The Chosen

“They’re murderers.”

Davey’s diction continues to support the notion that the baseball game symbolizes war: It’s violent—Danny’s team wants to murder them. The quote also foreshadows Reuven’s injury and the real deaths in World War II and the Holocaust. Less drastically, the quote alludes to baseball history and the 1927 New York Yankees, who had a powerful lineup—featuring stars Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig—nicknamed “Murderers’ Row.”

“Always like kids that hold to their religion. Important thing, religion. Wouldn’t mind some of it in the ring. Tough place, the ring. Tony Savo’s my name.”

Tony Savo is one of the few non-Jewish characters in the story, but even the rambling boxer affirms the importance of the religion. The quote foreshadows Danny’s struggles with holding onto Hasidism.

“I worry all the time you will get hit by a taxi or a trolley car, and you go and get hit by a baseball.”

David Malter’s quote is ironic: Instead of getting hit by a car or trolley, Reuven gets injured by a baseball. These words demonstrate the theme of Silence and Communication by showing how David only expresses concern for his son’s well-being, which contrasts with Reb Saunders. The quote also plays with stereotypes that Jews worry too much or are excessively anxious.

“[Y]ou can go to hell, and take your whole snooty bunch of Hasidim along with you!”

Using hyperbolic diction, Reuven lets Danny know that he’s not ready to be his friend. Friendships are intricate and don’t always begin in a rosy light. Reuven and Danny’s relationship starts with Danny hitting him in the eye with the baseball and Reuven telling Danny to go to hell.

“[H]ere was Danny Saunders talking English, and what he was saying and the way he was saying it just didn’t seem to fit in with the way he was dressed.”

Looks deceive, and Reuven realizes that he misjudged Danny. Now that he’s getting to know Danny, he realizes that Danny isn’t a prototypical Hasidic person. The boys begin to realize that they have much in common, including their commitment to Judaism and the Quest for Knowledge.

“I’m fed up being cooped up like this. I want to get out and go home. Say, it’s really good to see you, you sonofagun!”

Danny comes to visit Reuven in the hospital, and Reuven is ecstatic. The boys are often serious, but the word “sonofagun” shows the playful side to their relationship. The word also anchors the story in the 1940s, when it was more commonly used than today.

“I read about seven or eight books a week outside of my schoolwork. Have you ever read Darwin or Huxley?”

Danny doesn’t confine himself to the Torah and the Talmud. He reads authors that counter the Jewish narrative life. Charles Darwin and his champion Thomas Henry Huxley don’t believe God created humans but that they evolved over time through biology.

“[Manya] scooped me into her huge arms as though I were a leaf, and smothered me with a hug that pushed the air from my lungs and left me breathless.”

Through imagery, Reuven creates a maternal picture of Manya, the housekeeper. She effusively greets Reuven as he comes home from the hospital as if he were her son. Though only a minor character, she fills a void created by the loss of his mother.

“Reb Saunders is a great Talmudist and a great tzaddik. He has a reputation for brilliance and compassion. It is said that he believes the soul is as important as the mind, if not more so.”

Contributing to Reb Saunders’s mystery, Reuven’s dad provides a different portrayal of Danny’s dad: He’s an admirable figure. He also foreshadows the reason behind Reb Saunders’s silence, which connects to the theme of Silence and Communication.

“I glanced over at Dov Shlomowitz, and found him staring at me, his heavy face wearing an expression of surprise and hostility.”

Dov’s angry stare reinforces Reuven’s outsider status at Danny’s house. It also adds to The Intricacies of Friendship. Other people don’t always approve of a person’s friends, but that doesn’t mean that the friendship should end. Dov remembers Reuven from the game, but he is unaware of how close Danny and Reuven have become since that time.

“Torah raises us from the dust! Torah gives us strength! Torah clothes us! Torah brings the Presence!”

