The Chosen: Reuvin

The Chosen:

• He looks into himself 
• Has a kind of has epiphany 
• sight and insight 
• Inside of himself
• Now he sees the error of his ways in being closed minded
• The way he sees the world is different
• It is a common motif in literature that when someone loses a physical aspect a spiritual one is gained. 
• While Siddhartha sees the world in a simple logical way, rubin sees the world in a complex way. 

First Paragraph 

• "When you are blind it makes no difference whether you open your eyes or not. I couldn't imagine what it was like to know that no matter whether my eyes were opened or closed it made no difference, everything was still dark." (53)
• He was blind to understanding the differences in the different faiths or sectors of his own faith.
• now he is more open and has allowed himself to accept Danny as a friend. 
• "Some how everything had changed, I had spent five days in a hospital and the world around seemed sharpened now and pulsing with life...I felt I had crossed into another world that little pieces of my old self had been left behind on the black asphalt floor of the school yard alongside the shattered lens of my glasses." (99) 
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• "I don't understand it...weeks and weeks go by. One Shabbat follows another, and I'm the same, nothing has changed, and suddenly one day something happens, and everything looks different." (111)

Second Paragraph

• His change isn't enough to get him ostracized in his community/congregation but it is recognized as different or unusual. This type of friendship between two  people would never happen between two different Jewish faiths. 
• Danny's father talks to Danny through Reuven, Danny's father ends upcoming to terms with the fact that Danny does not want to be a rabbi. He (Reuven) acts as an owl. 
• Reuven's father is a Zionist and wants an independent state in Israel. 
• Danny's community is more hesitant with their friendship and even when they go off to college Danny's community is more closed off. 
• "I spent Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Mornings playing ball with my yeshiva friends, none of whom seemed to be bothered by my friendship with Danny-- they accepted it and just didn't talk about it..." (175)
• "You will go one way Reuven, and my son Daniel, he will go another way'...'I have known for a long time..'he was talking to Danny through me." (282)
• "Reuven, I - I ask you to forgive me...my anger At your father's Zionism. I read his speach..I-I found my own meaning for my...brother's death...for the death of the six million. I found it in God's will...which i did not presume to understand...Forgive me." (288)