Silence In Chaim Potok's The Chosen

In Orfield Laboratories, Minnesota there exists a room known as an anechoic chamber. Anechoic means free from echoes, the room measures at -9 decibels. 45 minutes marks the longest time anyone has spent in there alone. Lacking outside noises, the quietude of the room allows those inside to hear their own internal organs; occasionally hallucinations occur. The chamber amplifies an unknown fear, dead silence and extreme loneliness. Like many things, silence has a multitude of advantages, but extreme silence can prove devastation. In Chaim Potok’s The Chosen silence as a theme demonstrates destructivity. Devastation caused by silence is shown through Reb’s parenting methods, Danny’s silence between his father, and Reuven’s various experiences with silence.

“When I was very

young, my father, may he rest in peace, began to wake me in the middle of the night, just so I could cry.” (284) At the end of the book, Reb Saunders enlightens the reader for his reasoning behind his parental silence. Reb’s had a brilliant brother just like Danny, but he was not raised like Reb in silence, and he strayed from his Hasidic roots and died in a Gas Chamber. To assure history didn’t repeat itself, Reb raised Danny through silence hoping to insure the survival of his dynasty. He sees his brilliant son with a great mind, but no soul; convinced that through silence it will force Danny to mature, Reb is metaphorically absent. Aware of Danny’s desire to become a psychologist, Reb respected his decision. His son would not be a tsaddik to his followers, but a tsaddik to the world.

Danny experiences silence from both his father and best friend, both forced upon him by his father. Danny’s father believes a tsaddik must feel the suffering of others, and will do so through silence. Reb believes through silence Danny will look for the answers in his own soul. Because he is unable to come to his father for the answers, he looks to Freud and spends hours in the silent library studying his work. Reb plays no part in Danny’s life aside from mentoring him to take over and keep the dynasty. Eventually Danny accepts silence as a fact of life as shown when Reuven jokes about how a tsaddik sits in silence, and his followers listen. “There’s more truth to that than you realize…... I’ve begun to realize you can listen to silence and learn from it.” (267)

In the beginning of the book Reuven sees silence as a foreign concept, until he experiences it first-hand.

A silence exists between Reuven and Danny’s fathers as they never actually speak to each other, instead Reuven acts as the middleman between them. Reb Saunder’s gut reaction upon hearing David Malter’s speech on Zionism is to split Danny and Reuven like an atom, and a nuclear reaction occurs. Reuven wants to get into fights and scream at the anti-Zionists, and after his father’s heart attack Reuven has no one. “For the first few days the total silence inside the hospital was impossible for me to take….my schoolwork began to suffer.” (243) In his lonely apartment he labors studying the Talmud hoping one day that Rav Garshenson will call upon him in class to exhibit his knowledge and break the silence. Even Reuven’s father is silent when asked about the reasoning between the silence between Reb and Danny. Showing his dislike towards Reb, Reuven gives Reb the silent treatment by repeatedly declining invitations come over on the Shabbat. Silence is an unimaginable concept to Reuven, but it becomes a reality when only his thoughts accompany him due to the absence of his father and best

friend.

Like many things, silence has a multitude of advantages, but extreme silence can prove devastation. Reb’s obsession with silence deprived him a true relationship with his son, and his son a true father. Danny couldn’t look to his father for advice so instead he turned to Freud. Reuven realized how truly miserable one can feel in the absence of noise. Silence remains an underrated fear, not given a thought until it hits The silence on the other end of the phone when bad news is delivered. When silence has to break between two friends, but neither can bring themselves to break it. Like a cocoon silence must be broken before change can occur.