Wisdom and Pain found in Silence from the 1981 film The Chosen Essay

Wisdom and Pain found in Silence from the 1981 film The Chosen - Essay Example The last section of the discussion will be drawn upon from the previous points in amplifying them into an evidential conclusion. It will then explain with reason the different sides of the argument of raising a child in silence. Reb Saunders believed that he should raise Danny how he was raised by his father. His father taught him about the suffering of the Jews, but later taught him only through silence. Through not speaking to him, he was forced to look inside himself and to find his own strength. The idea was that a person learns about the pain of others by suffering their own pain. His father also told him that a tzaddik (a Hasidic leader) must also know how to suffer for his people. When he raised Danny, he wanted to find a way that he could teach his son, who was so brilliant, about pain, so that he would want to take on the sufferings of another. He did this through withdrawing from him, teaching through silence, so that Danny would find answers for himself. However, raising a child in silence creates questions as to the psychological effects it has on the child. Although Danny and Reb Saunders do not talk, Danny does in fact respect his father. Strangely, Danny does not feel as though his father does not love him. Reb Saunders may in fact love Danny, but it is hard to love, or to feel loved by somebody, if there is no communication on a personal level. Being raised in silence was a literary device invented by the writer of the original book and is not a custom of the Hasidism culture. Reb Saunders believed that it's a curse to have a brilliant son. Danny is all mind and no soul, whereas Reb Saunders thinks that what he needed was a son with heart and compassion. It is possible that these beliefs are derived from the memories of his brother, who was similarly endowed with a powerful mind, but was indifferent to the suffering of others. He died during World War II, in a gas chamber in Auschwitz. The fact that Danny does have a brilliant mind just as his fathers brother did, signifies this point. Reb Saunders is simply trying to help Danny become compassionate before his time is up too. In his mind, he is only doing what he thinks is the right thing to do to make Danny ready for the responsibility of tzaddik. In general, raising a child in silence would lead to a compassionate heart for two reasons. It would allow them to expand their mind and make them think about life in a very dissimilar way to a child who isn't raised this way. It would also limit their life experiences in a way which would create borders and boundaries to the relationships they are involved in. However, this method would certainly not be suited to everyone. Each human being is made quite differently, and there would be various different results and consequences, depending on the child involved. Modern society would also see this method as being very unorthodox and threatening to the child's wellbeing and mental growth capabilities. If a child is raised in silence, the child will become more independent, at the cost of a healthy social life. Opening up to people, and talking about problems will be difficult. Also, a child learns much more about how to interact with others by interacting with his or her parents. If a child is not exposed to this because a parent acts only as a teacher, their social interactions