Chosen By Potok Essays - The Chosen, The Promise,

Chosen By Potok Malter's Development in The Chosen One of the most emotional scenes from Chaim Potok's The Chosen is when Reuven goes with Danny Saunders to talk to his father. Danny has a great mind and wants to use it to study psychology, not become a Hasidic tzaddik. The two go into Reb Saunders' study to explain to him what is going to happen, and before Danny can bring it up, his father does. Reb Saunders explains to the two friends that he already known that Reuven is going to go for his smicha and Danny, who is in line to become the next tzaddik of his people, will not. This relates to the motif of "Individuality" and the theme of "Danny's choice of going with the family dynasty or to what his heart leads him." The most developing character from the novel is Reuven Malter. One of the ways that he developes in the novel is in hus understanding of friendship. His friendship with D\fanny Saunders is encouraged by his father, but he is wary of it at first because Danny is a Hasid, and regards regular Orthodox Jews as apikorsim because of the teachings of his father. Reuven goes from not being able to have a civil conversation with Danny to becoming his best friend with whom he spens all of his free time, studies Talmud and goes to college. Reuven truly grows because he leans, as his father says, what it is to be a friend. Another way that Reuven grows is that he learns to appreciate different people and their ideas. He starts out hating Hasidim because it's the "pious" thing to do, even though his father (who I see as the Atticus Finch of this novel) keeps telling him that it's okay to disagree with ideas, but hating a person because of them is intolerable. Through his friendship with Danny, studies with Reb Saunders, brief crush on Danny's sister (who was never given a name), and time spent in the Hasidic community, he learns that Hasids are people too with their own ideas and beliefs that are as valuable as his. He learns why they think, act, speak, and dress the way that they do and comes to grips with the fact that he doesn't have a monopoly on virtue. A third way in which Reuven grows, though the book doesn't really talk about it a great deal, is in his appreciation of life, or cha'im in Hebrew. He almost loses his vision, his father nearly works himself to death, six million Jews are butchered in Europe, and Danny's brother's poor health threatens Danny's choice to not become a tzaddik. When his eye is out of order he can't read, and indeed does remark that it's very difficult to live without reading, especially with a voracious appetite for learning such as his. His father almost dies twice and he talks about how difficult it is to live all alone in silence (which is a metaphor alluding to Danny's everyday life) for the month while his father is in the hospital. He sees Reb Saunders and his father feeling the suffering of the six million dead, Saunders by crying and being silent, David Malter by working for the creation of a Jewish state and being a leader in the movement, in addition to teaching at a yeshiva and adult education classes. And of course Danny is very worried by his brother's illness (hemophillia?) because if he dies it will be even harded for Danny to turn down his tzaddikship. By the end of the book, Reuven Malter is a very changed character. Potok is an expert with using allusion and metaphor. Very subtly throughout the book he uses this for the purposes of renforcing his points, foreshadowing, and to make the book a better read when you've read it previously and know the outcome. One example of this, one that I missed the first time I read the book in 7th grade is the paragraph at the end of chapter nine where Reuven is sitting on his porch and sees a fly trapped in a spider's web with the arachnid builder approaching. He blows on the fly, first softly, and then more harshly, and the fly is free and safe from the danger of the spider. This is a metaphor to Danny being trapped in the "filmy, almost invisible strands of the web" (165) that is a metaphor for the Hasidic clan that has Danny somewhat captured and expected

Ceramic Definition and Chemistry

Ceramic Definition and Chemistry The word ceramic comes from the Greek word keramikos, which means of pottery. While the earliest ceramics were pottery, the term encompasses a large group of materials, including some pure elements. A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid, generally based on an oxide, nitride, boride, or carbide, that is fired at a high temperature. Ceramics may be glazed prior to firing to produce a coating that reduces porosity and has a smooth, often colored surface. Many ceramics contain a mixture of ionic and covalent bonds between atoms. The resulting material may be crystalline, semi-crystalline, or vitreous. Amorphous materials with similar composition are generally termed glass. The four main types of ceramics are whitewares, structural ceramics, technical ceramics, and refractories. Whitewares include cookware, pottery, and wall tiles. Structural ceramics include bricks, pipes, roofing tiles, and floor tiles. Technical ceramics are also know as special, fine, advanced, or engineered ceramics. This class includes bearings, special tiles (e.g. spacecraft heat shielding), biomedical implants, ceramic brakes, nuclear fuels, ceramic engines,  and ceramic coatings. Refractories are ceramics used to make crucibles, line kilns, and radiate heat in gas fireplaces. How Ceramics Are Made Raw materials for ceramics include clay, kaolinate, aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, tungsten carbide, and certain pure elements. The raw materials are combined with water to form a mix that can be shaped or molded. Ceramics are difficult to work after they are made, so usually they are shaped into their final desired forms. The form is allowed to dry and is fired in an oven called a kiln. The firing process supplies the energy to form new chemical bonds in the material (vitrification) and sometimes new minerals (e.g., mullite forms from kaolin in the firing of porcelain). Waterproof, decorative, or functional glazes may be added prior to the first firing or may require a subsequent firing (more common). The first firing of a ceramic yields a product called the bisque. The first firing burns off organics and other volatile impurities. The second (or third) firing may be called glazing. Examples and Uses  of Ceramics Pottery, bricks, tiles, earthenware, china, and porcelain are common examples of ceramics. These materials are well-known for use in building, crafting, and art. There are many other ceramic materials: In the past, glass was considered a ceramic, because its an inorganic solid that is fired and treated much like a ceramic. However, because glass is an amorphous solid, glass is usually considered to be a separate material. The ordered internal structure of ceramics plays a large role in their properties.Solid pure silicon and carbon may be considered to be ceramics. In a strict sense, a diamond could be called a ceramic.Silicon carbide and tungsten carbide are technical ceramics that have high abrasion resistance, making them useful for body armor, wear plates for mining, and machine components.Uranium oxide (UO2 is a ceramic used as a nuclear reactor fuel.Zirconia (zirconium dioxide) is used to make ceramic knife blades, gems, fuel cells, and oxygen sensors.Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a semiconductor.Boron oxide is used to make body armor.Bismuth strontium copper oxide and magnesium diboride (MgB2) are superconductors.Steatite (magnesium silicate) is used as an electrical insulator.Barium titanate is used to make heating elements, capacitors, transducers, and data storage elements. Ceramic artifacts are useful in archaeology and paleontology because their chemical composition can be used to identify their origin. This includes not only the composition of clay, but also that of the temper the materials added during production and drying. Properties of Ceramics Ceramics include such a wide variety of materials that its difficult to generalize their characteristics. Most ceramics exhibit the following properties: High hardnessUsually brittle, with poor toughnessHigh melting pointChemical resistancePoor electrical and thermal conductivityLow ductilityHigh modulus of elasticityHigh compression strengthOptical transparency to a variety of wavelengths Exceptions include superconducting and piezoelectric ceramics. Related Terms The science of the preparation and characterization of ceramics is called ceramography. Composite materials are made up of more than one class of material, which may include ceramics. Examples of composites include carbon fiber and fiberglass. A cermet is a type of composite material containing ceramic and metal. A glasss of glass-ceramics include glass stove tops and the glass composite used to bind nuclear waste for disposal.