he finished Ernest Hemingway’s World War I novel A Farewell to Arms (1929), where the hero helps ants burn. Danny says the Talmud bores him, the English classes are lackluster, and Reuven is the first person Danny has told about his extracurricular reading.

Reuven is confused. Danny looks like a Hasid, and he’s supposed to become a rabbi, but it’s like he doesn’t believe in God or he’s an apikoros. Danny says once he becomes a rabbi, people won’t care what he reads. Danny still won’t like being a rabbi, but he has no choice—if he doesn’t take his dad’s place, the family dynasty collapses. Danny notes the irony: Danny has to be a rabbi, but he doesn’t want to be one; Reuven doesn’t have to be a rabbi, but he wants to be one.

Reuven discusses his interest in math and the three-volume text Principia Mathematica (1910-13) by the English philosophers Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell, who argue that math is rooted in logic.

Reuven’s dad returns, and Danny looks surprised. Malter jokes about how Danny plays baseball and reads, and he hopes Danny isn’t as violent with books. Reuven is now surprised: His dad is the man at the library who suggests books to Danny. Reuven is mad at his dad for not telling him, but Malter did not think he should tell Reuven.

Work exhausts Reuven’s dad, so he has to go home. Billy has his operation and goes home. Savo is better and can go home soon, and Reuven is healing, so he can go home.

Book 1, Chapters 3-4 Analysis

The war becomes explicit with the news of D-Day. Reuven’s dad tells him, “It is the beginning of the end for Hitler and his madmen” (91). Yet allusion doesn’t vanish, as the characters still don’t directly confront the Holocaust and the murder of six million Jews. Billy directly references the war when he states, “My uncle is a pilot. He flies big planes that drop bombs” (79). Billy’s exuberance makes him a symbol of innocence. He seems to think of World War II as a game and, arguably, doesn’t comprehend that his uncle’s job, while exciting and heroic, is deadly.

The Intricacies of Friendship—a major theme—manifests in Chapters 1 and 2. Good friends don’t always start off on amicable terms. Danny tries to apologize, but Reuven remains hostile, telling him, “I don’t want to listen. Why don’t you go home? Go home and be sorry over my eye” (91). Malter intervenes and, referencing the Talmud, says, “If a person comes to apologize for having hurt you, you must listen and forgive him” (93). He also commands Reuven to make Danny his friend. Thus, The Intricacies of Friendship link to the ups and downs of father-son relationships and Judaism and the Quest for Knowledge. Through his dad’s knowledge of the Talmud, Reuven learns that he has to make Danny his friend.

Reuven and Danny’s friendship brings in the motif of looks being deceptive. Before Reuven and Danny get to know each other, Reuven thinks of Danny as a prototypical Hasid. Reuven tells his dad, “The way he acts and talks doesn’t seem to fit what he wears and the way he looks. It’s like two different people” (105). Reuven must learn not to judge someone solely by appearance.

As Danny and Reuven become friends, Reuven realizes the extent of Danny’s intelligence. Their discussions of the Talmud and their educational goals shed light on the quest for knowledge. Danny can study two blatt a day and read seven to eight secular books a week, and his fierce need for learning foreshadows the story’s major conflict: Danny’s dad doesn’t know how to communicate with his brilliant son, again foregrounding the theme of Silence and Communication.

The theme appears when Danny tells Reuven, “[My father] talks plenty when we’re studying Talmud together. But otherwise he doesn’t say much. He told me once he wishes everyone could talk in silence” (102). Neither Danny nor Reuven understand how people can speak without words, and they must wait until the final chapter for Reb Saunders to explain what he means.

Potok foreshadows Danny’s devotion to psychology, with the mention of Sigmund Freud. Freud will play a big part in Danny’s growth and struggles. Freud symbolizes a break from Hasidism—a separation that, in Chapter 4, Danny isn’t ready to make.

Chapters 3 and 4 feature more irony. Reuven’s and Danny’s situations are ironic: Reuven doesn’t have to be a rabbi but wants to be one, while Danny doesn’t want to be a rabbi but has to be one. There’s dramatic irony when Reuven and Danny realize that the man suggesting Danny books is Reuven’s dad. This twist links to Judaism and the Quest for Knowledge. By recommending books, Malter helps Danny learn. It also connects to the ups and downs of father-son relationships. Reuven’s dad fills a vacuum created by Danny’s dad, who wants to restrict Danny’s knowledge to Judaism.