Saturday, November 6, 2010

The Catcher in the Rye 1-6

Well, Holden is a little strange, and that is something I'm sure about. I wonder how the author created this character, it just seem like such a weird idea. Do I like Holden? Well, I guess so. I really don't want to like him, but I do. In real life I would probably hate him, I think that's why I don't want to like this character. He is really really opinionated about most things, and for every thing that happens, he has to say something about it. Why doesn't he like school? Because he's surrounded by a bunch of phonies!! Actually I think he just has a hard time socially, so school isn't exactly for him, especially when everyone around him seems to disagree with his ideas about life. Is he dumb? No, no, no. He really isn't dumb. He remembers things he wants to, and if he was curious or cared about anything in school, he would learn it, but he doesn't. He also appears to be really good at writing, which seems like a funny thing, when he gets every comma right, but he doesn't stand any other learning. I do (as of now) trust he is telling mostly the truth. He does say quite proudly that he is a good liar, so maybe he's lying (he is a good writer). There are a lot of times where I have no idea if he's telling the truth, and then there are times where he doesn't seem to know about what's going on, but what he says is the only story we get. Oh yes, and I really like his hat. At first I imagined if sort of like an elf hat, and I still like it better when I imagine it that way. It's sort of like him, it's so weird and unique that I like it!
What else? I flat out hate Ackley, I think I would put my dresser in front of the space between the rooms, or something like that. He's the sort of person you'd want to shove into a closet and lock him in there forever. How does he choose to cut his toenails right then? Why does he even bother to come and talk to Holden, he can't be stupid enough not to see he doesn't like him. He goes over to talk to him, and then one of them (or both) end up annoyed. What does he do with himself all day?
Stradlater is just kind of blah. He just takes things and asks for things without any sort of gratitude or anything. He makes Holden do his homework, and takes his stuff, and then he is in no way grateful for any of it. If I were Holden I would probably drop out, too, because the people there would drive me insane. I am not so sure I believe he is really that generous with his stuff, (when Holden is giving that example with the tie) I don't see him being quite like that.

Other than that I thought the baseball glove was really interesting, because it led to this whole story about his brother and how different he had been. I can imagine a baseball glove like that, with green poems all over. I think he was right when he said that I would like Allie, I wish he was still alive. It seems like it would be hard to write about something so meaningful, because Allie was definitely important to him, but he didn't seem to get too upset about it. Maybe he really is crazy, then. Or maybe he isn't really crazy, and he is just normal. How can you tell? How would you feel if you knew you would never see someone so special to you again?

1 comment:

  1. The thing that bothers me is, he is polite, and socially acceptable, which conflicts with his actual personality. :/

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