Boekverslag : Chaim Potok - The Chosen
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 1083 woorden.
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 1083 woorden.
Title
The Chosen
About the author
Chaim Potok is born on 17 February 1929 in New York. After being educated he decided to study philosophy. He is an American Jew and he writes about the Jewish religion, history and culture in a not Jewish society. Some famous books of him are 'The Promise', 'My name is Asher Lev', Ín the beginning' and of course 'The Chosen'.
About the book
Publisher Penguin Books
Date of publication 1970
Date of first publication. 1966
Title explanation
Reuven and Danny are 'the Chosen'. His father has chosen Danny to become rabbi: Danny is the oldest one so he should take over the job of his father. Reuven is a chosen friend of Danny. Reb Saunders allowed him to be friends with Danny. It's kind of a selection. So they are both chosen by Reb Saunders. Another explanation is that the religious Jews regard themselves as God's chosen people.
Summary
Reuven Malter, a liberal Jew, plays baseball with his team against a team of Hasidic Jews. (Orthodox Jews) The other team plays very rough and unfair. They do this because these kind of Jews hate the liberal Jews and they see the game as a religious war. They think that the liberal Jews are traitors to there religion. One Hasidic, Danny Saunders, is the worst of all. When Reuven throws a ball he hits it incredible fast. Reuven doesn't duck and the ball smashes his glasses. Reuven needs to go to a hospital because there's some glass in his eye.
After a few days Danny comes to the hospital to apologise but Reuven doesn't want to see him. Reuven's father tells him that he should listen to the guy and so the next time he does. Although they are brought up in a different way the two become friends. Danny is a Hasid but he thinks in the same way as Reuven.
Reb Saunders brings his son up in a very strict way: he wants to control Danny's life. Danny is also supposed to take over the job from his father as rabbi. He didn't disapprove the friendship between Danny and Reuven because he sees that Reuven is a smart boy. Little by little Danny gets out of his fathers hands and he starts reading books from Freud and other philosophers, that his father disapproves because they deny things that are basics for there religion. For two years they aren't allowed to see each other because Reb is against the statement of Reuven's father that the Jews should build there own state if God doesn't. They completely ignore each other.
Eventually Danny wants to say to his father that he doesn't want to be a rabbi but he wants to study philosophy. Reb Saunders already knew that this would happen because Danny is so intelligent. He has got brain but 'no' soul. By don't saying anything to Danny Reb wants him to look in his own soul. He already knew which direction Danny was moving and so he accepts it.
Character description / development
Danny is an exceptional smart boy. He admires his father but at the same time he is afraid of him because of his sudden explosions of anger. In the beginning he is completely in the power of his father. Slowly he makes himself free from his father. k
Reuven is an intelligent guy but with a little experience and knoledge about some things. His father is the one that helps him in these situations.
Setting
The story takes place in America in Williamsburg, a part of Brooklyn, New York during World War II. Reuven and Danny live in the same neighbourhood only they did go to other primary schools. These schools have organised a competition between several Jewish schools because the Jews aren't really accepted anywhere in the world: they are always separated from other people. So they organise things in there own community. During the war millions of Jews were murdered in concentration camps and now the Jews are busy with thinking about building there own country.
Point of view
The whole story is told by Reuven: it's told in the 1st person.
Theme
The theme of this novel is friendship. Danny and Reuven became friends after the incident on the baseball field.
Genre
The book is a psychological novel. The whole story is about the relation between Reuven and Danny and how it develops during a few years.
Literary period.
This book is written in the modern period. (1945-….)
Opinion (dutch)
Persoonlijke leeservaring. Ik denk dat je van dit boek kan leren dat je niemand kan dwingen tot iets waar diegene niet achter staat. Als je iemand dwingt werkt dat vaak averechts. Hij of zij gaat zich dan juist verzetten en dan kan zelfs de relatie met diegene er aangaan. Danny 'moet' zijn vader opvolgen, maar omdat hij andere interesses heeft, wil hij dat helemaal niet. Danny wil namelijk psychologie studeren. Zijn vader is gelukkig wel een wijs man die inziet dat je iemand niet tegen zijn zin iets kan laten doen want dat werkt echt niet in je voordeel. Danny is stomverbaasd dat zijn vader dat al de hele tijd in de gaten had maar dat niet liet merken.
Het is een uitgebreid verhaal dat normaal gesproken misschien wel saai zou zijn geworden als je niet nieuwsgierig bent naar wat er gaat gebeuren. Ik wist niet wat ik kon verwachten omdat ik die Joodse wereld niet ken: ik wist niet hoe daar over dingen gedacht wordt. Tevens is het zo dat Chaim Potok geen voorspelbaar verhaal heeft geschreven. Ook de manier waarop Potok de dingen verteld, door de ogen van een 'moderne' jongen die het Joodse geloof aanhangt, is erg goed. Reuven is qua jongen redelijk vergelijkbaar met mezelf of een andere 'westerling'. Daardoor zie je veel dingen die gebeuren op een manier zoals je er zelf ook tegen aan zou kijken. Potok beschrijft dus die Joodse ideeën vanuit een westers oogpunt.
Het boek is in goed te begrijpen engels geschreven, maar er staan wel veel Joodse termen in die niet altijd zo duidelijk zijn. Na verloop van tijd snap je wel waar ze het over hebben maar het begin is lastig. Verder in het verhaal is het alleen niet zo makkelijk uit de context te halen wat die termen betekent. Toch horen deze termen wel bij het verhaal: zo is het wat realistischer.
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