Week 4 Character Analysis

The Catcher in The Rye Character Analysis

Each character in this story has his or her own story, qualities ,weaknesses and affect the stroy in many different ways. The story is almost as important as its characters. 

There are many characters in this book, Im gonna describe the main characters and the side-charcters that I think are truly important for the story. I may include some extra characters and describe their meaning in the story rather than their appearence or their thoughts.

1. Holden Caulfield: Holden is the main character of the story. He is 17 years old.He finds the hypocrisy and ugliness of the world around him almost unbearable, and through his cynicism he tries to protect himself from the pain and disappointment of the adult world. However, the criticisms that Holden aims at people around him are also aimed at himself. He is uncomfortable with his own weaknesses, and at times displays as much phoniness, meanness, and superficiality as anyone else in the book. As the novel opens, Holden stands poised on the cliff separating childhood from adulthood.

Holden Caulfield

• Allie Caulfield: He is Holdens little brother. he died from leukemia when he was 11. His dead affected Holden deeply, it traumatizes him. The loss triggers in Holden an obsession with purity and sincerity. physically he is redhaired, left handed and he has freckels.

Allie Caulfield

• Phoebe Caulfield: She is Holden´s little sister, she is 10 years old. Holden loves her dearly, for him she represents pureness and sincerity. She is also very smart, smart enough to understand Holden better than most of the people do. She is also very mature, at the point of nagging Holden for his disinterest on his future. She is also a wonderful dancer.

Phoebe Caulfield

• D.B. Caulfield: He is Holden’s older brother. D. B. wrote a volume of short stories that Holden admires very much, but Holden feels that D. B. prostitutes his talents by writing for Hollywood movies. We dont know barely anything of his appearence.

D.B. Caulfield

• Jane Gallagher: A girl with  whom Holden spent a lot of time one summer, when their families stayed in neighboring summer houses in Maine. Jane never actually appears in The Catcher in the Rye, bus she is extremely important to Holden, because she is extremely important to Holden, because she is one of the few girls that Holden respects and finds attractive.

Jane Gallagher

• Ackley:Holden’s next-door neighbor in his dorm at Pencey Prep. Ackley is a pimply, insecure boy with terrible dental hygiene. He often barges into Holden’s room and acts completely oblivious to Holden’s hints that he should leave.

Ackley

• Stradlater:Holden’s roommate at Pencey Prep. Stradlater is handsome, self-satisfied, and popular, but Holden calls him a “secret slob,” because he appears well dressed and groomed, but his stuff, such as his razor, are disgustingly dirty.

Stradlater

• The taxi drivers, the nuns , the ladys in the lavender room and Ernest Morrow´s mother: I putted together this characters because they all represent Holden´s failed attempts to have human company. Holden tries to  talk to them in an attempt to fill the deep hole he feels in his heart for Allie.

Taxi Driver

Week 3 Holden´s mind

  

What´s wrong with Holden?!

Without doubt Holden needs help, serious, urgent,psichiatric help. Anyone with a little bit of sense knows that. But why? Why is Holden so troubled?.

Is obvious that Holden suffers a lot because his brother Allie died. He suffers of PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is that what makes him obsessed with the sincerity and the purity of the little children like Allie or Phoebe, that makes him see every adult like a phonys.

It´s actually more simple than you might think: He thinks that when you grow up you loose your pureness and your authenticity, everything you do you do it for your own benefit or just for looking good in front of other people. Children are sincere and pure, everything they do they do it because they think is the right thing for everyone, not just for them. Holden feels that he needs to keep this purity complete, he has to "Catch" the children before they fall into the cliff of adultness, he sees himself like a savior, as the Catcher in the Rye. Because of these thoughts he errases the words "fuck you" that were written on Phoebe´s school and because of these thoughts he does everything he does, this thoughts rule his world.

