The Chosen (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Chaim Potok
- First Published: 1967
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Fiction of manners
- Time of Work: 1944 to the mid-1950’s
- Setting: the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Bildungsroman, Domestic realism
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Family or family life, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Parents and children, Tradition, Teenagers, New York City, Education or educators, 1940’s, Religion, Friendship, Jews or Jewish life, Fathers, Judaism, Talmud, Rabbis, Synagogues
- Locales: Brooklyn, NY
Characters Discussed
Reuven Malter, a young Orthodox Jew who narrates his experiences during his high school and college days in Williamsburg and Brooklyn, among the Orthodox and Hasidic communities. Reuven’s greatest challenge lies in coming to terms with the Hasidic Jews who consider his father’s methods of textual criticism of the Talmud to be suspect. They also reject his father’s quest to establish a new Zionist nation in Palestine. Reuven often is tempted to hate the Hasidic Jews for their intolerance toward his father, but Reuven’s father continually counsels him...
[The entire page is 900 words long]
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