Final Catcher Blog - Seminar Question

In what ways does Holden represent the views of every teenager in our society today? How do his views differ from those of teenagers today?

Feelings of depression, anxiety, isolation, and confusion, the want to rebel, a negative attitude towards everything, and a deep hatred for conforming - Aren't these all feelings that some people have during their teenage years? Holden has many of these same feelings and shows them throughout the book. He always talks about things the depress him, gets nervous about random things like not making it across the street, feels isolated from the world, and gets confused about the things he sees on his little adventure through New York. He also has a rotten attitude about nearly everything, wants to rebel from his school and even parents, and also despises conformity. Strangely, these thoughts are very similar to those of many teenagers today, but there is one difference...

Holden may share some of the same views as many teenagers today, but his views are more extreme. One can clearly tell that something is wrong with Holden because of all of his mood swings and how he gets upset or depressed about the smallest things. Normal teenagers do share the same feelings as Holden, but don't voice them or show them nearly as much as Holden does. Holden is very extreme in his views and he even gets sick sometimes when he sees something "phony" or something he doesn't agree with. Holden may have some of the same thoughts and feelings as teenagers today, but MOST teenagers today aren't driven crazy to the point of a mental breakdown like Holden is often times in the book.

Seminar Questions

Close-Ended Question - Who do you think is Holden's closest friend that seems to keep him going through life?

Open-Ended Question - Why does Holden stay in New York so long if he hates so much about it and is tired of all the phony people that live there?

World Connection Question - In what ways does Holden represent the views of every teenager in our society today? How do his views differ from those of teenagers today?

Universal Theme Question - Is this book a criticism of how much "phoniness" there is in our world today? Is it hinting at how our society is becoming more phony as time goes on?

Literary Analysis Question - What is the effect of having Holden write about the past during the present instead of having an all-knowing narrator tell us the story of Holden?

Poem on Mariage

I'm not much of a poet, wouldn't you know it? ;)
But anyways, here is my poor attempt at a poem...


Is it Just to Conform?

Everywhere you look, there they are
- Married couples all around us!
But should I follow in their footsteps?
Should I conform and marry as well?

Let's think about this,
What will marriage hold for me?
What will marriage hold for you?
Is it the same for all of us,
Or do we all do it to conform?

Love is a special thing, you must admit
It is patient, It is kind
Marriage is a different kind of love,
But will it last forever?
Will it stand the test against time?

Some marriages don't last,
Why go through all the trouble?
Why get married in the first place?
The future is uncertain,
I do not know what to do

Should I get married?
Do I weigh risks against rewards?
Marriage is great, but at the same time bad
So what do I do?
Do I conform?

Maybe I don't want to be like everyone else
Maybe I want to live life on my own,
But a life full of loneliness will be sad
Is it worth it to not have someone by your side?
Could I handle the isolation?
Could I handle the world by myself?

Marriage and love are both confusing,
I still don't understand them yet.
Marriage seems like a good thing,
But do I think that just because of what I see?
Those married couples, they're all around us.
They look happy enough, but what is it really like?

I know there is bad involved with marriage,
But after thinking about it one must see
- Marriage is a great thing!
Everything has it's downsides, this is no exception,
But imagine a life on your own,
With no one there for you...

Love is what makes the world go 'round,
It keeps us going and keeps us strong
With a friend by your side nothing is impossible,
So do these married couples actually have it figured out?
Are they actually not doing it just to conform?

Perhaps there is something to this marriage thing after all,
Maybe people don't do it to conform,
Maybe marriage is just easier and happier
So why wouldn't we all want this kind of life?
I guess we will all have to decide for ourselves one day...

Chapters 19 and 20

There are many characters throughout Catcher in the Rye whom Holden interacts with or refers to. In chapters 19 & 20 alone, he mentions Luce, Sally, his mother and father, Phoebe, and Allie. In your blog, choose one of these characters and analyze Holden's feelings toward that person. How does Holden feel about them? How does he try to connect to them? How are they significant to the entire book? Respond using examples from the text to support!

Character - Phoebe

Holden likes his sister, Phoebe, very much and talks about her on several occasions throughout the book, such as on pages 156 and 157. She is probably the person he loves the most in the world if not the only person who he loves. They both have had many experiences together because of their close brother-sister connection and Holden has grown very fond of her. Holden also states on page 156 that Phoebe is fond of him as well - "She likes me a lot. I mean she's quite fond of me. She really is."

Holden tries to get in contact with Phoebe whenever possible because of how much he is missing her. On page 156 he says, "Anyway,, I couldn't get that off my mind, so finally what I figured I'd do, I figured I'd better sneak home and see her, in case I died and all." Holden always has Phoebe on his mind. He probably has so many vivid memories of her and misses her deeply. Can you blame him? After not seeing a family member for awhile you might start to miss them!

Phoebe is very significant to this book because she, along with a few other things, is what keeps Holden going in life. Holden always has happy thoughts about her and it distracts him from his normal, depressed mood. Without Phoebe, Holden would continue to have little to look forward to in life. Phoebe means a lot to Holden and you can tell because of how Holden is always wishing to visit her or call her up whenever he reaches a phone booth. It would be very interesting to see where Holden would end up in life without having someone like Phoebe to think about all the time...

Ch. 16-18 Response

After choosing your quote and copying it on your blog, describe and answer the following three questions in your analysis:

1. What does it say? (paraphrase and describe the context)
2. What does it mean? (analyze and explain)
3. Why does it matter? (explain the significance to the rest of the book)

The whole thing was sort of funny, in a way, if you thought about it, and all of a sudden I did something I shouldn't have. I laughed. And I have one of these very loud, stupid laughs. I mean if I ever sat behind myself in a movie or something, I'd probably lean over and tell myself to please shut up. It made old Sally madder than ever.

