Reuven and Danny gendered style of friendship correlates masculine friendship. One feature of masculine friendship is the “closeness in the doing” and it is the primary way men build friendship according to a study by Scott Swain. “More than two-thirds of the in Swains study described activities other than talking as the most meaningful times with friends.” (Wood, Fixmer-Oraiz 191) One way these friends demonstrate this “closeness in the doing” is when they spend hours at the library reading. Also, another joint activity was that they spend every Sabbath together being quizzed and talking about the Talmud. Reuven and Danny find closeness in their shared activities of reading and debating, rather than the more common male physical activities.…show more content… “Many men like to do things for people they care about… an exchange of favors that allows each man to hold his own while helping the other.” (Wood, Fixmer-Oraiz 191) The topics of psychoanalysis and mathematics were very distinctive towards these characters. These boys held their area of specialties close to themselves, but they were willing to provide assistance when the other needed help. For example, Reuven helped Danny to understand math logistics for his experimental psychology class. The final masculine feature that Reuven and Danny demonstrated was their use of indirect speech. For men’s friendship “If they mention serious emotional issues, they often engage in ‘joke talk’ (Fisher 2009), which couches serious feelings in humor.” (Wood, Fixmer-Oraiz 191) Danny first used “joke talk” when he visited Reuven in the hospital. Reuven’s eye was still at risk for blindness at this point in the conversation when Danny said: “You were supposed to duck.” (Potok 75) They eventually started to use this phrase when they discussed important and serious
