Chaim Potok's The Chosen

Chaim Potok’s book The Chosen takes place in the 1940s and is the story of two boys trying to become and stay friends even though they are from two different Jewish sects. It is not that To Kill a Mockingbird is an awful or terrible book. While reading To Kill a Mockingbird, readers will enjoy a well-written book, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and a classic. Yet, high school students will relate more to the two main characters of The Chosen as they are 15 and in high school at the beginning of the story. The Chosen stands apart from To Kill a Mockingbird by reason of Potok’s writing style, the developed characters, and the story line.

Chaim Potok grew up in a Jewish family. Since Potok knew the Jewish culture so well, he was able to translate his knowledge into the book. Potok based the character of Danny off of himself. From Potok’s writing style, readers relate to the characters, feeling their emotion, whether happy or sad. It seems as if Reuven and Danny are telling readers their story. Readers also learn what it was like for the Jews during WWII and to discover the Holocaust happened. By the end of the
Danny hits Reuven in the eye with the baseball and Reuven ends up in the hospital. In the hospital readers see Reuven’s compassion as he meets Mr. Savo and Billy. The boys form a friendship and meet at the library where they read and discuss books together. They deal with both of their dads, one sick and staying in the hospital and one strict. Later in the book, readers watch as the boys’ fathers deal with WWII ending and mourn the loss of six million Jews that were killed in the holocaust. Reuven and Danny then go off to college to get their degrees and while they deal with a silence that Reb. Saunders insists on. Their friendship stands and the boys go on to see their lives reunited as they pursue their