The Catcher in the Rye (blog 4)

The book ended differently than I expected. Instead of having an obvious conclusion or change in Holden it just kind of stopped. I suppose that's what makes it a good novel; the fact that you have to figure it out yourself. In my opinion it was much simpler when books just told you what you should think at the end. Those never keep you up at night thinking though.

This last part of the book mostly contains Holden and Phoebe fighting. In my opinion Holden and Phoebe are just the same person in different situations. They both do dumb stuff just because the feel like it. "I forgot she always sleeps in D.B.'s room when he's away in Hollywood or some place. She likes it because it's the biggest room in the house. Also because it has this big old madman desk in it that D.B. bought off some lady alcoholic in Philadelphia, and this big, gigantic bed that's about ten miles wide and ten miles long. I don't know where he bought the bed. Anyway, old Phoebe likes to sleep in D.B.'s room when he's away, and he lets her." (page 206). This shows that Phoebe is also attached to family and is a bit eccentric just like Holden. Holden's experiences in New York seem to make him think of himself less and pay more attention to the people that matter, although you can still see that his quirky personality is in tact. "I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. I was damn near bawling, I felt so damn happy, if you want to know the truth. I don't know why. It was just that she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around and around, in her blue coat and all. God, I wish you could have been there." (page 275). This seems like a pretty odd thing to get so happy over, especially since it's raining so mush and they were just fighting, but I think that it's a break through for Holden.

I think that all the fighting with Phoebe made Holden realize something very important to the story. I believe that he realized that things won't be given to him and that he has to deserve to be around those he loves. Phoebe really brings this out of him. It's not that Phoebe wouldn't love him if he kept acting dumb but her being disappointed in him was enough to cause a change. "Then all of a sudden, she said, 'Oh, why did you do it?' She meant why did I get the axe again. It made me sort of sad, the way she said it." (page 217). He doesn't seem as sad when she's mad but it bothers him that she's disappointed in him. He decides to make a run for the next day. Phoebe gives him enough reason to stay though and eventually she forgives him for not offering to take her with him. I think that the reason Phoebe is so effective on him while nothing else was making him more mature is that he was being held back by his past mistakes. He messed up with Jane and that was enough to get him moving and searching for an answer but that issue did nothing to point him in the right direction. Also, the death of his brother Allie made things more difficult for him although that helped him with the direction to go. Phoebe was the final straw because she needed him to help her then and there.

Over all I really liked this book. It didn't come out and hit you over the head with what it was trying to say. I'm sure that there are many more interpretations of what happened then what I have thought of for it.

The Catcher in the Rye (blog three)

After his awful date with Sally he has no idea what to do with the rest of his time until he's supposed to get home on Wednesday. He eventually calls one of his friends who is in college named Luce. They decide to go to a bar together. But since that isn't for several hours hours Holden plenty of free time.

Honestly, I don't think that Holden should be left alone with free time. I mean you can see how ridiculous he gets when he doesn't have something scheduled. You could easily argue that having free time is what makes a lot of Holden's problems, if not all of them. For one thing when he isn't doing anything he tends to think about Jane. "When I left the skating rink I felt sort of hungry, so I went to this drugstore and had a Swiss cheese sandwich and a malted, and then I went in a phone booth. I thought maybe I might give old Jane another buzz and see if she was home yet." (page 175). I don't think that this is good for him because even though he likes Jane and she's one of the few things that he enjoys talking about his thoughts on her seem to be slightly self destructive. It's not that the memories he mentions are sad but he always seems sad after he thinks of her. I would like to know the thing that changed them to how they are now. The way he talks they used to be very close but now he only talks about when they used to be close but they don't seem to be very close any more from the way he talks about her. I hope that it was just something stupid he did so he can fix it.

Once Holden meets up with Luce he gets really drunk. He acts incredibly stupid and calls Sally. He originally wanted to call Jane, but thankfully he wasn't in the mood by the time he got out to the phone booth. I think that Holden probably should have just waited things out rather than to call people when he's clearly not thinking strait. "When I was really drunk, I started with that stupid business with the bullet in my guts again. I was the only guy at the bar with a bullet in their guts. I kept putting my hand under my jacket, on my stomach and all, to keep the blood from dripping all over the place." (page 195). Anyone who reads this can easily see that Holden is not capable of much of anything at this point.

