As Chaim Potok's novel The Promise began to come to an end, the great integrity of the main character, Reuven Mater, only began to strengthen. The constant duress he was under throughout the course of the novel was enough to cripple any man, let alone a young and somewhat inexperienced student, and yet he prevailed in handling every problem put in his path with grace and unmatched composure.
Every person faces problems in their life, and often never get a break from handling them. However, when considering what Reuven was faced with in a period of less than a year, he took that statement to an all-new level. In the time the novel took place, he was put up against dating the daughter of his "enemy", shielding himself from the slander written about his father's controversial book, dealing with a professor who disagreed with many of his religious ways, being the only friend of a catatonic boy, and helping a family through an unbearably difficult time. On top of this, he was studying to become a Rabbi and striving for a masters in theology. Potok surrounded his main character with all of these conflicts in order to not only build the plot, but also to build Reuven into a character that the reader can respect and trust as the first-person narrator of the novel. This element of trust and respect is essential for the novel to strive because without it, the great feat that the narrator performs at the end of the novel might seem exaggerated and therefore unbelievable. If the reader were unable to believe him, then the main themes of the book (the conflicts created through religion) would not be able to be received as well as they were.
However, on the other side of this, Potok had to be careful in not making what Reuven did seem impossible. This would have worked greatly towards discrediting the narrator after he had already been built up. Fortunately, Potok found a solid medium, thus creating a credible character who became the basis for this novel's success.