Final Essay on The Chosen

The Chosen Final Essay Prompts

To synthesize your learning about The Chosen, you are invited to write an in-depth essay. Please select ONE of these prompts for your final essay. Your essay will need to be longer than a five paragraph essay, but should still use what we have learned about effective academic essay writing:

·        Academic, 3^rd person voice

·        Introduction with hook, background on the novel and topic of the essay, and thesis statement (thesis will NOT have 3 “becauses”)

·        Body paragraphs should use the four-part quotation analysis format:

1.     Claim

2.     Background on Quotation: Who is speaking, to whom, at what point in the story, about what?

3.     Quotation

4.     Commentary on quotation: several sentences explaining the significance of the quotation

·        MLA format, typed, Times New Roman size 12 font

·        Editing for spelling and grammar

·        Transition sentences between body paragraphs

·        Conclusion reviewing your main points and explaining how your thesis changes the way we understand the central messages of The Chosen.

 

1.     What is Potok saying about silence in The Chosen? In terms of silence, compare and contrast the father-son relationships of Danny and Reuven. What experiences help Reuven come to understand the value and the pain of silence? (Explore in depth 2-3 specific experiences Reuven has with silence and how they enlarge his understanding of silence.)  What is the significance of Reb Saunders’ final conversation with Reuven? How are the boys’ experiences with silence and their fathers a microcosm of God’s silence in the Holocaust? By the end of the novel, how has his understanding of silence changed or deepened?

 

 

2.     What is Potok saying by including microcosms in The Chosen? Explore each of the following microcosms:

·        The ballgame and WWII

·        Insects and the human condition/Holocaust

·        Boys’ father-son relationships and man’s relationship with God (Caution: In discussing this topic, do NOT impose LDS beliefs on these Jewish characters.)

How do these microcosms reveal the central message(s) of the novel?

 

3.     What is Potok saying through the friendship of Danny and Reuven in The Chosen? What does Danny need/learn from Reuven and what does Reuven need/learn from Danny? Explore the symbolism of eyes, blindness, and glasses in the novel. How do these symbols help us understand how Danny and Reuven are changing and how they are affecting each other? How are Danny and Reuven like the left and right eyes? If Reuven represents more Westernized Jewish Orthodoxy and Danny represents Hasidism, then what is Potok saying about these divisions within Judaism? How might Potok’s message about friendship apply to broader historical events such as WWII or Zionism?