After walking around awhile he decides to head back to his parents apartment just to see his little sister and then leave. Phoebe is a pretty interesting character. First of all she doesn't like her middle name and always changes it. "That killed me. Her middle name is Josephine, for God's sake, not Weatherfield. She doesn't like it, though. Every time I see her she's got a new middle name for herself."(page 208). I think that her new name may have something to do with one of three things: she is just really creative, she doesn't like her parents or forms of control and wants to rebel against them, she doesn't like herself and feels the need to change, or some combination of the three.

 I do believe that she is creative because even then I don't think that Weatherfield was all that common a name, but that seems like an odd thing to do just to be creative. It could be possible that she doesn't like her parents, this would show in the fact that she moved out of the room they gave her. I think that the third option is the most correct though. Some of the things that would possibly lead to that would be that all her siblings have left her and that her parents don't seem to be around that much. You can see that she's used to having her parents gone when Holden asks what time they'll be back. Phoebe says, "No, not till very late. Daddy took the car so they wouldn't have to worry about trains. We have a radio in it now! Except that Mother said nobody can play it when the car's in traffic." (page 211). This shows how unimportant the fact that her parents are gone is to Phoebe; she quickly skips over that and starts talking about other stuff. She's also very affectionate to try to keep people around her (or at leats that's what I think). The fact that she changes her name seems to point to the idea that she wants to change herself for other people because she doesn't feel like she's good enough as she is.

The Catcher in the Rye (blog 2)

Holden decides to leave Pency Prep after he just can't deal with his roommate Stradlater anymore. Basically Holden is just really mad because Stradlater went on a date with Holden's old neighbor and didn't really treat her the way Holden thought she ought to have been treated. Apparently Holden cared about this girl a lot. Sradlater gets mad at Holden and knocks him out by accident. I wouldn't blame him though Holden was acting kind of crazy. Holden decides to leave the school even though he isn't technically supposed to leave until Wednesday. I think this is an irresponsible thing for him to do. It sort of sets the stage of how childish he is since this is a coming of age story. To me it seems like Holden is just running away from his problems.

Holden then heads out on what seems to me a ridiculously long night. To map out the events he takes a train from Pency Prep to New York, takes a cab ride to a hotel, goes to a bar, takes a cab to another bar, and then comes back to the hotel where he gets a prostitute. I know that it really wouldn't be that difficult in New York where you can find what you want within a block or two of you but being from a small town with practically nothing in it and no subway to get anywhere makes doing all of that in the twelve hours of so that it's dark seem like mission impossible. I know I'm not from Peyton but that one seems like a bit of a stretch.
The next day he seems dead set on seeing someone he actually knows. He tries to call the person he wants to see the most, the girl he had a fight with Stradlater about, but her mother answers and Holden doesn't want to talk to her he just hangs up. I thought this was kind of rude and a dumb move by him at first but then I realized that they didn't have caller ID back then, plus he was at a payphone. He calls this other random girl he knows and invites her to the movies. After the movies he pretty much goes crazy on her and asks her to run away with him so they can live in the woods and someday get married. She's pretty polite about it but you can tell she thinks he's crazy.

This showed that Holden is a very in the moment type of guy. He really doesn't like this girl and says he never would have ran away with her even if she had said yes. On the other hand he says that in the moment he really did mean it. I think that this goes back to him leaving school early just because he wanted to, or rather just because he was mad. So far in the story he has showed that he isn't responsible or really capable thinking things through when an idea strikes him.

On another note, this book doesn't really seem like it was written all that long ago. There are some key points that you can look at and say that they definitely didn't happen now. For example, tickets to a new play certainly wouldn't be cheaper than new movie tickets now. But on the other hand the general activities don't seem very different from what people do today.

