The Chosen Visions of America Quotes

This aspect of American life is completely foreign to Reuven at the start of the novel, but as a result of his friendship with Danny, his vision of America expands to include people whom he doesn’t understand.

David Malter has a beautiful vision of America. It’s also a little idealistic. The novel doesn’t get into it, but being a Jew in 1944 in America wasn’t necessarily easy. Today, things are much better, partly due to the fact that men like David dared to dream.

The irony here is that restrictive American immigration policies during World War II contributed the destruction of American Jewry. Yet, David’s passion, his vision of America, is the kind of vision that inspired American Jews to make the most of the U.S. and make many great contributions.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a big part of David and Reuven’s vision of America. David is afraid that, without Roosevelt, things will go back to the way they were during the Depression. Roosevelt was also regarded as "the friend of the Jews." This impression faded considerably when people began to feel that Roosevelt didn’t do enough to help the Jews of Europe during the Holocaust.

Here we have a mutual broadening of vision. Tony and Reuven appear foreign to each other at first, but, through conversation, their differences fade.

Freud is part of Reuven and Danny’s vision of America. Reuven is complimenting Danny in his teasing. He’s acknowledging that reading Freud is hard. And, this reminds us that seeing America clearly is hard, too, because America includes things that seem foreign, like Freud.

Reuven doesn’t talk about this any further, but it presents a frightening vision of America.

Danny eyes are so bright because, now, he can find his own vision of America and the world. The light in his eyes is shining out onto the future.