fathers and sons essays

fathers and sons essays Fathers and Sons could of have easily been the title for Chaim Potoks novel The Chosen. In his first book, The Chosen, Potok portrays two different father and son relationships where the tradition becomes the source of conflict for his central characters, as they each seek their identities in the contemporary, secular society1. From one father and son relationship to the other each has its own set of problems and has their own way to communicate with one another. The conflicts in The Chosen functions at several levels. These are generational conflict, the temperamental conflict, the conflict between head and heart, and the opposition between a petrified fanaticism and humane tolerance2. In Chaim Potoks The Chosen each father and son relationship represent two different sides of Jewish life. The Chosen begins with a softball game between two Jewish parochial schools. Reuven Malter who is the son of a Jewish scholar is hit in the face with a ball hit by Danny Saunders who is the son of a Hasid that almost makes him blind. These two boys have two different backgrounds. Reuven is Orthodox; Danny is a Hasid, the son of a rabbi and destined by his father to take his hereditary place as tzaddik- a teacher, spiritual advisor, mediator between his community of followers and God3. This simple game in which the novel begins with not only triggers the conflict but determines the direction the novel would take. While recovering in the hospital the two boys become spiritual and intellectual brothers. Neither one could have imagined that through their one incident at the baseball game that they would grow to become spiritual brothers. Each teaches the other about their beliefs and their differences in their ways that each one of them are brought up. For Reuven and Danny are can be compared to the Ying and Yang because one supplements the other. Danny is a young man torn between fulfilling...