The Catcher in the Rye (blog one)

Holden Caulfield is sixteen and goes to a private school called Pencey Prep. Or, at least he was since he failed four out of five of his classes that semester so he's not invited back for the second part of the year. It's kind of frustrating that this guy has all of these opportunities but doesn't go after them. His parents have money but really don't seem to care to much what their son does. Also it's not like Holden is incapable of doing the classes he just claims that they don't interest him. He wrote a note at the bottom of a final he failed for his teacher that read, "Dear Mr. Spencer. That is all I know about the Egyptians. I can't seem to get very interested in them although you lectures are very interesting. It is all right with me if you flunk me though as I am flunking everything else except English anyway. Respectfully yours, Holden Caulfield." (page 17). I think this shows that he could easily learn this but isn't quite interested in putting in the work.

I think that Holden has some major family issues. As I said before his parents seem distant and don't really show all that much interest besides getting a new school for him every time he gets kicked out of the last one. Also his younger brother died from cancer. I think that this made him very trusting and faithful to the people who are very close to him and kind of distrusting of anyone he doesn't know well. Almost like he could save his brother Allie by holding in and protecting all the old, safe and known things while pushing away the new, unknown and questionable things. It's easy to see his difference in attitude between his brother Allie and a person in his dorm. He remembers his brother in this way: "You'd have liked him. He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent. He was terrifically intelligent. His teachers were always writing letters to my mother, telling her what a pleasure it was having a boy like Allie in their class. And they weren't just shooting the crap. They really meant it." (pages 49-50). He continues on in this loving and fond tone. He also uses the same tone for his neighbor that he really trusts and acts very protective of her. On the other hand when he talks about Robert Ackley he seems annoyed and mad. This is how he talks to Ackley: "He came over and stood right in my light. 'Hey,' I said. 'I've read this same sentence about twenty times since you came in.'
Anybody else except Ackley would've taken the goddam hint. Not him, though. 'Think they'll make you pay for 'em?' he said.
'I don't know, and I don't give a damn. How 'bout sitting down or something, Ackley kid? You're right in my goddam light.' He didn't like it when you called him 'Ackley kid.' He was always telling me I was a goddam kid because I was sixteen and he was eighteen. It drove him mad when I called him 'Ackley kid.'" (page 28).
As you can see he reacts much differently to Ackley than Allie.

I think that since this is a coming of age story part of the process of growing up for Holden will be learning to trust people and let them into his life. Also a side note, I really like the way Salinger uses Italics to show more meaning and make it easier to see the way people are saying something rather than just what they say. It adds a whole new level to the story.

1984 (Blog Three)

This section of the book shows that there is really no right or wrong side in this fight. Both sides are (hopefully) trying to make society better for the people. At least they are claiming that this is their ultimate goal. Both sides are willing to use horrible tactics to complete meet their ends.

The Party, most likely the more powerful of the two, tries to keep control by using misinformation to control the public opinion of them. They have countless workers dedicated to the single task of editing and rewriting the history. Part of their motto is completely dedicated to this, "Ignorance is Strength" (page 201). This shows that they are outright telling their citizens that 'you don't know the whole story'. This would seem very unsettling to anyone who heard their government say this. The proles seem to swallow it extremely easily since their concerns are far from the government. The government makes it look like they are right and have always been right even though any one who pays an ounce of attention to the information that is actually publicised could easily spot that it is frequently changing and being changed.

The Brotherhood pretty much just wants to tear down the Party. They plan on being incredibly violent, never seeing any results and they don't seem to have much of a plan if they ever get to the point where they could enforce it. Their questioning of Winston and Julia seems to suggest a lot of  horrible things they would be asked to do and the only thing they object to is being separated. For example one of the questions was, "If, for example, it would somehow serve our interests to throw sulphuric acid in a child's face- are you prepared to do that?" (page 188). I think that this show that their only interest is defeating the Party and not improving the lives of society.

I have two theories about the Brotherhood. First that everyone is a part of it but everyone is unaware since they are only given the names of a few people to keep them from confessing the names of all the brotherhood members. Second, I think it's possible that the Brotherhood is made up by the Party to have people do the Parties dirty work. Both of these seem possible since the members of the Brotherhood are so poorly informed due to the death grip the Party has on everyone.

