English III
Mr. Fiorini
April 20, 2009
The Catcher In The Rye
After reading The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, I felt as if I was living and experiencing the adolescent life of Holden Caulfield. Holden Caulfield, the main character focused on throughout the novel, talks to the reader as if he were having a general conversation with one of his friends. Holden mentions the pronoun, “you” a lot, and I think that this pronoun use has a lot of significance throughout the majority of the story because this proves to the reader that he hasn’t forgotten about the reader, and it shows that Holden’s voice tone is generally friendly and directly conversational. Throughout the novel, Holden takes the reader through his experiences after getting expelled from Pencey High School. The cause of Holden’s expulsion was because he failed four academic subjects, and he didn’t place any effort into his academic classes, especially Oral Expression, because he wasn’t up to going deep into the class. Some of those fun-filled experiences that Holden guides the reader through are his constant migration from different hotels in New York, the fist-fight between Ward Stradlater and him over Jane Gallagher, and his adventurous voyage to the Central Park Zoo with Phoebe. Another significant idea that Holden’s character is built upon is that after every statement that has a negative feeling to it, Holden always says that it’s depressing. I’m not really sure as to why he would think that certain statements would be depressing because what could be depressing to Holden could be a positive statement to me. Holden tends to look on the negative side of things so much, and he feels as if he has nothing to look forward to in his life because he’s so unsure as to where his current life is headed, and he’s also unsure of choosing which direction or path to choose in order to become successful later in his life. I think that Holden’s character needs to become more developed by thinking and deciding where his next stage of life is going to be in the next five years.
Speaking of Phoebe Weatherfield Caulfield, I absolutely loved her character. Phoebe reminded me of the little sister that follows their older sibling around wherever they went. Throughout most of the novel, Holden’s mind always wondered back either to Phoebe or Jane Gallagher. Holden thought about his younger sister so much because he believed that she listened to him when he talked to her even though she may be a lot younger than him. As for Jane Gallagher, Holden developed a humongous crush on her ever since they became friends. Holden felt emotionally connected to Jane because they were around the same age, and I think that they understood how each other felt during certain situations, such as the event with Phoebe’s step father. In similar ways, Phoebe looked up to Holden because he was the only other older sibling that she talked to besides D.B. who was in Hollywood, writing books. Phoebe prevented Holden from going out West into the wilderness because of how emotionally attached she felt towards Holden. As soon as Phoebe found out about Holden’s possible escape into the West, she immediately wanted to go, and when Holden persisted that she couldn’t go, Phoebe began to cry because she wanted her older sibling to be by her side, to have someone to look up to for guidance, and to have someone to turn to when things didn’t seem exactly right. In addition to this, I kind of wish that J.D. Salinger would have written the book a little bit differently when it came to the situation with Jane Gallagher, Ward Stradlater, and Holden. I really wanted things to work out well between Jane Gallagher and Holden because after reliving Holden’s experiences with Jane, I think that they seemed perfect for each other. Holden was absolutely crazy, head-over-heels for Jane, and every time he would think about calling her, Holden wouldn’t feel up to actually doing it. If you wanted something or someone so badly in your life, wouldn’t you want to fight to win that person’s heart? As for Ward Stradlater, he seemed way too conceited for Jane, and he idolized himself more than any other person in the entire world. Jane probably just went out with Stradlater that one night because of his looks, not because she really cared for him at all.
In conclusion, I think that The Catcher In The Rye teaches a lot about life, love, and education purposes. This novel teaches a lot about life because we watch Holden grow and express himself through certain situations at an adolescent age. As for the love aspect, I think that Holden should have fought a lot more to win Jane’s heart because she might have been doing the exact same thing for him. Who knows? Nobody knows at all. If he really liked Jane so much, why wouldn’t he call her on the telephone when he had the opportunity? I do have to say that I do admire Holden for physically fighting Ward Stradlater to win the heart of Jane Gallagher even though Ward Stradlater had no absolute clue as to why they were fighting in the first place. In addition to this, the education conflict for Holden was that he never felt like placing any effort into his schoolwork because he saw no real point in placing any lasting effort. Holden always saw his side of the situation, and he was never positive about anything. To summarize this up, I enjoyed reading, reliving, and experiencing Holden Caulfield’s life as an adolescent teen. Holden Caulfield was a very interesting character to read about, and I think that eventually, Holden will figure out which direction his life is going to take him based on everything that he has lived through as an adolescent teen transforming into a young adult.
For My Catcher In The Rye Post:
** Tell me which parts of this essay that I need to improve on, and tell me which parts of this essay that were the most powerful. **
Like I mentioned in my response to your Miller post, I would suggest trying to narrow the focus of your writing in subsequent posts. (If you're interested in trying to compose very complete and polished arguments through these commentaries.) One way that I anticipate using these posts next year is to ask you to select a single post or an idea/argument you pose in a single post and to develop this idea through a more formal essay. To me, this post would work well for this kind of an approach. As you stated in your final paragraph, you chose to discuss abroad range of issues including life, love, and education. If you're looking to narrow the scope of your argument, I would focus on how Salinger works through one of these issues through the actions and experiences of his narrator.
ReplyDeleteOne additional point: While it's good to see that Salinger was effective in making his character lifelike, you might refrain from making predictions about what might befall Holden in the future. He is, after all just a character, and a more sophisticated way to write about the possibilities that Salinger presents for how Holden's life might turn out would be to
I was most interested in your comment about Salinger's rhetorical use of the pronoun 'you' in the narrative voice of Holden. I think that an essay that focuses on how this choice might affect Salinger's reader or about how it adds to the characterization of Caulfield (just two of many possibilities) would be an interesting paper for you to write and for others to read.