Boekverslag Chaim Potok

Geschreven door:	Nouqui (6 vwo) [meer]
Datum ingestuurd:	16 juli 2001
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Titel:	The chosen
Auteur:	Chaim Potok
Jaar van uitgave:	1966
Aantal pagina's:	271
Moeilijkheidsgraad:	bovenbouw havo/vwo
Verfilmd als:	The Chosen (1981)

Auteur:	Chaim Potok
Geslacht:	man
Nationaliteit:	Engels
Geboren:	17 februari 1929
Overleden:	23 juli 2002
Populaire titels:	1966The chosen (14) 1972My name is Asher Lev (5) 1985Davita's harp (3) 1969The Promise (2) 1975In the beginning (1) 1981The book of lights (1) 1990The gift of Asher Lev (1) 2001Old men at midnight (1) ... meer

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• 
  Door Limor op 06-01-2002
  Haaaai, ik wilde alleen ff zeggen dat je een mooi verslag gemaakt heb! Scheelt mij weer een hoop werk! Thanx!!!

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE BOOK
Title: The Chosen.
The writer: Chaim Potok
Publisher: Harmondsworth: Penguin Books
Year of publising: 1987
Edition: 1e
Theme: Jewish milieu
Pages: 280 pages

Chaim Potok
The Chosen is set in Williamsburg, a part of Brooklyn, New York, populated mainly by religious Jews.
The story begins towards the end of the WO 2 and ends in 1949.
Reuven Malter is a fifteen year old Jewish boy who lives with his father.
They aren’t orthodox in any way, but do live according to the Ten Commandents.
Reuvens father is a teacher at a Jewish school, and Reuven attends the same school.
One day, the school’s baseball team, of wich Reuven is a member, plays against the team of a strictly orthodox Hasidic school.
The Hasidic team plays an extreamely aggressive game, and the inofficial leader of the team, named Danny Saunders, nearly turns the game into a religious war by suggestion it is a battle between true and fake Jews.
After some time Reuven takes over the pitching.
Filled with rage because the behaviour of the Hasidim, Reuven defiantly doesn’t duck when Danny Sanders hits an increadibly fast ball in his direction.
The ball smashes Reuven’s glasses and he has to be taken to the hospital after the game, because a piece of glass has got stuck in his eye.
Some days later, Danny comes to viset Reuven in the hospital.
Reuven refuses to speack with him, as he is convinced that Danny intentionally hit the ball in his face.
However, when Danny returns the next day, Reuven is willing to speack with him.
They talk a bit and Reuven’s anger subsides.
Soon after Danny comes to the hospital for a thrid time, and gradually, encouraged by Reuven’s father, They become friends.
After Reuven is discharged from hospital, he goes visit Danny.
It turns out that Danny’s father (Saunders) is an extremely orthodox rabbi, and that, according to tradition, Danny will take over his father position when he is older, as has already been done for generations.
Gradually, Reuven gets to know more and more about Danny’s curious world and the relationship with his father.
He feels very sorry for him, when he sees how strictly he is brought up.

After a while, Reuven discovers that Danny, who has got a great mind is not satisfied by the Talmud alone, secretly reads books in the library, that his father has forbidden, and that Reuven’s father advises him what he must read.
Danny tries to keep his reading a secrut, but after some time his father find it out anyway.
Surprisingly, he isn’t very angry, only sad, and Danny continious going to the liberary, where he mainly reads about psychoanalysis.
When the boys have tho choose a college, they both choose the same one .
Apart from the Jewish subjects , Reuven studies mathematics and Danny psychology.
Gradually, Danny more and more starts to question Hasidism and trie to escape from his surroundings.
Then, suddenly, Danny and Reuven are torn apart after Danny’s father discovers that Reuven and his father are Zionists, and prohibits Danny from speaking with Reuven.
For two years, they ignore each other completely, but then Danny’s father realises that establishment of Israel is irreversible and he relents.
In the meanwhile, Danny has taken the enormous step of deciding that he will not be a rabbi, but will study psychology.
He is terrified of telling his father, but it turns outmto be unnecessary: Danny’s father has already understood in which direction Danny was moving.
He is forced to accept Danny’s decision.
Danny shaves of his beard and his earlocks, and that is the end of the story.

OPINION

It was a nice book to read but I don’t think that I learned anything from it.
It’s a story about two jewish boys who at first hated each other but later became friends for life.
The book is has a quite an undecorated style, the sentecens are short and the dialogue is rather simple, although the description of people is a bit more decorated sometimes.
A rather strange thing in the book is that Reuven keeps on making comments like “ I grinned at him.”
The main figures are all geniuses and do herioc things all time, a example is the baseball game.
The Chosen is an enjoyable story, and the book never gets boring.
The Chosen is a reasonable book even the book has a happy ending, but that’s the way it is.

TITLE: The Chosen is about religious Jews, who think that they are God’s chosen people.

GENRE: Psychologische roman.

THEME:
The theme of the book is on one side Danny’s struggle to escape from his surroundings and his father, and the difficulties he encounters while he tries to make a choice between leading an assimilated, modern life and upholding the traditions of his forefathers, and on the other side Reuven’s struggle to comprehend Danny’s way of life and his relationship with his father.

SETTING:
The Chosen is set in Williamsburg.
Williamsburg is a part of Brooklyn, New York, populated mainly by religious Jews.
The story begins towards the end of the end of the Second World War and ends in 1949.

POINT OF VIEW:
The story of the Chosen is seen through the eyes of Reuven, who could be considered to be the main figure.
Although Danny is the main figure.
The main person is the ‘he’ person.

CHARACTERISATION:

Danny: He is a exeptionally intelligent boy.
He is a very friendly boy, but a bit difficult sometimes, that is because of the way he is brought up.
He admires his father, but fears him at the same time because of his sudden explosions of anger.
Danny’s father: He is avery solemm rabbi who feels a great responsibility for the well-being of his ‘his’ people.
Danny’s father isn’t very happy about the friendship between his son and a non-Hasidic friend (Reuven), BUT he realises thet Reuven is a good boy.

Reuven: He is an intelligent boy, although he does sometimes do stupids things.
But his father is wise and he always corrects Reuven’s mistakes.
Reuven hate the Hasidic way of life at first, and in the end he decides clearly that he doesn’t like it.
Reuven’s father: He is a very wise man, who is very proud of his son.
He does teaching and writing articles on Jewish subjects.
In the end, he has a hart attack and he decides to lead a more relaxed life, devoting more time to his son, whom he teaches a lot of important things about life.