The Chosen, My name is Asher Lev, In the Beginning, and The Book of Lights :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Assimilation and the the Statesn Jew in Potoks The Chosen, My name is Asher Lev, In the Beginning, and The intensity of Lights. America has always been a democracy of immigrants, since it was first settled by Europeans over five hundred years ago. Like any country with a considerable immigrant population, American has always faced the problem of assimilation. Because America was founded and settled by immigrants, her refining is a combination of the cultures of other countries. Should these immigrants specify themselves from the mainstream American culture, or should they sacrifice the culture of their homelands for the benefits American culture has to cite? Judaism in particular has had to deal with the assimilation question. One of the worlds oldest religions, it has remained strong over its six thousand year history by remaining distinct and isolated from other cultures. Chaim Potok focuses on how Orthodox and Hasidic Jews have handled this problem in his books The Chosen , My name is Asher Lev, In the Beginning, and The Book of Lights. umteen of Chaim Potoks characters want the American Jewry to remain isolated from the mainstream American culture The world kills us The world flays our skin from our bodies and throws us into the flames The world laughs at Torah And if it does not kill us, it tempts us It misleads us It contaminates us It asks us to tie in in its ugliness, its abominations (The Chosen 127) The Chosen deals with the problems Jews have faced in trying to preserve their heritage in particular, the problem of how to deal with the danger of assimilation (Young). The Jews have always been professionals occupying jobs in medicine, law, education, and other fields requiring a college degree. American Jews, however, face a dilemma Ideas from this layperson world inevitably infringe upon an individual born in a church community or a synagogue community, especially when that individual embarks on a college acknowledge (Potok 2). America n Jews must either take on nonprofessional jobs, assume an identity completely different from that of European Jews, or expose themselves to secular America. Isolation is thoroughly impractical for the American Jew. Chaim Potoks works practically focus on main characters whose talents draw them to the outside world When individuals are brought up in the heart of such a community or culture as Dannys and Reuvens did in The Chosen they learn to commit themselves to its set They see the world through the system of values of that unique community.