Catcher.Rye.3

So...again on Catcher... today I reached chapter 17 (wow..i need to finish it by monday), and I hit a point where I was kind of shocked at Holden. He was on his date with Sally and they had decided to go skating at Radio City. After realizing how horrible they both were at skating, they went to order drinks (Holden drinks something every few paragraphs). They started off with a normal conversation, and then all of a sudden, Holden gets this plan to run off with Sally in his friends car to Massachusetts and Vermont where they would stay in cabin camps, he would get a job, and they would get married. He starts yelling this plan at Sally and I don't think he was in his right mind at the moment, because Sally keeps telling him to stop yelling, and he seriously believes he wasn't. She gets upset and tells he how they are still only kids and how his plan is ridiculous. After fighting for a while he just turns around and says that she is a "royal pain in the ass". I mean seriously, he is proposing one minute and saying that she gets on his nerves the next. 

This section of the book is important though, because it shows how Holden doesn't want to grow up like everyone else. He doesn't want to go to school and then college and then off to a job with a briefcase. I'm not really sure if I know what he wants, and I don't even think HE knows what he wants...but its not the normal everyday life of everyone else. He doesn't want a "phoney" life. 

Anyways...I'm off to continue in my reading....woot...woot...

Catcher.Rye.2

So...to continue on the topic of The Catcher and the Rye...I feel that as I continue reading, Holden keeps getting more and more unstable. He gets even more upset and depressed as he goes along and he also has some incredibly random spurts of happiness. His emotions get harder and harder to follow until it is just incredibly annoying. It seems that at a point he is going to get so upset with himself and the messed up world around him, that he is going to burst. 

Another thing that was annoying in the book, was how Holden kept calling other people "phonies" when he is one himself. He repeats this word over and over describing people and their actions even though he is doing the exact same things himself. For example, right before he goes on his date with Sally he says that he "didn't feel much like going." Then, as soon as he sees her, he says, "I felt like marrying her the minute I saw her. I'm crazy. I didn't even like her much, and yet all of a sudden I felt like I was in love with her and wanted to marry her." Besides the fact that he admitted to his lunacy, which is bad enough in itself, Holden says he wants to MARRY her. Then, when he gets in the car with her, he tells her that he loves her! I mean seriously, how phoney and hypocritical can you get?!?! 

Catcher.Rye

So to begin my blogging... I am being forced by my english teacher (in a good way) to write about the book, The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. I have read up to page 96 so far and to tell you the truth, I don't really understand what the point of it is. Maybe I am still not far enough along, but in my opinion, SOME kind of purpose should be revealed by the middle of a story. So far it seems like the author just felt like writing down as many upsetting and depressing things possible about a boy of the name Holden Caulfield. I'm not saying that the writing is bad, or that the book doesn't interest me at all, but the excessive cursing really gets me frustrated. Also, the constant talk about sex is sort of unnecessary. It almost seems like the purpose of the book is just to talk about taboo subjects. 

I remember when my sister read it in her sophomore year and she absolutely despised it. It was completely against what she stands for and it made her think about things that she didn't want to. I think that the mental pictures that the book creates is one of the worst things about it. My sister was extremely hurt and depressed just by reading about Holden and his lifestyle. I also can definitely understand why some parents had put it on the banned book list. Though I think people should have the option to read whatever they want, I am not exactly sure how I feel about it being in a high school curriculum. I know that most kids are more aware than they should be about certain subjects involved in the book, but I don't think its a good thing to shove it in their faces either. Also, parents should have some control over what their kids are being influenced from. That's why they are here, to restrain us crazy teenagers from the stuff that we think is cool, but is really just going to hurt us in the long run. 

Anyways... there's a tiny brain poop about The Catcher in the Rye. 

...I don't get the title AT ALL, by the way...