Davita's Harp Summary
Chaim Potok

Davita's Harp Summary

Dauita's Harp is one of the few books in the largely masculine tradition of American literature to deal with the quest for female identity. It is also Potok's first novel depicting those issues peculiar to growing up female in the twin patriarchies of both American and Jewish mainstream culture. A reviewer in the Detroit News hailed Dauita's Harp as "a warm, decent, generous and patient exploration of important issues facing Jewish women today." It is also a very human account of growing up female in any culture in which women's roles are severely limited; Potok deals with Davita's struggle to find a place for herself as a female in the ritual worship of Jewish orthodoxy and her struggle to gain both a religious and secular education. Particularly poignant is her struggle to find any suitable female role models among all of the failed female lives and heroic male...

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