Brothers,
So, here we are: the last blog of the year (I think). First Huck Finn, now Holden Caulfield of Catcher in the Rye fame.
What'd you think? In at least 400 words, tell us what's up. Be sure to incorporate some aspect of literary analysis into your essay. In other words, is there any literary technique that stands out as meaningful to you in reading and understanding the novel?
Or what do you make of Holden's vocational vision? What do you make of the characters themselves? What do you make of the symbolism, imagery, irony, etc. ?
BRob
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
The Catcher in the Rye: Don't be phony, what do you really think?
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6 comments:
Holden’s vocation vision is that he would like to save children who have fallen over the edge after being blinded to where the cliff of innocence ends. This can be seen in how he attempts to remove the “fuck you” messages that are located in Phoebe’s school as he feels that upon seeing them the children will lose their innocence and there are plenty of children at risk of seeing the messages. This whole concept of Holden trying to maintain other’s innocence and claiming he himself is innocent is at its core hypocrisy. This can be seen in how Holden swears all the time and think of having intercourse with women. He even tried to order a sort of prostitute over to his apartment just to get a cheap thrill. Not to mention the thoughts he has about older women such as the parent on the bus and the blonde in the bar. Holden also claims that phonies are the main cause for all the troubles in society yet he is one himself. This confused perception of reality and claiming that one is a sort of savior by saving the world from phonies is probably why the killer of John Lennon, Mark David Chapman, and the attempted killer of Ronald Reagan, John Hinckley Jr. carried the book on hand when they committed their crimes. This blurred sense of reality probably is the reason he is possible put in a mental home at the closing of the novel. Personally I feel he probably got this way because he was traumatized by his brothers death and felt he must do his job and prevent anymore children like him from dying.
The character of Mr. Altman seems to be that of a disturbing reminder to why a person like Holden feels hatred toward society. He appears to be a real person and a hero that Holden can relate to but he just turns out to be another phony just like all the rest.
The character of Stradlater represents a part of society that Holden hates the part that won’t do its own work and still is getting farther in life than him who he feels works harder and is deserving of much more respect. This is probably just because of his jealousy which leads him to just come to the decision that society is wrong and that Stradlater is deserving of less than himself.
The Catcher in the Rye is a superbly written, entrancing novel that keeps you reading from start to finish. This story is written in first person narration which helps to give you a much more personal sense of everything that has occurred in the narrator’s life. It causes the reader to become almost emotionally attached and sympathetic with the main character Holden. Throughout the novel you can feel his emotion as he embarks on a journey from his ritzy private boarding school to all around New York City, after getting kicked out because he never applies himself to school. As the novel progresses you are exposed to a much deeper plot than is apparent. Not only is main character Holden embarking on a physical journey from his school to New York, he is also beginning an emotional journey of acceptance which he never seems to have had at his school. Due to the narration being from Holden himself you can see what is truly driving his actions and decisions throughout the novel.
This novel is essentially a telling of several events that define Holden’s maturing. Although throughout the novel he never states it, Holden is clearly searching for acceptance within the world. He calls many people he knows and talks to many different people throughout the novel in attempt to become close with someone. It seems that since he had been attending The Pencey School he had not truly connected with anyone and was becoming a very lonely person. Another major plot point in the novel is Holden’s adolescent curiosity about his sexuality. It seems as though he feels if he has sexual relations with a girl it will cure him of his loneliness, but when he hires a prostitute he realizes that it is a relationship he is searching for and not just physical stimulation. Holden’s lost innocence in the novel creates sympathetic feelings in the reader as the story progresses.
The main moral I took from this story was conveyed in Holden decision to stay when he saw his little sister riding the carousel. I felt that that moment in the story summed up the entire books message. It showed that no matter how lost a person is in life, and how difficult things are that there is always good in this world no matter how bad things get. Caulfield’s The Catcher in The Rye is a well written book with a strong message and a captivating plot.
