Weblog 15 Question A

On page 140 of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is disgusted at a woman who cries while watching a movie, but refuses to take her son to the bathroom. She could not have done one more thing that would of made Holden madder. Let’s analyze the situation! First of all, Holden hates movies. He hates how society and human form is glamorized and portrayed in an unrealistic way to entertain people. However, the fact that some people, like the woman sitting next to him, fail to recognize the phoniness of the movie and are emotionally moved by the romanticized, happy-ending for everyone story, is pathetic to Holden. But, the woman’s actions after her crying make Holden even madder. A little while after Holden first recognizes the woman crying, he sees that the kid next to her, who appears to be her son, wants to go to the bathroom. However, the woman replies, “sit still and behave yourself.” (Holden 139) Not only is this woman pathetic because she is so moved by a story that solves itself, but she is so entertained by the movie, that she is neglecting her own son! Additionally, Holden despises the woman because she’s phonier than the movie. If you look closely, she says, “Behave yourself” to a child who has to go to the bathroom. Having to go to the bathroom is completely a natural cause that has exactly nothing to do with bad behavior, yet this woman lies to her son that he is behaving badly just to continue watching the movie. This is an excellent example of phoniness because this woman is conveying a false message, for greedy motives.

            There are many other people throughout the novel who are just like this. Towards the beginning of his “vacation,” Holden goes to a bar called, Ernie’s, and meets someone he roughly knows, named Lillian Simmons. During his conversation with her however, Lillian acts very nice and praises him for his good looks. However, Holden quickly realizes that Lillian is only being friendly to him so that she could strike up a good impression on Holden’s older brother, D.B. Like the woman who told her son to behave during the movie, Lillian is portraying a false image of herself for different motives.

            On the other hand, characters such as the kettle drummer Holden sees at Radio City, is the exact opposite of the two previous characters. Although he is very briefly mentioned and we don’t even get to know his name, Holden praises the kettle drummer for having a passion for what he does. Despite the fact that the kettle drums might seem like insignificant work, Holden loves the way the man on the kettle drums is enthusiastic about his job, and is eager to produce the best sound that he possibly can. Unlike the previous characters who were mentioned before, the kettle drummer does his work simply because he loves to do it, not because of other underlying motivations. 

Cover- Catcher in the Rye

     On the left side of my cover, I drew the "society" that Holden lives in. It's very city-like, which characterizes New York, but if you look closely, the faces of the people have two colors. I used two different colors for the faces of the people to represent phoniness. I interpreted the word, "phony" as a person who exposed themselves differently than who they actually were, or someone who did things, not out of good will, but for other, underlying motives. The two colors represent this because it conveys the message that people portray themselves in two (or more) different ways. Also, the fact that there are many people with two-colored faces exemplifies that phoniness is very widespread and common in our modern-day society.
     If you look at Holden, he is faced away from the phony people and society on the left. I purposely made Holden face the other direction because phoniness is society's biggest problem in Holden's eyes, and he is absolutely disgusted by phony people.
     On the right side of my cover page, I drew ducks, not only because Holden constantly wonders what happens to the ducks in the winter time, but because the ducks are very symbolic of him. Ducks migrate in the winter time to warmer climates. Similarly, Holden shares the same instinct as ducks because he flees from bad situations. Additionally, if you look carefully at Holden's face, hopefully you'll observe that Holden is looking at the ducks with awe. The reason is because the ducks also resemble freedom, something that Holden desires greatly. Holden wants to be in a phony-free society, he wants to live without the restrictions that his parents and teachers enforce, and he wants to be free from his confusion, caused by his inability to understand his own feelings and communicate his own feelings with other people.


     

My Cover - Catcher in the Rye

Why do you thin Holden cries before he leaves Pencey??

     After his fight with Stradlater, Holden decides to leave Pencey Prep and hang out in New York City for a few days before going home. However, as he leaves his dormitory, Holden shouts out, "Sleep tight! Ya' morons," at the top of his lungs and sheds some tears as well. Holden's crying is quite interesting because his negative thoughts and feelings towards the people at Pencey strongly suggests that he hates the school. After some thought I came to the conclusion that Holden cries while leaving Pencey for multiple reasons.
     The first reason Holden cries is because he didn't actually "hate" his school. Holden is a very critical thinker and pinpoints the negative aspects of everyone and everything, and because the vast majority of the book is composed of Holden's negative observations, readers form the bias that Holden hates his school. However, if you look at Holden's actions, rather than his monologue, it is evident that he actually likes some aspects of the people he says so many bad things about. For example, when Stradlater tells Holden to do his english homework for him, he does it without much complain, and although Holden goes on and on about how dirty Ackley is, he goes to the movies with him and goes to talk to him after his fight with Stradlater.
     The second reason that Holden cries as he leaves Pencey is simply because he was disappointed in himself as well as his community. Throughout the book, Holden exemplifies an interesting disability to communicate with other people. He doesn't know how to express his feelings and because his thoughts and emotions aren't presented externally, there are times when he does a lot of unexpected things, like when he punches Stradlater in the face, or when he horses around with his friends. Because of his lack of communication, Holden gets very angry at the people around him for not being able to understand him, which is why he is disappointed at his community. However, it's not only with other people that Holden can't communicate. I think Holden has a lot of trouble understanding his own emotions. One of the quotes that is constantly repeated throughout the book is, "I don't know." Even while he's shedding tears while leaving Pencey, Holden says he doesn't know why he's crying. Holden's lack of understanding of his own emotions causes a lot of confusion, which is why say that he's not only disappointed in others, but himself as well.
    Lastly, the final reason why I think Holden cries as he leaves Pencey is because his departure marks the beginning of his reluctant submission towards phoniness. Right before he leaves Pencey, Holden sells his typewriter, one of the few devices that helps him communicate his own feelings, that gave him a better understanding of himself. By abandoning his typewriter, Holden blocks his emotions and feelings and submits to the phoniness of society. This can also be seen through his actions after he leaves Pencey. Right after leaving his school, Holden begins to practice phoniness very actively. He says a lot of lies to capture the attention of a classmate's mother who he meets coincidentally on a bus, and presents himself as a 21 year old, Jim Steele, to the people he meets in New York.