Unavoidable Suffering

The main theme in The Chosen is suffering. This theme is introduced when Reuven is in the hospital with an injured eye. Although Reuven is suffering, suffering is primarily shown by Billy. Billy is a kind child who lost his mother at a young age and is now permanently blind. Billy has a mental suffering as he constantly questions what he did wrong. Billy tries to take his mind off of these hard questions that haunt him with his hope that one day he will be able to see and fight with Tony Savo. Billy explains this fight eagerly to Reuven, telling him, “’Mr. Savo promised me a three-rounder after my operation’” (Potok 45). This dream kept his hopes up but we later see this was a false hope when his father tells Reuven “’the surgery was unsuccessful’” (Potok 173). Potok uses Billy as an example of a good person who has experienced much senseless pain to introduce the theme of suffering.

In book two, the theme of suffering is shown with a broader approach. President Roosevelt died towards the end of the war which caused a great deal of suffering to America. Reuven shares his reaction with the reader saying, “I found myself crying too, and felt as though I had been scraped clean inside and there was nothing in me now but a terrible darkness” (Potok 187). Then, as if the suffering wasn’t bad enough, news comes to America about the millions of Jewish people killed in Europe by the Nazis. This leads to a worldwide suffering. Similar to Billy’s blindness, the deaths of Roosevelt and so many Jewish people are senseless. These sufferings add to the theme of suffering by showing that bad things happen to good people.

Throughout The Chosen, Chaim Potok shows that good people do suffer. Through the theme of suffering, Potok communicates to the reader that life isn’t perfect and that there will be obstacles and suffering along the way. By showing these sufferings happening to good people, Potok shows that we can’t control life and that when bad things happen it isn’t because that person did anything wrong. In The Chosen, all of the main characters are shown suffering at one point in the book. This shows that everyone suffers. These characters don’t let these sufferings control them though, and they try to stay optimistic and carry on with their life.

Suffering

Chaim Potok uses the theme of suffering all throughout The Chosen.  Suffering is seen multiple times throughout Book 1.  This theme is very prevalent through Billy as he battles with being blind.  Ever since the accident he has not been able to see and this causes him much suffering.  The theme is also seen through Tony Savo.  He is only blind in one eye, but he ends up having to get that eye taken out.  Mr. Savo’s condition causes him to miss out on things he enjoys doing.  The reader sees this as the nurse says, “You are going to make yourself seriously ill unless you stop this nonsense and rest!” (Potok 58).  The reader is also introduced to Danny and his suffering with his father’s silence in the first book. 

Suffering continues throughout Book 2.  The silence from his father continues to cause Danny to suffer.  The reader sees this as Danny tells Reuven about his trip with his father, “I always talked to my father.  I was lucky, he said.  I didn’t know how really lucky I was, he added, a little bitterly” (Potok 181).  The reader also sees the whole Jewish community suffering first when President Roosevelt dies and secondly when they find out about the Holocaust.  Mr. Malter deals with the news as Reuven describes, “I saw him lie back on his pillows and cover his face with his hands.  Then he asked me to leave him alone, and I walked out and left him there, crying, and went to my room” (Potok 189).  This theme develops all throughout The Chosen in many different ways.  The reader also sees this as Reuven tries to help a fly out of a spider web.  The fly represents all of the Jewish people and their suffering as it was caught in the web.

The theme of suffering shows the reader that life is not always perfect.  Life has never been perfect and it never will be.  Potok uses this theme to show the reader how everyone suffers in different ways and how to deal with/overcome this suffering.  Suffering is a part of life that everyone endures and Chaim Potok shows that it does not have to consume/control people.

Suffering of the Innocent

In book one of The Chosen, Potok uses good hearted people to introduce his theme of suffering. Potok has taken a small innocent child and made him blind. Billy has a good heart and a good insight to how to deal with his blindness. When Danny and Billy are first meeting, Danny describes Billy as having “such a beautiful face, a gentle face. His hands [laying] limp on the blanket, and his eyes [staring] at [him] vacantly”(Potok 44). Billy is an innocent child who has done nothing wrong in the world, yet he is still blind and he still chooses to be caring and compassionate to others. In book one, Potok also uses Tony to show suffering. Tony is a caring guy who tries to just be helpful and nice to the kid to wants to play ball. He has a good heart for others. But, because he doesn’t want to disappoint the child, he chooses to play ball with him. Because he does this, he makes his eyes worse. Tony is a good person who is injured and suffering.