The Cathcher in the Rye is a good novel im my opion. It kept my interest however i found the way it ended to be a little strange. It was the first book that i have read that ended with Holden saying i dont feel liek tellling the story anymore so im going to stop.
I liked the fact that i could feel as if Holden was a person who could be in my life. The author painted a vivid picture in my mind about Holden. Because the story was told in the first person by the narrorater and protaginist, Houlden Caulfeild. It gives me a look into what he deals with in his own mind. It is evident that he hate people who are phony and they bother him. It is ironic because i think he talks about all the people that bother him in society when i belive he is using that to cover up the fact that he is still trying to be accepted by these same phony people that are bothersome to him.
A central theme that is found in the novel is the theme of lonliness. Holden talks about that if he is with this girl he wont be lonly but tht is not true.
At the climax of the novel, the carosel scnece, it shows that even with all tht can go wrong in someones life and how that person struggles that you can alwasy do good.
After reading the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, I did not really like it. Although it gets across that Holden wants to help children, he seems to me that he isn’t capable of it and can barely take car of himself let alone the children that surround his daily life. I also did not like the novel because Holden set a bad impression for people and then wondered why people did not like him that much, for example he went through the different schools after being expelled from Pencey Prep for failing FOUR subjects. Another reason why I did not like this novel was because of how Holden got in a scuffle with his roommate at Pencey over going out with his friend, Jane. If Holden’s friend likes Jane then theirs nothing he can do about it Holden should have just let it go. Holden to me came off as someone who did not like other people getting close to the people who were closest to him. Holden I think unappreciated his roommate who seemed to me looked out for Holden just like Mr. Spencer looked out for Holden. The only good thing I got from this novel was how well written it was. Other than that though I did not understand the central theme of the novel and in a whole I did not have a care for this book.
The character Holden Caulfield is a cynical teenager who is really only looking out for himself. He does not want to do work in school and he does not want to be hassled by daily life. He gets through life by lying to people and doing generally weird things just to entertain himself and he has a dream of running away from all his problems and worries to go “out west.”
I really liked the novel overall. It is very entertaining to read Holden Caulfield’s story, when he is the one telling it, ensuring that we, as the readers, see what is really happening and not just what Holden wants others to see is happening. His constant string of lies is vastly entertaining and his hidden commentary about people and their habits, such as his comparison between his roommate Stradlater and their neighbor Ackler’s hygiene, are intriguing to see in contrast to the way that he addresses them and interacts.
Another aspect of the novel that I liked is Holden’s free lifestyle, he seems to be freely roaming about New York City as if he was on top of the world, and he always seems to be in control of the situation due to his deceitfulness. I also enjoyed his specific commentary on the museum. He makes a wonderful point when he states that he likes the museum because every time you leave it, you change and age and all that, and then you go back and everything there is still intact and the same. This notion that he has is reassuring to him and me personally.
One scene that I was particularly intrigued by was the scene in which he gets a prostitute to be sent to him and then when Sunny, the woman, gets there he does not respond very well to her sexual advances. I think that this scene shows us that Holden really is not the suave, mature character that he might try to make himself seem like and he is still a young, insecure teenage boy.
Overall, the Catcher in the Rye is a fantastic about one boy’s journey through a big city where he realizes a lot about himself, society, and culture. I really liked this book and it was somewhat inspiring due to the ages of the character’s and my own’s coincidence.
I liked the novel because it made me think about alot of different things. Holden vision to be the catcher in the rye is very interesting because he wants to keep children from becoming adults. However, he gets mad at "Fuck you" written on the wall when he is cursing all the time. I liked how he thought everyone around his were phonies but he was still hanging out with them and wanting to hang out with them. He acts as though they are the phony ones when he could be the phoniest of all. Holden who seems to struggle to fit in is always calling people to hangout which portrays the major theme of loneliness in the novel. Another thing i felt was interesting was his freedom in New York he lived by himself in a hotel, he also drinks and smokes. He is very interested in sex and is very confident about himself when
he turns down the prostitute who comes to his room not because its wrong but because he is nervous.
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