1. This quote is from Holden on page 134 when he just gets done making Sally cry about herself and then tells her he can take her home if she wants. Sally gets even more upset because she doesn't want to see Holden ever again and she says "I can go home by myself, thank you. If you think I'd let you take me home, you're mad." Holden and Sally had been arguing quite a bit up until this point and things just went off the deep end after Holden called her "a pain in the ass."

2. Holden thought it was very funny that Sally didn't want him to take her home and that she was so mad so he began to laugh hysterically. He even knew he shouldn't have because it wasn't an appropriate time to laugh and it upset Sally even more. Holden doesn't have great people skills and this is just another example of a time where he shows this. He thinks that what Sally said is funny, so he laughs, but it just wasn't appropriate to laugh during that time. Especially when Sally was already crying.

3. Holden is always dealing with feelings of loneliness and isolation, mainly because of his poor social skills. During this little sequence of events, Holden again shows that he just doesn't deal with people well and it leads to more isolation and separation from others. Holden knew he shouldn't have laughed at Sally's comment and even says it in the quote above, but he does it anyways. He always is doing things he knows he shouldn't, whether it's laughing at Sally, or parts in other chapters like buying a few minutes with a prostitute. Holden never seems to be able to make up his mind, and often times he just goes out of control and says or does things he knows he shouldn't be doing. He appears to have little self-control and is almost hypocritical at some points. Holden always points out everything that others do wrong when he himself makes poor decisions several times throughout the chapters I have read so far. In this quote he even says that if he were someone else listening to him laugh he would have told himself to shut up. In these chapters Holden really appears to be getting worse up in his head and this quote is just another example of the strange behavior and poor decisions that Holden is making.

Chapters 12 and 13

Well, where to start with this one? This chapter was certainly very weird and unusual, especially with the part about the prostitute and how Holden wouldn't do anything with her. Holden continues to isolate himself throughout these couple chapters, just like in the scene where he is asked to go hang out with one of his brother's friends at Ernie's Bar. He seems to be getting lonelier and lonelier as time passes on in this book. He speaks of this loneliness he is feeling on more than one separate occasion in these two chapters and it just seems to me like Holden doesn't know what he wants in life. Holden sees the whole world around him as phony and he doesn't want to be phony himself so it seems like he isolates himself from the rest of the world in order to prevent this from happening. Occasionally he will get so lonely that he needs someone else, however, just like the time he gets involved with the prostitute. He doesn't have sex with her, but because he is so lonely from isolating himself so much he just begins to talk with her, which she finds very, very strange!

Holden is definitely a strange person who goes about doing things differently, and I'm starting to notice that maybe the reason he feels so lonely and isolated is because he doesn't want to become phony like everyone else that he sees. I'm not sure where this belief of phoniness from him came from, but it is causing him to act in such awkward ways...

Chapters 9-11 Response

I think I'm starting to get a better idea about who Holden Caulfield is as a person... FINALLY!!!
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As you read Chapters 9-11, it is obvious Holden deals with feelings of alienation; however, he is also torn in the middle of two worlds: childhood and adulthood.

How do you see this theme play out in the chapters you read for today (9-11)? How is this struggle evident? How is Holden like a child? How is he like an adult?

This struggle was already evident in the first 8 chapters, however, after reading chapters 9-11 it is becoming much more obvious that Holden is caught in between two worlds. First of all, he still has a little bit of child left in him because as children we are always wanting to stay close with our family and on pg. 59 Holden is seen wanting to call home just like a child would do if they were separated from their family for awhile. The only reason he doesn't call home is because he is worried about his parents answering the phone and finding out that he left school early. Another time where Holden is acting childish is when he is swearing in front of the three ladies he meets at the bar on pg. 72. Holden believes that swearing a lot will make others view him as an adult, but it is funny because the blonde girl
thinks that it is making him look childish so then she yells at him. Holden still has a lot of a child in him, but he continues to try to act older at all times.

One thing that Holden does to try and act older is try living on his own for awhile. It never says exactly why but I believe that he wants to start living the adult life by living on his own at the hotel he went to after leaving school. Everyone knows that real adults can live and provide for themselves without their parents (most of the time), so Holden probably wants to start doing this to become more like an adult. Another thing that he does is try to order drinks at the bar on pg. 69. His plan backfires on him and he is not able to order drinks because he isn't 21 and doesn't have an ID. Holden does so many things that are childish, yet constantly tries to act like an adult. It really makes it look like he is stuck in between the two worlds of the childhood and adulthood life.


ALSO...Connect to your life! Explain TWO struggles you or others face as you move from childhood to adulthood. Where does Holden fit on this path?

The struggles Holden is facing in the book aren't too much different from the struggles that my classmates and I will soon be facing. The first thing we have to worry about is going to college our starting our careers after high school. If we go to college we will have to live on our own, away from our parents. We will soon be deciding many other things about our future like what our careers will be. The transition from childhood to adulthood is quickly approaching. We will also start having to provide for ourselves after college, unless we continue to act like children and have our parents pay for everything just like they do now. Holden also deals with living away from his parents and providing for himself. We are all approaching the time when we will all be faced with adulthood struggles. Since we are all used to the childhood life, adulthood will come as a shock to many of us. The struggles of adulthood are endless and we all will likely not stay children for the rest of our lives. Holden will also not be able to stay a child forever so he is starting the adult life now, without much success. This transition will be hard for many of us, but we all have to go through this period of time eventually...