In book two of The Chosen, Potok uses the symbolism of a fly caught in a spider web to develop the theme of suffering.  Danny observed that “a spider had spun a web across the corner of the upper rail, and there was a housefly trapped in it” (Potok 173-4). Potok uses the fly as good people in general. The fly is just flying in the air and doing no harm to anything around I when it is suddenly trapped in a web. The web is the suffering and struggling that the good people go through. Potok also uses the death of President Roosevelt to develop suffering. Danny explains how the public react to President Roosevelt’s death. He explains “Silence in the trolley car, weeping men and women, groups of people standing about dazedly in the streets”(Potok 187). Potok is showing how the entire nation of the United States is suffering. The United States were helping to stop Hitler, to free European Jews, and help with world peace, when a tragedy happened and made an entire nation feel the pain.

Based on the book so far, Potok’s thematic message about suffering is that people who are enduring suffering must overcome it and continue to stay strong. Potok gives many of the innocent and good hearted  characters in the story a sort of suffering, but he also makes them all strong enough to overcome it. Potok does not allow the “crazy, cock-eyed world” to control the characters.

Suffering is Global

In The Chosen, suffering is a prevalent theme. This theme is expressed through Reuven first. After Reuven gets hit by the baseball, he is suffering in a great amount. But the main introduction into the theme of suffering is through Billy. Billy is a blind boy that Reuven meets in the hospital during his treatment. Billy represents the theory that bad things happen to good people. Billy is literally blind, but he seems to possess an inner knowledge about certain things. Billy should have no clue that Mr. Galanter is of age to be fighting in the war, but he says to Mr. Galanter, “Were you wounded or something, Mr. Galanter, sir, that you’re home now” (Potok 60). Billy would have had no idea of Mr. Galanter’s age without looking at him. This is one example of him showing the “inner sight.” Billy suffers plentifully in The Chosen. In the car crash that caused his blindness; Billy lost his mother. Now he is bed-ridden in the eye-care wing of the hospital forever.

Later in the novel, Danny and Reuven become friends with each other. Suffering is still prevalent in book 2. This time this theme is communicated through Danny Saunders, Reb Saunders, Reuven Malter, and David Malter. Danny Saunders has a brilliant mind and his father, Reb, knows it. Unfortunately they cannot communicate with each other except for the study of Talmud. Reb is talking to Reuven about his communication problem with Danny, and he says, “The Master of the Universe gave me a brilliant son, a phenomenon. And I cannot speak to him” (Potok 167). Reb Saunders suffers from not being able to speak to Danny. Danny suffers due to his father’s silence.  Reuven Malter seems to feel sorry for Danny. Reuven suffers partly because of Danny’s suffering. Reuven also suffers losses in his family; his mother is dead or not a part of his life and his father is always sick or off teaching a class. David Malter suffers from multiple colds and a heart attack. After the heart attack he “recovered slowly” and this causes Reuven to worry about him. (Potok 192).

Suffering is a part of life on earth. Everyone in this world can relate to a time when they suffered through a bad time or an illness. Since suffering is so global, many people have to carry a heavy burden of suffering. This maybe what causes Reb Saunders to cry at the dinner table? It also may be what caused David Malter to suffer a heart attack? Suffering is something that touches all of us. But when they learn how to handle suffering, its effects are weakened, if they do not disappear altogether.

Universal Suffering

In book one of The Chosen suffering is shown by many different people.  Billy is the main character the reader sees suffering.  Even though Billy is a nice boy who has done nothing wrong he is still punished and has his sight taken from him.  Though Billy is the main character we see suffering other characters also suffer in book one.  The reader sees Tony Savo struggling mentally and physically in this book.  Tony is obviously hurt but the reader also sees him mentally struggling.  Tony is upset because of the loss of his manager, but he does not realize the reason he lost him.  Tony’s head is injured and he keeps repeating himself saying things over and over again like “Could’ve been on top if that guy hadn’t clopped me with the right the way he did. Flattened me for a month” (Potok 43).   Tony thinks his manager just gave up on him but he does not see how serious his injury really is.  Tony is suffering without his career and is upset that he can no longer fight.

In book two Danny is the character that is seen struggling.  Danny is spiritually broken down by his father.  He struggles with the fact that he and his father do not speak.  Danny does not hide this issue and throughout book two and he even explains how hard the silence is.  Instead of saying to Reuven that he asked his dad to meet him early in book two, Danny says “I got up enough courage to tell him about you, and he said to bring you over today.  That’s the longest sentence he’s said to me in years” (Potok 116).  Danny struggles with his father’s silence and wants desperately to have a relationship with him.  Reuven is also struggling in book two.  Reuven is struggling to understand Danny’s lifestyle and why he acts the way he does.  He doesn’t understand why Danny must be raised in silence and even says to Danny, “I’d hate to have my father not talk to me” (Potok 116).  Reuven doesn’t understand not having a relationship with his father because he has always had a strong one.

