sc15pcz
Mar 11, 2009
Writing Feedback / Catcher in the Rye: reality vs. fantasy [20]
directions: interpret Holden's use of lies, false identities and daydream fantasies. what seems to be the purpose of each. make sure to tie each together thematically and develop the specific importance of each unique example without simply repeating some general idea. make sure to organize thought well, have everything connect back to the thesis, and use specific analysis.
this is a 10th grade high school essay.
Phoebe Zajac
Mr. Hagar
English 2 Intensive
16 March 2009
Holden Caulfield: A Crazy Fool, or a Depressed Realist?
"I swear to God I'm crazy. I admit it" (124). Holden, the main character of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, is a troubled teenager dealing with normal teenage angst, and, like many teenagers, he becomes depressed and tries to escape. At first, he escapes by physical means (drinking, smoking, etc.), but eventually creates his own fantasy world in which to drown his sorrows and make his life more meaningful. Holden can appear crazy as he pretends to be wounded or older, and he sometimes imagines running off to a ranch or a cabin in the middle of nowhere, but this does not mean he is not realistic. This paper shows that Holden knows how messed up the world is and that he simply cannot be happy when he is so aware of everything. Holden is a pragmatist.
As he blunders through New York, Holden eventually comes to regard life as a game, a battle of the phonies vs. the non phonies, which he does not want to take part in-for fear of losing his sense of self. At the beginning of the book, Dr. Thurmer, the headmaster at Pencey Prep, talks to him about how "life is a game that one plays according to the rules" (8). Holden pretends to listen and agree when he is really thinking, "Game, my ass. Some game" (8). He realizes how, "if you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all right" (8), how if you are rich and have everything handed to you, and are content with being fake and phony, then it is fun and you can play and not worry about anything. However, if you get on the "other side" (8), then you are screwed. For him the game begins to symbolize this war between the two sides. When he is talking about the "hot-shots" he says, "...then it's a game, all right" (8), and his tone is sarcastic and resentful. He is always talking about his hatred of the phonies, yet he is constantly acting phony himself, when he wears his hunting hat even though he isn't a hunter, or pretends to be a middle-aged man in order to get served alcohol, he even admits it himself, "I hate saying corny things...but when I'm with somebody that's corny, I always act corny too" (60). When he is trying to make a date with the coat-check woman in a bar, he "show her [his] goddam gray hair and [tells] her [he][is] forty-two," (153). "I was only horsing around" (153) he says, but he is acting phony just like the people he despises so much. Unlike them, Holden is not happy to be phony, and therefore not a hot-shot; however, he isn't an "other" either, because he has money, and is pretty good looking. Consequently he is alone, neither true phony, nor true non-phony, he knows if he gave into the phoniness he could win the game, but he despises them for being able to be content with the phoniness, and he is jealous because he can't. He is completely aware of all the bad and annoying things, so he cannot be content with sitting around and pretending to be oblivious, therefore he is on the outside, "way the hell up on Thomsen Hill" (2), just watching the game.
Whenever the pain becomes too much, Holden fakes life-threatening physical ailments so that he can be treated and possibly cured. He knows there is something wrong with him, and he wants to be able to fix it and just be normal, but he goes about it in the wrong way. When he is on a train, he runs into a classmate's mother, and instead of just saying he is sick, or they were let out early, or something more believable, he tells her he has a brain tumor. "It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain" (58); now, this may seem childish, or to be the hallucinations of an insane person; however, he is merely expressing how he feels about himself. His awareness is the tumor that is on the outside, and can be removed very easily, by giving into the phoniness and becoming just like everyone else. The tumor seems to symbolize his pain and confusion, and how he wants to remove it all from his mind, but that would leave him with a wound, a bullet wound to be more precise. Several times he imagines, while drunk, that he has been shot, and he is stumbling around holding his gut "to keep the blood from dripping all over the place...concealing the fact that [he][is] a wounded sonuvabitch" (150). He pretends to not want anyone to know he's been shot; nevertheless, he wants to call up Jane, the girl he likes. He goes to a payphone, but he doesn't really want to completely mess things up with her, so he calls Sally instead. He acts like he is hiding his pain, but all he really wants is for someone to care that he is hurt, enough to come patch him up and take care of him. He seems to think he is crazy, and needs taking care of, but his "craziness" is merely depression from knowing the truth and not being able to block it out, unlike those "goddam" phonies.
Holden has trouble relating to the people around him, so he fantasizes about the possibility of escaping the phoniness of the city and going somewhere peaceful with someone to whom he can connect. He is always thinking about running off to a cabin or ranch somewhere far away, even asking his friend Sally Hayes if she will go away with him. "It's everything." he says to her, "I hate living in New York and all" (130), he hates everything about the city, he goes on to rant about all the things he hates, the transportation, the elevators, the pants, the cars, the phony people who like the phony actors-basically everything that makes the city the city. However, Sally has her doubts, the way Holden talks, he jumps from one thing to the other, and Sally cannot follow his train of thought, so she is confused and scared by his sudden, "crazy" outburst. She says, "...we're both practically children. And did you ever stop to think what you'd do if you didn't get a job when your money ran out? We'd starve to death" (132). She doesn't understand what the cabin means to him, and she can't imagine why he would hate the city so much. In some ways Holden's idea appears mature and realistic, in that he wants to grow up and marry Sally and be independent, but he hasn't really thought it through, and it would be very immature for him to just leave town, with no proper plan, with a girl he doesn't even really like, and go live out in the middle of nowhere. He feels trapped in the city and hates it, but he can't just run off like that. Besides, they "both hated each other's guts" (133) after only a little while together, so they couldn't stand each other's company for very long. As the "Catcher in the Rye," Holden attempts to catch Sally and stop her from being sucked into societies game and losing her innocence, by taking her away from the city.
