Reuven's Left Eye example essay topic

Jeremy Leavitt Chaim Potok uses symbolism in The Chosen many different ways. One thing thats symbolic in his book is the reference to the right and left sides of things. Throughout the book this is used to show what the characters are like. First Potok illustrates the point when Reuven's left eye is cut during the baseball game. It is used again at the hospital. Danny and his father also illustrate the right and left hand symbolism.

When Danny hit the ball at Reuven, it hit him in the left eye. When Reuven was inthe hospital strange things happened to him on the elevator. "It looked blurred, and I saw it change color from white to red to black, then back to white". Reuven must have seen things in a different light without the full use of his left eye, which explains why the fluorescent lights in the elevator changed the way they did.

When Reuven woke up in the hospital he could only see through his right eye and the windows he looked at were blurred. More of the symbolism comes out as Reuven begins to familiarize himself with the surroundings of the hospital. Reuven met Tony Savo, on the bed to his left. Mr. Savo was a prizefighter, and had been clopped enough to get him to the hospital.

Mr. Savo " right eye had a patch on it. Mr. Savo says that the world is crazy and cockeyed. He tells Reuven to watch out for himself because the world is cockeyed. Because Mr. Savo only views the world through his left eye it appears cockeyed. The symbolism in this shows left to be worldly and cautious.

To Reuven's right side is Billy. Billy is blind. He is a small, fragile looking boy which portrays the innocence he has. Because Billy can't see out of either eye he doesn " t know of the world and is not affected by it. The symbolism portrayed here shows that theright is associated with innocence and good. When Danny comes to visit Reuven in the hospital, the two of them leave to go talk in the hall.

Danny begins t play with his right ear lock using his right hand. He seemed to be very absorbed in something, then he noticed that he was doing it and he quit. "It's funny", he said. "It's really funny. I have to be a rabbi and don't want to be one, you don't have to be a rabbi and do want to be one. It's a crazy world".

Here Danny is illustrating his desire to learn of the world, but he is restricted because of his religious obligations, the right things to do. Danny told Reuven how he studies Talmud and that he has a photographic memory. He also told Reuven about taking trips to the library in secret to learn about psychology and not anger his father immensely. Danny's world is completely of the right side, isolated in his Hasidic community, with the pressures of becoming the next tzaddik. Danny wants to expand his knowledge by studying psychology and other things not associated with Talmud, or left sided things.

When Reuven was let out of the hospital, he was allowed to use his glasses, but hew as not allowed to read. "The world jumped into focus and everything looked suddenly bright and fresh and clean, as it does on an early morning with the sun on the trees, and there was a newness everywhere, a feeling that I had been away a long time in a dark place and was now returning home to sunlight". Reuven was deprived of the sight in his left eye and couldn't see the world in the right light, he lost the balance necessary to view the world properly. Once out of the hospital he could see, but wasn't able to read, which still shut him off from the world. After being shut off from the world for a week, Reuven noticed things he hadn't before. "The hydrangea bush - or snowball bush, as we called it - on our lawn glowed in the sunlight and I stared at it.

I had never really paid attention to it before. Now it seemed suddenly luminous and alive". This shows how Reuven has realized for himself that the accident had brought about change in him. When Reuven went to his synagogue he saw his fellow classmates, and he thought about what it would be like to be blind, Reuven couldn't comprehend it. After the services Reuven was staring at the sky and noticed the blue.

It was the same color as Danny " eyes, which were the same color as the innocent little Billy's eyes. Danny is being associated to the little boy to the right of Reuven in the Hospital. When Reuven went to Danny's synagogue, Danny's younger brother sat to hisfather's left and Danny and Reuven to the right. This may have been because Danny was next in line to become tzaddik and his little brother was therefore inferior to him which is the reason he sat to the left of Reb Saunders and Danny sat to the right.

Like the Saunders brothers, When Reuven went to Danny's house to have Talmud wars he would sit to the left of Reb Saunders and Danny would sit to the right. This is symbolic of how Reb Saunders knows that Danny is favored more and is more religious than Reuven, not a Hasid. One day Reuven received a phone call from Billy's father. Reuven asked him ifBilly's operation went well and Billy's father said that it had not. Reuven then asked if he could visit Billy, and Billy's dad said that he had moved away. Reuven suddenly remembered Mr. Savo and the crazy, cockeyed world.

Out of Reuven's left eye he saw a fly trapped by a spider on a web. This is symbolic of Billy's situation. Billy was trapped by his blindness, and when someone attempted to alter his blindness it didn't work and he moved away. Just like Billy the fly was trapped and Reuven blew the web away and the fly disappeared. This is also symbolic of Danny's situation. Danny is trapped by his father and the fact that he will someday have to take over as tzaddik.

But when Danny alters his situation by studying psychology and going to college he disappears as a Hasidic tzaddik and becomes a tzaddik to the world and a follower of the commandments. Also Danny " 's eyesight grows worse and worse as he studied psychology and the glasses he used had little affect. He may have been going blind, closer to the right like Billy, and not the left after all. This symbolism can also help to describe Reb Saunders situation. Reb Saunders i strapped by his son's brilliant mind.

When he tries to change his son by raising him in silence he loses his son. Perhaps Danny lived his life viewing the world through his right eye only and no whe is beginning to restore the balance so that he can see things in a new light. "Danny nodded, his eyes glowing, luminous". Danny's eyes are described exactly the same way as the snowball bush in Reuven's front yard.

This obviously represents the fact that Danny is now seeing things he had not seen before. And he was being seen as never seen before, with no beard or ear locks. In conclusion, Reuven may have been illustrated at the left for more than one reason. The left provides balance for the right, an opposition. Danny was chosen as an opposition to his father and Reuven was chosen as an opposition to them both. Reuven atthe left helped Reb Saunders understand why his son was doing the things he was.

Theright represents life devoted to one thing, in Reb Saunders case Talmud, and the left represents the worldly things such as Freud and deductive logic, which includes the right but also has a balance. Perhaps this is the major difference between the Has ids and theapikorism. Although they have harsh differences they need each other to survive. 351.