1984 (blog two)

This part of 1984 certainly has some surprising twists and turns. Winston starts to Sneak away from the power of the party instead of just hiding in his house. We learn some things about other characters and the ideas somehow get more depressing.

Winston starts getting careless as far as being vaporized goes. He's walking around the prole's area when he goes to the same place he found the journal at. He buys something else a paper weight that is apparently useless. "The thing was doubly attractive because of it's apparent uselessness," (page 105). To me This seems to show how Winston's idea of good differs from the party's. Winston just thinks it's cool because it's old and useless while the party would think it odd, a reason for suspicion, and well useless.

When Winston leaves the store he is 'caught' by the dark haired girl mentioned earlier in the book. The one that was potentially a member of the thought police.  He thinks of killing her but decides not to. I find it a little disturbing that he so quickly and easily jumps to 'oh man, should I kill her? Will that solve all my problems?' No Winston, no it will not. Luckily for him, he doesn't.

The dark haired girl isn't actually evil. She tells Winston that she loves him and they arrange to meet in a safe place. All in a completely elaborate way of course to escape detection. Although they both hate the party they do it in completely different ways.

Winston hates the government because of the moral wrongness of their power over the people and how it is exercised. This is shown by how concerned he is with the fact that people are being erased, history being rewritten and the endless lies that have the people believing whatever the government wants them to. Julia, the dark haired girl, doesn't really seem to care much for any of that. "Such things did not appear to horrify her." (page168). She seems more interested in the fact that she is absolutely controlled and that she doesn't get to do what she wants to. To me, she seems to be more interested in the actual evading of the party than the reasons for doing it. This shows in the way she is very meticulous and ingenious in planning meetings and  hide-outs.

The new depressing idea for this part is the fact that the only way to 'win' against the government is to not believe in it. It doesn't matter what you say or do. Well that doesn't sound like all too much to hope for. First of all if everything you say or do goes against your beliefs (totally disregarding the fact that I think that is your biggest loss) it will only ever help you, it could only possibly mean something to you. In one day, or more specificly one death, everything that was worth is lost. If you know what you believe stand up and say it before you die. In my opinion, it is totally void otherwise.

1984 (blog one)

One thing that is repeated several times in this book is the fact that it's not necessarily 1984. The fact that so many things are under suspicion and the repetition of it means that it's pretty important. "A sense of complete helplessness had descended upon him. To begin with, he did not know with any certainty that this was 1984." (page 9).

I wasn't quite sure how far off Winston believed the year was. He's judging by the year of his birth what approximate year it is. "... he was fairly sure that his age was thirty-nine, and he believed that he had been born in 1944 or 1945; but it was never possible nowadays to pin down any date within a year or two." (page 9). The revolution supposedly happened recently enough that people are still alive from that time that were old enough to remember it. You can never be sure though since a government that's constantly changing the news from the past could easily stage those people and ideas.

If you follow the general idea though it seems that it is honestly around 1984. then the revolution would have happened somewhere around the thirties or forties. Winston prompts the old man about the time before the revolution and all the wars using the year 1925, "... you have lived half your life before the Revolution. In 1925, for instance, you were already grown up." (page 101).

Interestingly enough, the copyright date for 1984 is 1949. George Orwell seems to be suggesting that the ideas of this book and that form of government was already coming into existence at that point in time.

Going back a bit, Winston writes in his journal about all these changes to the past, "I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY." (page 89).

I believe that the government is doing this for several reasons. First of all, they want to appear all powerful and wise; overall a good leader. That point isn't really all that important since the people are already under their thumb. Next, This totally and completely discredits anyone who wants to speak out against the government. It also gives the government the power to twist that person's words and turn them into some kind of national enemy that they have a whole two minutes of hate directed towards. Finally, if the government was overthrown, the new government would have no history to base themselves off of and no tested plan. This last one seems to be mostly out of spite. The government seems to have everyone by the throat.