The Chosen Analysis

In a book that celebrates choice and multiple perspectives, it’s no wonder that vision is a big deal. When the narrator gets his glasses broken before the end of Chapter One, we know he’s in fo...

Right away we're offered an intriguing and perhaps surprising vision of America in this novel. As the brilliant characters devour information, their understanding of the setting deepens, and so doe...

Reuven Malter tells us a compelling story that begins in June 1944, when he’s fifteen, and ends in September 1949, when he’s graduated from college. He tells the story in the past tense...

It might be helpful to split the four genres into two parts. After we see how the first two fit together, and how the second two fit together, we’ll have a better idea of how genre operates i...

The shattering of Reuven’s glasses and the metaphorical opening of his eyes that follows set the tone for the novel. Each page asks the characters (and the readers) to expand their vision, to...

"Didactic" is a fancy way of saying "instructive." The Chosen doesn’t just tell us a story. It also teaches us about different aspects of Judaism and history. And this is reflected in the nov...

The title seems simple at first glance, but the deeper we get into the novel, the more it resonates.The Jewish people are sometimes called "The Chosen People," and the title obviously draws on this...

There are actually five epigraphs in The Chosen, two at the beginning of the novel, and one at the beginning of each of the novel’s three sections."When a trout rising to a fly gets hooked on...

The Jewish holiday of Passover, or Pesach, takes on special significance in The Chosen. If you are interested, you can check out this website, which is devoted to the holiday. The story of Passover...

Baseball and war in the schoolyardWhen Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders first meet, it’s hate at first sight. Their friendly Sunday afternoon baseball game has turned into an all-out war.Do y...

Homicidal tendenciesDanny and Reuven’s first meeting doesn’t seem to bode well for their friendship. Reuven thinks Danny is really weird, not only because of the way Danny dresses, but...

Even though Reuven Malter is sure that Danny Saunders hit him in the glasses with a baseball on purpose, he soon learns that things aren’t always what they seem. At first, Reuven sees Danny a...

Chaim Potok was also a painter. (Source)

Sex is hardly ever mentioned in The Chosen. By "hardly ever," we mean twice. The first time, Danny tells Reuven that he’s been reading Sigmund Freud on sexuality. He’s shocked by what h...

Aldoux Huxley (4.98)Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms (4.102, 106) Russell and Whitehead, Principia Mathematica (4.137, 10.10)Hayyim Nahman Bialik (5.10) New York Times (3.68, 5.10) Ivanhoe (3.2...