Holden as The Catcher in the Rye

Holdens suffers of:

1. PTSD

Symptoms:

• Guilt, shame, or self-blame
• Feelings of mistrust and betrayal
• Depression or hopelessness, including suicidal thoughts and feelings
• Substance abuse
• Physical aches and pains

   
      2.  Major Depression:

Symptoms:

• Feelings of sadness, tearfulness, emptiness or hopelessness
• Angry outbursts, irritability or frustration, even over small matters
• Loss of interest or pleasure in most or all normal activities, such as sex, hobbies or sports
• Sleep disturbances, including insomnia or sleeping too much
• Tiredness and lack of energy, so even small tasks take extra effort
• Changes in appetite — often reduced appetite and weight loss, but increased cravings for food and weight gain in some people
• Anxiety, agitation or restlessness
• Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fixating on past failures or blaming yourself for things that aren't your responsibility
• Trouble thinking, concentrating, making decisions and remembering things
• Frequent or recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts or suicide
• Unexplained physical problems, such as back pain or headaches

He also is passing through the five stages of loss:

1.  Denial and isolation: The first reaction to learning about the terminal illness, loss, or death of a cherished loved one is to deny the reality of the situation. “This isn’t happening, this can’t be h-appening,” people often think. It is a normal reaction to rationalize overwhelming emotions. It is a defense mechanism that buffers the immediate shock of the loss. We block out the words and hide from the facts. This is a temporary response that carries us through the first wave of pain.
2. Anger: People that are grieving often become upset with the person or situation which put them in their grief state.  After all, their life could now be in complete disarray.  The path of least resistance is anger as opposed to facing the consequences of a loss head on.  In the case of death, the anger is often focused toward the deceased for leaving that person behind and unable to cope.   Other times people become angry at themselves if they feel they could have done something more to stop the loss from happening.
3. Bargaining: This is when those who are grieving are reaching out to the universe to make the pain go away.  It is actually very normal, and largely considered to be a sign that they are beginning to comprehend their situation.  People will often try to make a deal, or promise to do anything, if the pain will be taken away.
4. Depression:Contrary to popular belief, depression is something that may take some time to develop. We often think we are depressed when a grief event first occurs, but there is usually a lot of shock and other emotions present before any real depression can set in.  The signs of depression due to grief usually appear when a sense of finality is realized.  This is not to be confused with clinical depression, which may be chronic. Depression due to grief is technically episodic, even though it may last for a lengthy period of time.
5. Acceptance: This is the point where the person experiencing grief no longer is looking backward to try and recover the life they once had with the deceased, or other cause of their grief episode.  It is not to say that they no longer feel the vast array of emotions brought on by their grief, but they are ready to embrace the idea that they are reaching a new point in there lives.  At this point, they are beginning to understand that there is a new beginning on the horizon.

If Holden would have lived in our times he would problably would be treated by a psychiatrist and be under medication to deal with is serious depression and with his addictions to cigarettes, alcohol and his Im-the-best-person-in-the-world-and-everybdoy-is-a-phonie-philia.

Week 2 The Catcher in the Rye History

The Catcher in the Rye History

The book we were reading its called "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Stalinger. It was first published in 1951, having an inmediate impact on the american society of those times, but why?

The answer is simple, it criticizes  the american society and breaks the perfect-american-family model. In his story Stalinger talks about a young man called Holden Caulfield who is a student at a school called Pencey Prep, he gets expelled from that school because he doesnt apply himself. He leaves the school sooner than he was supposed to and goes to NY. Through his story we can see that american society at that times is not so perfect as you could have thought. Through his eyes we can see the " Dark Side" of that society; we can see prostitutes, trasvestites, suicidal people and a lot of people that pretend to be what they arent.

Teenagers reacted in a different way to the book. Several thought that the book was a waste of time, a smaller group thought it was a very good book with great reflexions and with a good plot. And even a smaller group felt identiefied with the book, they thought it was the best  book they have ever read, and made changes in their lifes, for good and bad. As an example of the bad changes we have Mark David Chapman, the guy who killed John Lennon. The day he was going to murder John he left all his stuff in his house in order for the police to fid them and on top of all the things he left a copy of this book, in the first page he wrote: "This is my declaration" and he signed it as Holden Caulfield.

This book has been banned in several places because it shows a lot of obscene stuff like minnors smoking and drinking, elevator guys offering prostitutes to anybody or couples spitting to each other.The connection with Mark David Chapman also has contributed to the ban of this book because several persons think he got the courage and inspiration for the murder from this book.

