What is the significance of the setting in the chosen

Their different outlooks on life are symbolized in their manner of dress. Because Reuven and Danny are Orthodox Jews, they wear small, black skullcaps. However, the skullcap is the only outward similarity between their garments. All the boys on Danny's team wear the same outfits; Reuven and his team members have no set uniform.

In addition to their personal rivalry, Reuven and Danny represent their respective fathers, David Malter and Rabbi Isaac Saunders, who is introduced later in the novel, and their fathers' differing religious views. Reuven tells us that his father "had no love at all for Hasidic communities and their rabbinic overlords," of which Danny's father is one.

Danny, speaking to Reuven at second base, asks, "Your father is David Malter, the one who writes articles on the Talmud? That Reuven is struck by a ball off Danny's bat at the end of Chapter 1 is symbolic of their — and their fathers' — ideological battles.

Although The Chosen focuses on Danny Saunders' struggle to stand up to his father and renounce the leadership position that tradition dictates Danny inherit, Chapter 1 establishes Reuven's own personal struggle to accept Danny and the Hasidic religion that Danny and his father represent.

Although Reuven would like to believe that he is more open-minded than Danny, he admits that he has never before had "personal contact" with members of Danny's religious sect. However, he has accepted his own father's critical views concerning Rabbi Saunders' "fanatic sense of righteousness. His father, Danny, and Danny's father will help Reuven accomplish this growth. Hasidism suggests that it is possible to reach a close relationship with God through song and joy rather than only through more formal.

Shabbat another word for the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week reserved for rest and worship; for Jews, the Sabbath is on Saturday. Hasidic Jews prefer to use Yiddish as an everyday language, believing that the use of Hebrew, the original language of the Jewish people, is a holy tongue; to use Hebrew in an ordinary classroom would desecrate God's name. Reuven's Modern Orthodox sect, however, uses Hebrew in its classrooms.

Brownstones residential buildings made of reddish-brown sandstone, common in urban areas. Spanish Civil War Starting as a military insurrection, this war lasted from until , involved Italy and Germany on the side of the fascist insurrectionists, and brought General Francisco Franco to power. Earlocks hair grown long at the temples. Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men obey the Torah precept that directs, "You shall not clip your hair at the temples or mar the edges of your beard.

You shall not lacerate your bodies for the dead or tattoo any marks upon yourselves" Leviticus We must search within ourselves and within our understanding of human behavior to recognize what such pauses communicate.

Who or what is chosen in the book? Which is more desirable: to be chosen or to make a choice? Both Danny and Reuven fulfill their duty by studying Jewish liturgy, and they derive great pleasure from Jewish traditions. At the same time, both protagonists feel the burden of being Jewish—the burden of being a member of a persecuted minority. Reuven is saddened by the loss of lives during the Holocaust, and Danny struggles with the Hasidic tradition he was born into.

This lack of control has both positive and negative effects on the characters. Danny struggles to choose his life path rather than have it chosen for him. Danny is not only born into a religion; he is born into a very demanding culture with a strict set of customs and expectations. To Danny, being chosen is especially cumbersome, because his lifestyle and education are limited by the rules of his culture. As a Hasid, he cannot choose his wife, and as a tzaddik, he cannot choose his profession.

When lots of people from lots of places converge in a single place — say, the New York area — a rapid exchange of ideas is bound to go down. These rapid exchanges can create conflict on many levels. In The Chosen , we see this mostly in the relationship between Danny and the Reb.

Yet, Danny wants to open his arms to America and the world. In the end, as their understanding of where they are in space and time increases, father and son, after generous helpings of turmoil, reach a compromise which opens their eyes even more.

The war and the events leading up to it are part of what caused the massive waves of immigration The Chosen describes.

But, most of the action in The Chosen happens after the war ends.