Reb Saunders uses the literary device of repetition to emphasize the importance of the Torah and to echo the repetition of religious chant. Torah is the first word of four consecutive sentences because it’s what uplifts Jews and creates God’s presence. There is nothing more important than the Torah.

“That snooty Danny Saunders.”

Like Danny, Reuven’s peers don’t approve of his friendship. Davey Cantor calls him “snooty,” but Reuven ignores him. He’ll be friends with Danny regardless.

“He was reading with phenomenal speed. I could almost see him read.”

Danny’s brilliance transcends his mind and manifests in his body. Reuven can watch him read—it’s as if reading is a physical activity for Danny, like baseball.

“[Danny] had wanted to read Freud. That had been his mistake. Freud had to be studied, not read. He had to be studied like a page of Talmud. And he had to be studied with a commentary.”

The quote juxtaposes Freud and the Talmud. If Danny applies the techniques he uses with the Talmud, then he should have fewer problems with Freud. Danny brings together Judaism and the Quest for Knowledge: His Jewish studies help him with his secular learning.

“Danny’s sister, I noticed for the first time, was a very pretty girl, with dark eyes and long dark hair combed back into a single braid, and vivacious hands that seemed always in motion when she spoke.”

Reuven doesn’t give Danny’s sister a name, but he provides the reader with an image of her so the reader can grasp her allure. Unlike his dad, Danny, or Reb Saunders, Reuven expresses romantic attraction.

“‘The Freudians have plenty to be dogmatic about. Freud was a genius.’ ‘What do they do, make a tzaddik out of him.’

Reuven and Danny have an honest friendship, and Reuven gives Danny his honest opinion about Freud. His quip turns Freud into a symbol of a false God and reveals that uncritical idolization can occur in academic and religious spaces.

“How many fathers do I have?”

Reuven’s relationship with his dad isn’t as rocky as Danny's relationship with his dad, but it’s not perfect, and Reuven worries about his dad’s health. He asks him a blunt question to allude to the possibility that Malter might work himself to death and leave his son without a father. His open communication with his father links to the theme of Silence and Communication.

“His touch and his eyes spoke the words that his lips couldn’t.”

Through Reuven and Danny, Potok provides further foreshadowing that it’s possible to communicate without speaking. Yet neither seems to make the connection that they’re doing what Reb Saunders is doing.

“Your father is a good teacher. You are blessed to have such a father.”

Rav Gershenson unites the themes of Judaism and the Quest for Knowledge and the ups and downs of father-son relationships. Reuven is fortunate to have a dad that can help him learn.

“I’m sorry, too. I needed you around for a while. Especially when my father was sick.”

Reuven and Danny can be friends again, and Reuven expresses how hard it was not to speak to Danny about his dad’s health issues. Friends are supposed to help friends with their problems, and when they’re not around, the problems can become more onerous. Their separation—even though it was imposed on them—links to the theme of The Intricacies of Friendship.

“Danny is now like a person waiting to be let out of jail. He has only one desire. To leave the jail. Despite what may be waiting for him outside. Danny cannot think one minute beyond the moment he will have to tell his father he does not wish to take his place.”

Reuven’s dad uses a simile to illustrate Danny’s situation. He uses a connecting word—“like”—to show how Hasidism is like a jail that Danny can’t wait to break out from. Yet to leave thoughtfully, he must prepare to confront his dad.

“I don’t understand it. What is he waiting for? Why doesn’t he say something?”

The silence from Danny’s dad over the graduate school mail perplexes and anguishes him. The consecutive questions reveal his frustration and bewilderment. His father’s silence connects to the theme of Silence and Communication.

“Words are cruel, words play tricks, they distort what is in the heart, they conceal the heart, the heart speaks through silence.”

Reb Saunders uses repetition and juxtaposition to make his case about verbal communication and silent communication. He repeats “words” twice to emphasize their capacity to mislead, then he repeats “heart” twice to highlight the importance of letting the heart speak without words.