Perspective (by Esther Carey)

While describing Reuven’s time in the hospital, Chaim Potok makes several comments pertaining to how one’s perspective affect what one believes.

The first instance seems very simple – Reuven wakes up and tries to figure out what day it is. He cannot know for sure until he is told by someone else. In other words, he must look to some outside source. Likewise, we cannot always discover the solutions to our problems by using only our own knowledge and experience. We need an objective truth point outside of ourselves. For Christians, that is God and His Word. Without that reference frame, we cannot truly know anything.

Second is Reuven’s predicament while in the hospital: he does not have his glasses. As a result, everything beyond a certain point is merely a confused blur. Our lives can sometimes be the same way: an indistinct haze about which we understand little. I think that a correlation can be drawn between sin and such spiritual vision problems. Our humanness (and our sinful nature) causes us to be near sighted. We can only see the immediate surroundings. Only when we put on our Biblical world view glasses (to borrow from Ken Ham’s illustration) does the fog of our lives become focused in relation to God’s plan.

Lastly is the situation between Reuven and Danny. Initially, they hate each other because they see only the surface of each other’s lives, and they draw the wrong conclusions from the limited amount that they see. As Reuven’s father says “Things are always what they seem to be, Reuven? Since when?” This ties into the parable Dr. Stratman included in his post last week. When we look at another person’s life, we only see the outward struggles. Before we leap to conclusions, we should try to get to know them in order to understand what they are going through inside.

The "hooks" of life

Don't forget to read the epigraph on the page before Book One. Potok includes this short proverb from Karl A. Menninger (famous psychiatrist):

"When a trout rising to a fly gets hooked on a line and finds himself unable to swim about freely, he begins with a fight which results in struggles and splashes and sometimes an escape. Often, of course, the situation is too tough for him. In the same way the human being struggles with his environment and with the hooks that catch him. Sometimes he masters his difficulties; sometimes they are too much for him. His struggles are all that the world sees and it naturally misunderstands them. It is hard for a free fish to understand what is happening to a hooked one."

Most of the time, authors use epigraphs to introduce themes to the reader that he/she is most likely to explore in the book. One of the primary themes of this novel revolves around how characters navigate their tradition with the modern world. Both Danny and Reuven are caught by many of life's "hooks." Watch how they struggle with those ideological, spiritual, and emotional battles. Then, ask yourself these questions: how do you respond to new ideas, especially those that seem to oppose what you already know to be true? How do you react when you get caught by a "hook?" As you read "The Chosen," think about whether you relate more with Danny's story or with Reuven's story? Where do you fit in this narrative?

Lastly, I want to encourage you to enter the essay contest this year. The writing prompt asks you to create an essay on this very topic. The prompt is below:

"A major theme of Chaim Potok’s The Chosen is the simultaneous appeal and danger of new ideas. How should a Christian university deal with the ideas of thinkers who are, to Christians, “goyim”? How do we balance devotion to our faith with exploration of new ideas?"

Our student bloggers start writing next Monday. They are a mix of in-coming freshmen and upper classmen; men and women; and avid readers and reluctant readers. Join them in dialogue; leave lots of comments.

happy reading,
Dr. Jake Stratman

Welcome to JBU Reads

In a previous life, I taught English at Glendale High School in Springfield, MO. For several years, I assigned Chaim Potok's The Chosen. What surprised me, initially, was that my students were unable to see any connections between the characters' lives and their own: the characters are Jewish and most of my students were not; the characters live in New York and my students did not; the novel is set during WWII and we were reading in the twenty-first century. As a teacher, I had to do a lot of cheerleading and judo tricks to convince my students that The Chosen would be one of the most "human" books they would ever read. So, my hope for you is that you do not get bogged down with petty differences. Try to find yourself in this novel; be open to how this book may change the way you think about your parents, God, education, and the friendships you will cultivate here at JBU.

Please come back to this blog weekly. Each Monday throughout the summer, there will be a different student blogging his/her reading experience. Leave comments. And, if you become interested in joining the bloggers, just send me an email.

Happy Reading,
Dr. Jake Stratman