Potok’s uses suffering to show how unjust the world is.  It doesn’t matter how strong someone is they are not above suffering.  It affects everybody and is cruel and unfair.  Potok shows this through talking about all of the unfair deaths of Jewish people during the Holocaust and other tragic events.

Unjust suffering

The theme of suffering is a prevalent theme in The Chosen. It is experienced by many characters in many different ways throughout the book. In book one, the theme of suffering is primarily shown through Reuven. He struggles with the pain of his eye, as well as the pain of wondering if his eye will ever heal. Danny Saunders and David Malter also begin early stages of suffering at this time. Danny questions why wanted to kill Reuven, which later leads him to become upset, and David’s health begins to decline worrying about Reuven so much. “He put the handkerchief in front of his mouth and coughed into it. He coughed a long time” (Potok 49). In book two, Danny begins his struggle with reading. He begins to read books that are very foreign in philosophy to him, and, in result, he struggles to understand them, as he did with Graetz’s book on Hasidism. He says, “It’s awful to have someone give you and image like that of yourself” (Potok 153). He also struggles with his reading of Freuds’ psychology theories. Danny’s father Reb suffers as well in book two. Reb, talking to himself, says, “[God] gave me a brilliant son, and I have thanked [God] for him a million times. But you had to make him so brilliant?” (Potok 167).He believes his son to be overly intelligent and he struggles to talk to Danny about anything except the Talmud. Reuven also learns that his friend Billy’s surgery did not go well and that he is still blind. This makes Reuven begin to question why such a good person is given such a terrible burden that would make them suffer their entire lives.

Potok conveys a theme of suffering through many different forms throughout the book; Reuven’s eye, Danny’s reading misery, David’s sickness, the Jewish holocaust occurrence, Reb’s struggle with Danny, and Billy and Mr. Savo’s eye problems. These are all unfair and unjust occurrences of suffering, which is what Potok is conveying about the world. He shows this to show the reader how unfair the real world is, regardless of whether these individuals deserve to suffer or not.

Suffering the Silence

The theme of suffering in The Chosen is developed though three forms; physical, emotional, and mentally. The theme is introduce to the reader by Revuen’s eye. He suffers with his temporary blindness. Another example of suffering through blindness his Billy’s blindness. Both boys’ go through both the physical pain and the mental pain of not knowing. Another form of anguish is introduce by David’s sickness. Mr. Malter has “ a deep, rasping cough that shook his frail body terribly” (Potok 47).

The suffering is developed more in Book 2 through more symbolical spiritual torment. The Holocaust cause a spiritual strain on all of the characters, as well as the death of Roosevelt.  The reader begins to see Danny’s inner suffering through his studies and relationships. Danny is physically wearing himself down by his mental struggle of reading Freud. During a Kiddushin debate, the reader sees Danny “ take a sudden loud breath, as if he had been punched in the stomach” (Potok 179).  Reuven also suffers for Danny and his father’s silence.  Reuven can’t understand how someone could do that to their son. Reuven tells his father “ I can’t make him out. One minute he’s hard and angry, the next minute he’s soft and gentle.” (Potok 147). Reuven suffers for his friend’s suffering.

The are many forms of suffering. Someone could be going through a spiritual war without even knowing it. The world is full of suffering, of loss and pain. The world has death and silence everywhere. A perfect world would not have the human race. The only place without suffering is Heaven, the holy land.

The Thematic Message of Suffering

A continuous theme that is shown throughout the novel The Chosen is suffering.  This theme is first introduced to the reader in the first book when the Reuven meets Billy.  He is such an innocent character that endured a horrific event that caused him to lose his eyesight.  This is explained when Billy says, “’It’ll be wonderful to be able to see again,’ Billy said to me.  ‘I had an accident in a car once.  My father was driving.  It was a long time ago.  It wasn’t my father’s fault, though’” (Potok 45).  This shows the theme of suffering because this horrible event has happened to such an innocent child for no reason other than the fact that the world is unfair and unjust.  Reuven doesn’t understand this but it has made Reuven realize the value of his own eyes.  He sees this value when he says, “I had always taken them for granted, the way I took for granted all the rest of my body and also my mind” (Potok 51-52).  This shows how much he has learned from the struggle Billy had to go through.

