The Chosen Response
This story is about two Jewish boys growing up living under two completely different types of Judaism. The main character, Reuven, is an Orthodox Jew while the other main character, Danny, is a Hasidic Jew. Both characters lived in New York City during World War II and they were both Jewish but they would have never met if it was not for the baseball game that takes place at the beginning of the story between their two schools. These two characters would have never became friends if Danny would not have hit a line drive right back into the face of Reuven. The blow to the face caused Reuven’s glasses to shatter and a piece of glass to be shot into his eye. After the game he was taken to the hospital to have surgery on his eye to remove the glass. Reuven woke up with a patch on his eye and was not supposed to read or do anything that would strain his eye until the patch came off. This is when Danny and Reuven became friends. Danny decided that he would help Reuven with his school work since he caused him to not be able to read until his eye got better. This is only the first of many challenges that these two boys face throughout the story. One of the challenges that they face soon after their friendship begins is that Reuven’s friends make fun of him for hanging out with the “more holy ones.” The two character’s families differ a lot. Reuven’s family consists of himself and his dad. His dad is a writer and a philosopher. He believes that the Jews should ban together and reclaim their homeland. Danny’s family is bigger. He has a mother and a sister. Danny’s father is a rabbi and believes that the Jews must wait until the savior comes again and then they will reclaim their homeland. These differences cause more conflict between these two boys because their fathers disagree and Danny’s father finds out what Reuven’s father believes. Once that happened Reuven got ex-communicated by the Hasidic Jewish community and Danny is forbidden by his father to see Reuven anymore. This is definitely a hard thing for them to go through considering how good of friends they had become. This story ends in great irony though. Both of these characters had made such an impression on each other’s lives that they go on to become the exact opposite of what the audience expects. Both characters grew up respecting their fathers and for most of the story they both appear to be following in their father’s career footsteps. It was expected that Danny was to become a rabbi and take over his father’s position eventually. As