Weblog 16 - Is Holden simply a hypocrite?

Holden's first impression is that of a person who hates people. It does not matter if he knows the people around him or not, all that he does is hate them for who they are. This personality of his is visible in every chapter of the book. Is this simply because he is a hypocrite? No.
There are many reasons as to why Holden acts this way. First, he is from a family where everyone except for him is intelligent; this fact puts a lot of pressure on him and therefore he starts acting in the way he does. As said in the book Alai was one of the smartest people in their family, D.B. is really smart as well, and Phoebe is also very smart. This leaves Holden feeling like he is disappointment to his parents and therefore his outlook on people in general becomes negative.
Second, Alai's death has a very big effect on Holden's emotional condition. This can be seen when he is lying down in the hotel and whispering to Alai, and also when he is crossing the road. Alai was one of the few people that Holden really liked and when he died Holden became so depressed that he broke windows with his fist and ended up with a permanent injury. It is possible that that event in his life changed his perspective a lot and he started looking at everything in a very negative way.
Third, Holden does not have anyone to talk to. He doesn't really have any good friends, he never talks to his parents about his problems. He likes keeping things to himself. This means that when he has had to solve all his problems by himself, he never turned to anyone for help. Eventually he started looking after himself and stopped caring for others. Thus, his negative personality became very solid in him.

Catcher in the Rye ch: 10-21 discussion questions

d. We first meet Phoebe the bottom of page 161. She displays some qualities and idiosyncrasies that otherwise Holden has found despicable in others such as interest in the new types of gadgets in cars, wanting to direct the conversation without regards to the needs of the person listening, naming people as a conversation, watches and criticizes movies, etc. Why do you believe Holden doesn’t draw the same conclusions about Phoebe that the does about the others he interacts with and accuses of phoniness?

Holden is a very negative-minded person. He always likes to point out how people are phony. The only time he is not pointing out phoniness is when he is talking (or thinking) about children. He is always very enthusiastic, happy, and positive towards children. That is why he does point out Phoebe's phoniness. Then the question arises: Why is Holden always positive toward children?
The answer to that is fairly simple, he wants to protect their innocence. He believes that children are originally very innocent and good at heart, but when they start growing they become phony, mean, and violent. For example when he says he wanted to become the catcher in the rye. It's like a field in which children are playing games, and beyond the field is a huge crater. Holden does not want the children fall into the crater. In this example the field of rye is childhood, the crater is adulthood, and the game they are playing is innocence. Holden wants to keep the children from falling into adulthood. He wants them to hold their innocence even when they grow older.
From the example above a conclusion can be drawn that Phoebe is a symbol of childhood in front of him, and he does not want to see that symbol lose its innocence and turn into a phony adult. Therefore he does not point out Phoebe's phoniness. He believes that she does not display any kind of phoniness and everything she does is merely due to her innocence. Even when she shows interest in the new types of gadgets in cars, wanting to direct the conversation without regards to the needs of the person listening, naming people as a conversation, watches and criticizes movies, etc. Holden does not find it phony, instead he finds it adorable. This is also why Holden always talks positively towards any kid.

Reasoning for book cover of Catcher in the Rye

As can be seen the cover page is in black and white which gives the cover kind of a dim, negative effect. This portrays Holden's character as he always looks at things in a negative way. When he looks at people he calls them phony, and when he looks at things he calls them bad, useless, or not worth buying. He always criticizes people and things and never looks at their positive traits. His character can be portrayed by the colors black and white. Black and white colors are usually given to paintings or cover pages to give them a sad, depressing look. It is not hard to see that Holden is a kind of a depressing person, therefore the colors black and white suit him. In the cover page he is wearing his hat with the peak pointed back which is exactly how he likes it, the hat is one of the only things that he carries around and appreciates. This gives the hat a unique value and therefore it is important to have it in the cover page for "The Catcher in the Rye". He is reading "The Great Gatsby" because literature is one of the only things that he cares about. Whenever he is talking about literature he seems happy, he is usually interested to talk about literature, not like other subjects which he hates. His love and skill for literature makes it extremely important for it to be present in the cover page for the book. In the background there is an open landscape which portrays the fact he has nothing planned for his future, shows that he is just a person moving in a direction with no goal in mind. Overall the cover page shows Holden walking with no endlessly with no goal in mind, walking with only literature to accompany him, and a hat with which he is obsessed.

The Catcher Of The Rye Cover Page

Why do you think Holden cries before he leaves Pency?