            This theme is continuously developed in the second book with multiple events.  The first event was the death of the beloved President Roosevelt.  This supports suffering because everyone was distraught and didn’t know how to handle it.  Reuven describes it by saying, “I couldn’t believe it.  It was like God dying” (Potok 186). When a boy that religious compares a person to God the reader knew it was a very difficult time for the country.  Another event that occurred in book two that greatly supported the theme of suffering was the tremendous struggle that Danny was enduring.  He had to deal with the constant silence of his father and the tough decision of whether to follow in his father’s footsteps or branch off and become his own person. This greatly supported the theme because this is a mental, emotional, spiritual, and is now affecting the physical struggle.  He will have to deal with consequences either way and for a young man of his age is a very hard thing to go through.

            The author’s thematic meaning about suffering is the idea that the world is unfair and unjust.  That people go through very hard things for no reason and no way to explain it.  Even though it is unfair they have to live through it and get through it because they have to live their lives and enjoy them again even with struggle.

Why the Jews?

In The Chosen, Chaim Potok uses suffering as one of the main themes throughout the book. In book one, Potok introduces suffering when Reuven meets a boy from the hospital named Billy. The reader sees Billy’s suffering when Billy’s father says, “The surgery was unsuccessful” (Potok 173). Reuvan speaks with Bill’s father and is told that Billy’s surgery was unsuccessful. Suffering is seen in Billy because he is a young boy who had an unfortunate accident and deserved to have a better life than one with blindness.

Suffering is then built on in book 2 when Danny reveals how he is mentally and spiritually trapped by his father pressuring him to carry on the tradition of him taking his place as tzaddik. Danny shares this with Reuven when Reuven asks, “Are you really going to become a rabbi and take your father’s place?” (Potok 81). Danny responds to this question with a simple yes. It is obvious to the reader that when Danny responds to this question, he doesn’t have any desire to actually become a rabbi or a tzaddik. Reb Saunders also is seen suffering when Reuven’s father said, “He had to do what he did. How could he continue to let you be friends?” (Potok 232). This shows how Reb understands how the separation between Danny and Reuven must feel but he had no choice in the matter. Reb suffers from the knowledge of causing his son such grief.

Potok uses the theme of suffering to show how the world around us is cruel, unfair, and unforgiving. No matter what kind of person people are, suffering can find them all. Potok also focuses on the sufferings of the Jewish people in this book. He repeatedly brings up the tragic events of the Jews and brings up the question, what did they do to deserve such punishment?

Suffering is Inevitable

Throughout The Chosen, the theme of suffering is expressed in many ways through various people. This theme plays into that the world is crazy and unjust things happen to good people. In Book 1, suffering is shown in almost of all of the characters that appear. The most prominent figure of suffering in Book 1 is Billy. Billy is suffering from being blind, and if it wasn’t bad already, he lost his mother in the accident that he lost his sight in. Another prominent character of suffering is Tony Savo. Even though he may have brought it on himself by being a prize fighter he still doesn’t deserve losing an eye. Tony Savo points out the theme of suffering directly when he says, “Crazy world. Cockeyed” (Potok 57). Tony is saying how bad things happen for no apparent reason to people who did nothing to deserve it. Danny Saunders is also a victim of suffering, but it is not physically; it’s mentally. Danny is trapped by his father’s strict rule and silence. This will create many problems for Danny in the future. The suffering in the main character, Reuven, is through his eye being hit with a baseball. He loses sight in one eye for a moment, but he regains it after surgery. All of these characters are good people who happen to be on the short end of the stick in their lives.

In Book 2, the theme of suffering is developed in the two main characters; Danny and Reuven. The majority of Book 2 is focused on Danny’s suffering with his father. Danny constantly goes through tests during his father’s services on the Talmud. His father does not approve of him going to the library and reading books, but that is kept in secret. While reading one of these books (Freud) Danny suffers the challenge of interpreting German translations. This biggest struggle of suffering of Danny is with his father’s silence. His father’s silence has trapped him and he says “It’s the most hellish, choking, constricting feeling in the world” (Potok 202). Reuven’s suffering in Book 2 is trying to get a grasp of everything around him. He tries to learn the history of the Hasids and their culture. He also does not get Reb Saunders, he says “One minute he’s hard and angry, the next minute he’s soft and gentle” (Potok 147).

Potok’s thematic message of suffering is that no matter how nice and caring a person is, suffering is inevitable. Throughout history many famous instances of suffering have occurred that were unjust and cruel. The Holocaust would be a perfect example. The Jewish people who died in the Holocaust had no reason to die, but it happened anyway. No matter how much people try to run away from suffering it is always there and always will be.