The Catcher in the Rye could be described as a one of a kind story. J.D. Salinger, the author of the story has the character Holden Caulfield narrate the novel. Caulfield is a sixteen year old boy and by reading the book you truly get the feel that you are communicating with a teen of his age. Throughout the whole book Caulfield tells different “tid bits” of his life, always sidetracking and expressing his thoughts that he had a some point in time .This is what made the book unique .Many may not like the book because they say that it is just a book of conversation with barely any point or story, but you have to look deeper into the life stories Caulfield tells to be able to connect with him.
I see Caulfield’s attitude towards life including how he acts towards himself, his peers, family and the environment around him as negative, cynical and even scornful at times. I do not think that this is his self born personality. I believe that this outlook on life grew over time after the death of his younger brother Allie. I know that this tragic event affected Caulfield greatly because he refers to his brother several times. He tells us different stories about Allie such as how he carries around Allies baseball mitt that had all poems on it. Also, at the end of the book Caulfield refers to how he always asked Allie to guide him safely to the other side of the street when he crossed one.
Holden Caulfield had a very funny personality in my opinion. His problem was that he didn’t let anyone in. Throughout the book I saw two characters that really tired to help him out and lead him in the right direction as he was taking the wrong path by getting expelled from Pency Prep. They were Mr. Antolin and Mr. Spencer; both of these men were former teachers of Holden. I personally believe that Caulfield is lonely and thinks that everything surrounding him is phony. This explains why he doesn’t like the movies too much and why he has a strong opinion about everyone he knows. Caulfield can’t relate to anyone directly because of his different outlook and views.
Childhood seems to be of importance to Holden. As he watches his sister Phoebe go around the carousal at the zoo several times while experiencing a day in the life of childhood, Caulfield became able to have innocent thoughts and communicate with people around him a little better, although he never talked about the stories he told us again. He ends the book talking in the same tone that he did throughout the story, which makes you wonder if he really began to change. He also just simply filled in details about what was currently happening to him and told of a plan for his future without getting into a list of ranting stories. These ideas both contradict each other. The last sentence Holden says is “Don't tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody” which completely supports my idea. It seems that he still has hard feelings about communicating with others, but at the same time shows value towards the people around him.
· Comments can be based on the ideas and organization of my overview. Also, you can take into consideration the idea of focus as you read this paper.
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The one thing I notice before I even start reading your word is how there is only a single space between each paragraph. To make it easier on your readers, you might want to skip another space, so that your readers aren't straight reading what looks like one big paragraph. Overall, though, your organization is very neat and your ideas flow nicely together. I like how you hit on the important details in his life, such as his personality and his childhood, which obviously make Holden, Holden. Overall, your piece was very nicely put. =)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Chrissy on all points. Something I'm thinking about for next year is to ask you to take one of the blogs you post for each of the marking periods and develop it into a polished analytic essay. I think that this blog has particularly fruitful potential for that kind of an assignment. If you were to do so, I would recommend taking one of the aspects of Caulfield's character that you discuss and tracing it more deeply throughout the novel. For instance, his stated perspectives on childhood might tell us more about what larger issues Salinger might have been interested in forefronting through his novel.
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