Too many people in the world will go through life and never understand how fortunate they are. Children and adults alike take advantage of the things and abilities that they possess. In The Chosen by Chaim Potok, Reuven Malter, a boy raised as an Orthodox Jew is a part of many ill-fated situations and as a result, is able to appreciate the things that he has been blessed with for his entire life. After Reuven is almost blinded by a baseball, nearly loses his best friend, and sees his father overtaken by illness and fatigue, he comes to understand how fortunate he is. His father, David Malter tells him, "No one knows he is fortunate until he becomes unfortunate." By including this common maxim, Potok is telling the world that it takes a brush with misfortune for a person to truly discover and value the things that God...