The Catcher in the Rye-Q.6

Why do we still read this book today? Is it's sole purpose in this existence to torture the minds on overly asked questions towards high school students? No, I do not think so. This book was different than the others. Holden Caulfield is a teenager which automatically makes him an extremely easy character to relate to. It is a classic coming of age story in which all people can relate to at some point in their lifetime. He seems to be a normal teenager with all of the problems he is having. Teenagers have problems and then they try to fix them. This is the whole entire life of a teenager! Even though he thinks that he does not really act his age, he really is. We are the moodiest people on the planet as a collective group! The message of this book, growing up to fast, is best told by a teenager. If it were told from the perspective of an adult I think that it would have a sense of maturity that teens do not have yet. When Holden tells the story teenagers that are teens now can relate to it and adults that were teens at some point can relate to it. I think that writing it this way makes for a more whimsical story that is humorous and fun to read. He is also pretty crass which leads to that little bit of spice and attitude people like their characters to have in a novel. All of the things I just listed make for a great novel. It has a great coming of age story, funny characters, real scenarios, and it seems just like a true story! I think that it will forever be held as a classic. All teenagers should read this as their right of passage into the world just so they know that they are not alone in this struggle.

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print.

The Catcher in the Rye-Q.4

The hero in The Catcher in the Rye is the main character, Holden Caulfield. Holden is not much of a hero to anyone else but himself in this story. He does not help anyone or save anybody. He is focused only on himself. Because the story is all about him finding his way in life I think this is a good thing. If had been focusing all of his energy on other people his life would probably still be a mess. As for being a hero, he does not have many heroic traits. He is one of the most straight forward characters I have read about. He tries to be real at all times and thinks that everyone is a 'phony.' But at the same time he is very caring and loving towards his sister, Phoebe, and he does show real emotion about the loss of his brother, Allie. At other times he can be rude and crass but then switch to caring and sympathetic. When describing Holden it almost feels as though he is bi-polar, but then I remember that he is a teenage boy. If Holden was not the hero I think that Phoebe could be the closest thing to it. She shows Holden love and patience and he learns a lot from her. Heroes do not always have to be the most obvious character in the book and Phoebe could be an example of that.

That being said, Holden has a very unclear mind. He is never sure of what he wants to do and he can not get away from his own thoughts. School does not help him and the relationship with his parents is hard enough. If this book were based on a true story, I would have recommended that Holden see a therapist or a guidance counselor. I loved reading about the heroic journey that Holden went on to save himself.

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print.

The Catcher in the Rye-Q.3

You can tell that J.D. Salinger knows a lot about human nature by the theme that he addresses in this novel. From the time we are born until it is time for us to leave our parents and go conquer the world on our own, most of us have been cared for and we have had a lot given to us by our caretakers. I think that a lot of people take this for granted and they think that it is their natural born right to have someone take care of you. Of course, a baby can not feed and clean itself, but you get the idea. Kids do not realize what they have while they have it. Teenagers on the other hand are starting to begin that process of seeing that they will have to take care of someone someday too. That is what being an adult is all about; taking care of other people. Unless you are a hit man everyone has a job on this planet that is to benefit others. When teenagers start getting jobs and their classes are harder they start to see what life is really like, leading to that feeling of never wanting to grow up. I personally know how hard it is to go through this transition. All adults want us to think about anymore is college and the ACT and what we want to be when we grow up and on and on and on. It is hard to think about all of those things when you are just trying to get by today without messing something up. I am not trying to make it sound like my life is terrible, because it is not, I am just saying this is how it is for most teenagers and I completely understand where Holden is coming from. The valuable theme and lesson that I got out of this book is to enjoy these high school years while we can and do not be such a grump when it does come time to think about adult things. It is going to have to happen sooner or later. The phrase YOLO does not seem to apply here, so how about 'You only go through high school once?' Maybe it will catch on...

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print.

The Catcher in the Rye-Q.2

Although there are many conflicts in the book The Catcher in the Rye, the main conflict must be the struggle that Holden faces on his path to growing up. This conflict is internal and is easy to point out because the narrator is speaking in first person. The basics of the whole thing are that he is not ready to transition from childhood to adulthood and take on all of the extra responsibilities that it will entail. Because of the pressure of the situation, Holden starts resenting people, not caring about school, and failing out of different schools. I understand where he is coming from though. His life has been very difficult with the loss of his brother, Allie, his bad relationship that he has with his parents, and the fact that he feels different from the rest of the world. The biggest cause of his conflict is obviously the death of his brother. He misses him so dearly and he wishes that he could be back. I think that having Allie back would keep Holden in a better place because he seems to have had such a great impact on his life.

