quotation analysis

"i mean did you ever get scared that everything was going to go lousy unless you did something?"(p. 130) This quote was directed at Sally Hayes by Holden when he was talking about whether or not she liked school or not. I'm not sure what this quote means, which is why I chose it. when he says "unless you did something", i didn't really know what something he was talking about. I think that it might have to do with school, and how he felt that if he got to involved in school that something would go wrong, as if it had happened to him before. That is possibly why Holden has been in and out of so many schools; because he felt that he should get out while he was still ahead, which is weird because he never really applied himself in school anyway. Maybe Holden has a different definition for ahead, not meaning in an academic sense, but in a friendship sense. Without this quote, we wouldn't really have an idea of why Holden was getting kicked out of so many schools. With it, it gives us a clue as to what is going on in Holden's head and how he thinks about the whole school matter.

Religion

Holden never says what religion he really is, he just says he isn't really a catholic, and he isn't a full Atheist. He always talks about how he doesn't like it when religion comes into a conversation because to him it messes up the conversation. "All I'm saying is that it is no good for a nice conversation."(p. 113). He talked about when he was talking with a new kid in town, that the kid was trying to figure out whether or not Holden was a catholic, just out of curiosity. He also said how he didn't like the disciples from the bible because they were just in the way. I think that the reason that J.D. Salinger brought up this subject is because he felt that it needed to be discussed. It is exactly like when South Park talks about important subjects that need to be brought to the light, like how Disney is kind of selling sex by making the Jonas Brothers wear purity rings. Back in the 60's, religion was still kind of a big deal and a lot more formal that it is now. Salinger brought up religion to kind of show how some people can go a little to far, like when a whole bunch of Catholic people tried to find out if Holden was catholic or not.

Holden Caulfield Analysishad

Holden Caulfield is a 17 year old boy who attends Pencey Prep school. The reason that Holden was brought to me is because when Holden was 12 years old, his little brother Allie died from Leukemia. When his brother died, Holden went into the garage and broke out all of the windows in it, and even tried to break out the windows in the station wagon that the family owned. "and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it."(p. 39). Holden is going through a tough time dealing with his brother's death. He is also dealing with the transition from childhood to adulthood, and with the fact that the first time that he talked about Allie's death in the composition, Stradlater said that he did it wrong. I believe that Holden is dealing with the lack of closure that was experienced after Allie's death. It didn't help Holden when the first time that he really talked about Allie after his death, Stradlater said that he did the project wrong. For Holden to improve his life, he must accept the fact that Allie is dead and stop dwelling on the fact. Holden's parents are a little to blame, since they didn't help Holden through his brothers death as much as they should have. Holden should visit a good therapist and talk out his problems with that therapist. If he follows my advice, his life will greatly improve as well as his grades.

Adulthood.

There is a lot of question about what is more prominently displayed in Holden's personality, Childlike behavior or  Adult-like behavior. I would say that he is more childlike than anything. Some examples to support my opinion are that he ran away from Pencey when the going got tough, he got jealous of his roommate when he went on a date with his best friend, and he calls people immature names, like moron. "You're a dirty stupid sonuvabitch or a moron"(p. 44). Later on in the book, he becomes more of an adult. Dancing and engaging in conversation with a stranger at an adult club isn't childlike at all. Holden isn't a child, but he doesn't always act like an adult. He is in the middle of the transition from a child into an adult. He is right in between, a teenager.

Phoniness

Throughout Catcher in the Rye, Holden says that many different things are phony. One of the things that he calls phony is the Headmaster of Pencey Prep. He called the Headmaster phony because when parents came to the school, he would be very polite and social to the important parents, but give the parents who weren't important the cold shoulder. The phonies in our society today are all of us. If you go into a job interview and act like yourself, you won't get the job. But if you go in, be polite, shake hands, and dress up, you have a lot better chance of getting the job. The way that society is built up today makes it so that all of us have to act phony to get anywhere in life. Holden himself isn't that much of a phony, because he never acts like more of a phony than any of us. He just acts like he feels, not like what society says he should feel. An example of this is when he drinks alcohol even though he is underage.

what i feel about Holden now

After reading further into the Catcher in the Rye, I now feel empathy for Holden because I can relate to what he is saying. When he found out that one of his old time friends was going to be at his school, he got really excited because he was all alone on the other side of the country in New York, and wanted to see a familiar face that he could talk to. When he was in his old teachers house, I could relate to how he didn't want to be there and how he reacted to smelling the vick's cold drops and seeing the old man
s body. When he was on the subway and was navigating the whole fencing team to New York and he forgot the fencing equipment on the subway, I could relate to that. Holden had to take the whole fencing team to New York, which by itself is a lot of stress. He had the whole team relying on him to get them there, and he had to watch after the gear as well. That's a lot of responsibility for one person, especially a kid to handle.

what my feelings about Holden are

Towards the beginning of the book, I passed judgment about Holden Caulfield because I didn't know much about him. He seemed a lot like me, with all of his problems. I didn't feel empathy towards him because he was flunking out of a bunch of his classes, and his schools even though he was smart. I didn't feel sympathy towards him because even though he had kind of crappy parents and not a lot of friends, he didn't end up as a bad kid. The only bad thing that he did do was smoke cigarettes, which wasn't even the result of his parents being crappy, but more because he just wanted to. A possible reason for Holden not working at all in school is because his brother had done so well with his life that his parents were pressuring Holden a lot to be like him. Then he just gave up to eliminate any competition that he would have had with D.B. in school so that his parents knew that he wouldn't be like D.B.