There are many explanations as to why Holden cries before leaving Pency. One explanation would be that he was sad at the fact that he had been kicked out of yet another school. Another explanation would be that he knew he would have to go to another school, he knew he wouldn't be able to do so well, and he knew that he would be kicked out again. Yet another explanation would be that he felt lonely, he had almost no friends at Pency, he had no family members he cared about. He pretty much didn't have anyone to talk to about his troubles and insecurities. It is also possible that he was thinking of all of these things while crying.
Holden is a person who likes to look at all the negative traits of a person, he shares his problems with no one, underestimates himself at every point, puts on a "tough guy" mask, and does not care about others. Looking at his traits the most obvious answer would be that he was tired of the process he had to go through almost every year. Getting into a new school, trying to fit in with everyone else, failing at academics, getting kicked out of the school. He knew that he would have to go through the process again and that fact made him sad.
Allie was a very intelligent kid, Phoebe is also very intelligent, and D.B. is also intelligent. Holden is the only one in the family who did not shine at academics. It makes him feel different and lonely. Pency is an example of his failure and therefore when he looks at the building the burden of being a disappointment makes him really sad and therefore he cries.
Holden is a very lonely person, he has no friends to share his feelings with. He relates his memories and feelings with objects such as Allie's glove, his hat, the typewriter, etc. Since he has no one to talk to he writes down his memories in the form of literature. While leaving the school he knows that he will be lonely again. He had become friends with Ackley and Stradlater but he was axed and was alone once again. The thought that he would have to leave the school and start anew at another school made him sad.
Holden was probably thinking of about one the three things above when he started crying. All the reasons make sense but one was probably enough to make him cry.

"Comin' Thro The Rye" by Robert Burns

"Comin' thro the rye" is a poem which does not tell much to the readers and therefore leaves them to make an understanding of their own. The first time a person tries to interpret a poem he/she thinks for the explanation is a very simple way but as the reader reads the poem multiple times he/she starts to understand the poem's actual meaning and what the author was trying to tell the readers. There are many ways to interpret the poem and reading the poem a number of times has helped me understand it better. My first impression was that the poem was about a girl who loved someone else but other people did not want her to be with him. It seemed like a simple poem with a simple meaning but as I read it again and again I realized that many of the words used were symbols and that there was a lot more to the poem than what I understood. The repetition used, the environment set up for the story, and the anonymity of the person who Jenny is going towards; all of these things tell the reader that the poem is much deeper than what my first impression was.
Jenny is a poor lady, due to the fact that she has suffered a lot, has a sexual relationship with the person she likes. She is going to meet him and in her way are many obstacles. The rye on the poem symbolizes the obstacles in Jenny's path. When she meets the person she is overjoyed and therefore cries when she kisses him. Their relationship is a probably a secret one because she does not want the world to care. She probably has a husband who she does not love and therefore has a relationship with another person and wants to keep it a secret so that she wont be bothered much with it.

How O'Brien highlights the difference between the "real world" and the "safe world".

Throughout the story O'Brien draws a line between the "real world" and the "safe world". The real world being Jimmy's world, the war, where men are die everyday, where the people live under extreme conditions, where life itself becomes a burden sometimes and needs to be carried by the men. The safe world being Martha's world, where they care about literature, have no danger to life, enjoy with friends, and live life to fulfill their dreams.
O'Brien compares the life of the people in both the worlds and shows the significant different. This is done mainly through the comparison of the life of Jimmy Cross and that of Martha. Even though the story is mainly about Jimmy's realization, it can be seen that a difference is established by the end of the story. Jimmy Cross even talks about the difference. "...she belonged elsewhere. He would shut down the daydreams. This was not Mount Sebastian, it was another world, where there were no pretty poems or midterm exams, a place where men died because of carelessness or gross stupidity"(O'Brien 383). This sentence is one of examples given by other to outline the two separate worlds.
Jimmy Cross lives in a world of pistols, machine guns, grenades, tanks, jet fighters, etc. and Martha lived in a world of poetry, shopping, beaches, parties, movies, etc.
The moments where Jimmy Cross escapes from reality are the moments where the differences can be noticed and these moments usually came after a description of their weapons was given. It can be noticed that by putting the story in such a format the author is actually trying to establish somewhat of a boundary between the two worlds. This pattern is followed till the second last page of the story where the story changes to a somewhat different format to describe the ending of the story.