This particular conflict had an excellent gain in the end. Holden finally realizes that he is not alone in the world and that people really do care for him. Phoebe, his sister, and Mr. Spencer have the greatest impact on Holden. Even though Holden decides not to become an adult these two characters were very important in the decision that he made. They showed him how to be himself again and they truly listened and cared about what he was feeling. He did lose his mind a little bit throughout the process, but I do not think it matters because the gain is so much more important than the little bit of sanity he lost on his way there.

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print.

The Catcher in the Rye-Q.1

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a novel about a boy named Holden Caulfield who does not want to grow up and does everything he can to try and stop it from happening. Everyone in life has to grow up at some point and this book is the story of how Holden tries to find his way through that difficult time in is life. Through Holden's thoughts and ideas we can start to see the values and attitudes that J.D. Salinger had when writing this book. I believe that Salinger is trying to say that he understands teenagers and the fact that they want to be a kid forever. I think about this all of the time and it almost tortures me. Salinger is trying to make sure that the reader knows we do not have to attack this beast we call 'growing up' all on our own. We have adults in our lives that are there to push us along the way. Even though we do not always remember, our elders went through the same struggle as a teenager. Two of Holden's teachers in the novel are there for Holden and try to push him but he does not always see it that way. To have people like that in your life is very valuable. Holden will eventually come to see how important those teachers actually were in his development from a teenager into an adult.

This novel was written in first person to express the direct thoughts of the main character, Holden. The reader receives a better insight to what he is thinking at all times by using this form of narration. With a different type of narrator I think that the reader would become bored and the story would not be as appealing as it is in the style which it has been written in.

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print.

Fahrenheit 451-Clarisse

Although Clarisse was not in the novel Fahrenheit 451 for very long she had a great impact on the rest of the story. Something that sets her apart from all of the other characters in this story is that she is so young. The greatest thing of all though is that she is a thinker. Her whole family is made of thinkers and this is so strange in their world! She reminds me Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter. They are both such free spirits. Clarisse is important because she has such a big impact on Guy Montag's life. When she disappeared I was sad because I thought she could have been such a great influence on Montag's whole life change throughout the story.

When I started reading this novel I thought from the beginning that it was all going to be a doom and gloom setting the whole entire time. I was pretty much correct. The only real joy that I notice is when Clarisse is around. She cares about what the weather is doing and she is curious about Montag. She seems to be the most unique character Montag comes across. She is definitely my favorite character and she was a great influence on Montag!

Her most unique quality of all though is that she has the capability to think for herself! The other humans that surround her do not think for themselves at all which means her personality, self-awareness, and confidence must be pretty high! The kids at her school are probably the worst of all. They are mean and nasty and terrible influences on a girl that has such a pure mind. She had so much potential to be a great human being and I am sure she could have changed other lives as well. I wish Clarisse would not have gone missing from the story!

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Del Rey Books, 1991. Print.

Fahrenheit 451-Tone

The tone of Fahrenheit 451 is rather dark and depressing. The events in the novel lead the reader to feel like the mood and tone is very dim. The subject matter is very dark and there is no way of lighting the mood up. When talking about suppressing someones thoughts and inner most being people tend to not be as cheery. We also tend to believe that fire is supposed to mean warmth and unity but in this case it means taking away freedom of thought and being unique. They burn books in this novel so that the citizens will not be offended by the writings that have been published over the years. Personally I think that this is just the government trying to control every aspect of their lives. This quote that I found seems to point out exactly what I mean when I say the tone of this book is gloomy. "The room was blazing hot, he was all fire, he was all coldness; they sat in the middle of an empty desert with three chairs and him standing, swaying, and him waiting..."(Bradbury 99) This quote is just so depressing! It does not give you warm fuzzy feelings inside when you read it. Nothing gives you a warm fuzzy feeling inside when reading this. Unless you are a demented person, this book has no humor in it whatsoever. After doing all of these blogs I have officially decided that I have not read a single book that I have loved since starting Honors English. I hate reading things that are dark and sad when there is already enough of that in not just my life, but the whole world, that we should not have to fill our minds with it.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Del Rey Books, 1991. Print.