FATHER-SON RELATIONSHIP AS PORTRAYED IN CHAIM POTOK’S THE CHOSEN

Abstract

A novelist and Rabbi, Chaim Potok was born in 1929, in the New York City.He graduated in English Literature and later received his Ph.D in philosophy from the university of Pennsylvania. He penned nearly nine novels and his first novel is The Chosen. Relationship is an important bond in life that evokes varied feelings like love, hatred, joy and anger. Among the many relationships. Father-Son relationship is an important one in man’s life. It is pure and the father wishes to make his progenies as his soul representative that he will leave in the world after his death. This paper aims to highlight the father-son relationship as portrayed in the novel The Chosen. This novel brings out the two types of fathers, one using language to communicate and the other communicating through silence. Judee K Burgoon’s Expectancy Violaitons Theory helps to analyse the aspect of silence that prevails betweent eh protagonists and his father.