   

Mark David Chapman and The Catcher in the Rye

Now im gonna present 2 reviews of the book, one made nowdays and one back in the 50s

Nowdays:

Let's just say that this book is certainly one open to a lot of controversy and debate, yet that is what makes it such an interesting read.

The Catcher in the Rye certainly wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, however I find it an exciting and compelling read, with a gallon of brutal reality poured in along with some humour, contrasting with moments of depression.

Despite being written in 1951, I think many teenagers would be able to relate to the various themes present in the book. It is a modern classic of the coming of age genre. I find the main character, 17-year-old Holden Caulfield, absolutely intriguing and as I read the book, it was fascinating to get inside the head of the strange, rebellious protagonist.

The book begins with Holden directly addressing you, the reader, and he begins to retell the events over a three day period from last December. His story starts at Pencey Prep, a prestigious boarding school filled with "phonies", as Holden likes to call them.

What strikes me the most is the way Salinger creates the a brash atmosphere from the very beginning of the book with Holden being portrayed as insolent, lazy and quite frankly, completely clueless about his future.

Almost all of the story is one long flashback of this three day period with occasional references to the present. One thing that sets The Catcher in the Rye apart from other similar novels, I think, is the fairly frequent use of profanity - be warned! The heavy use of colloquialism is effective in making the reader relate to the characters better and make the characters seem realistic, but on the other hand, if you're under fourteen, I would certainly not recommend the novel to you! It isn't only the language used that makes The Catcher in the Rye unsuitable for younger readers, but also the themes discussed, centred around the idea of morality.

J.D. Salinger's novel is a wake-up call to all teenagers and in a sense, is an inspiring read because it sends out the message that we should all remain hopeful and true to ourselves. Teenagers can relate to it because of its complex themes of rebellion, identity and independence but I would recommend you read it before you're an adult otherwise you may have the urge to slap Holden for his actions when reading the book!

Aiman.A Thursday June 21 2012

Back In the 50s

In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," the first of J. D. Salinger's remarkable short stories to attract widespread attention, a young veteran recovering from a nervous breakdown in Florida takes a little girl out swimming, in a charmingly described interlude, and then goes to his hotel room and shoots himself when he is confronted by his shallow wife. In "For Esmé— With Love and Squalor," one of the best and most moving of all his stories, an American soldier in Germany suffering from an extreme case of combat fatigue is brought back by a message from a little girl he had met in England. And in the climactic scene of his first novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the sixteen-year-old hero who has been wandering around New York alone for three days, ever since his expulsion from boarding school, in a state somewhere between reality and unreality, abandons his dream of running away to the West and goes home (and subsequently to a sanitarium) when his ten-year-old sister, whom he has met secretly, is clearly broken-hearted at the thought of his leaving.

In all three cases the children and the boy-men are exceedingly well done. In each case, despite the similarity of situation, they are quite different and distinct individuals. The final scene in The Catcher in the Rye is as good as anything that Salinger has written, which means very good indeed. So are a number of other episodes. But the book as a whole is disappointing, and not merely because it is a reworking of a theme that one begins to suspect must obsess the author. Holden Caulfield, the main character who tells his own story, is an extraordinary portrait, but there is too much of him. He describes himself early on and, with the sureness of a wire recording, he remains strictly in character throughout:

I shook my head. I shake my head quite a lot. "Boy!" I said. I also say "Boy!" quite a lot. Partly because I have a lousy vocabulary and partly because I act quite young for my age sometimes. I was sixteen then, and I'm seventeen now, and sometimes I act like I'm about thirteen. It's really ironical because I'm six foot two and I have gray hair. I really do. The one side of my head—the right side is full of millions of gray hairs. I've had them ever since I was a kid. And yet I still act sometimes like I was only about twelve.

In the course of 277 pages the reader wearies of this kind of explicitness, repetition and adolescence, exactly as one would weary of Holden himself. And this reader at least suffered from an irritated feeling that Holden was not quite so sensitive and perceptive as he, and his creator, thought he was. In any case he is so completely self-centered that the other characters who wander through the book —with the notable exception of his sister Phoebe—have nothing like his authenticity. The Catcher in the Rye is a brilliant tour-de-force, but in a writer of Salinger's undeniable talent one expects something more.

Anne L. Goodman July 19 ,19 

J.D Stalinger

Holden Caulfield