Holden's views on maturity change as the story unfolds, and he slowly begins to recognize that fantasy cannot last forever; he has to either grow up or be left behind. At first, Holden imagines himself to be the "Catcher in the Rye," he is the one who has to run around on top of a cliff, and "catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff" (173). He thinks has to stop all the little kids from making a mistake and falling, which in reality is maturing. Holden himself is like a little kid in many regards, always making things up, making rash decisions, and not planning for the future. He has not matured at a normal rate, so now he is stuck trying not to "fall off the cliff," and lose his innocence, or let any of the others off the cliff. He feels that in doing so, he will fall even further behind the kids. He is scared to take the plunge and mature, so he wont let others do it either. He struggles with this concept, trying to remain innocent in that respect. Nevertheless, after becoming extremely depressed, he sees his sister Phoebe on the carousel, and realizes she still has some of her innocence, when she is still "mad about the carousel" (210), and she isn't too big to ride it, even though he previously believed she had lost it. Holden discovers that losing your innocence is not so bad. Falling off the cliff isn't the problem, you must try to "grab for the gold ring" (211), meaning maturity, or you will never make it. He realizes that "if they fall off, they fall off, but its bad if you say anything to them" (211), he cant change what happens; it's out of his hands. Everyone has to mature sooner or later. They must find their maturity on their own, and learn to pick themselves back up after they fall, or they will never make it in life. If you say anything or try to help them along, then later they will fall and wont know how to help themselves. He sits watching Phoebe on the carousel in the pouring rain, so happy that he "was damn near bawling" (213) just to see his sister having fun and enjoying being a kid while she still can.
Holden's fantasies throughout the book seem to be "crazy," but they are just exaggerations of his feelings, desires, and depression from knowing how messed up the world is, culminating into a world he wishes to be real, no matter how insane. He becomes more and more depressed as he tries to bring his fantasies into reality, but realizes that he can't make them unite, and he has to find a way to be happy in reality, even though he knows the truth about the world. Holden finally realizes that, after all, reality isn't always so horrible; there are good things that can block out the bad, if he just lets them.
directions: interpret Holden's use of lies, false identities and daydream fantasies. what seems to be the purpose of each. make sure to tie each together thematically and develop the specific importance of each unique example without simply repeating some general idea. make sure to organize thought well, have everything connect back to the thesis, and use specific analysis.
this is a 10th grade high school essay.
Phoebe Zajac
Mr. Hagar
English 2 Intensive
16 March 2009
Holden Caulfield: A Crazy Fool, or a Depressed Realist?
"I swear to God I'm crazy. I admit it" (124). Holden, the main character of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, is a troubled teenager dealing with normal teenage angst, and, like many teenagers, he becomes depressed and tries to escape. At first, he escapes by physical means (drinking, smoking, etc.), but eventually creates his own fantasy world in which to drown his sorrows and make his life more meaningful. Holden can appear crazy as he pretends to be wounded or older, and he sometimes imagines running off to a ranch or a cabin in the middle of nowhere, but this does not mean he is not realistic. This paper shows that Holden knows how messed up the world is and that he simply cannot be happy when he is so aware of everything. Holden is a pragmatist.
As he blunders through New York, Holden eventually comes to regard life as a game, a battle of the phonies vs. the non phonies, which he does not want to take part in-for fear of losing his sense of self. At the beginning of the book, Dr. Thurmer, the headmaster at Pencey Prep, talks to him about how "life is a game that one plays according to the rules" (8). Holden pretends to listen and agree when he is really thinking, "Game, my ass. Some game" (8). He realizes how, "if you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all right" (8), how if you are rich and have everything handed to you, and are content with being fake and phony, then it is fun and you can play and not worry about anything. However, if you get on the "other side" (8), then you are screwed. For him the game begins to symbolize this war between the two sides. When he is talking about the "hot-shots" he says, "...then it's a game, all right" (8), and his tone is sarcastic and resentful. He is always talking about his hatred of the phonies, yet he is constantly acting phony himself, when he wears his hunting hat even though he isn't a hunter, or pretends to be a middle-aged man in order to get served alcohol, he even admits it himself, "I hate saying corny things...but when I'm with somebody that's corny, I always act corny too" (60). When he is trying to make a date with the coat-check woman in a bar, he "show her [his] goddam gray hair and [tells] her [he][is] forty-two," (153). "I was only horsing around" (153) he says, but he is acting phony just like the people he despises so much. Unlike them, Holden is not happy to be phony, and therefore not a hot-shot; however, he isn't an "other" either, because he has money, and is pretty good looking. Consequently he is alone, neither true phony, nor true non-phony, he knows if he gave into the phoniness he could win the game, but he despises them for being able to be content with the phoniness, and he is jealous because he can't. He is completely aware of all the bad and annoying things, so he cannot be content with sitting around and pretending to be oblivious, therefore he is on the outside, "way the hell up on Thomsen Hill" (2), just watching the game.
Whenever the pain becomes too much, Holden fakes life-threatening physical ailments so that he can be treated and possibly cured. He knows there is something wrong with him, and he wants to be able to fix it and just be normal, but he goes about it in the wrong way. When he is on a train, he runs into a classmate's mother, and instead of just saying he is sick, or they were let out early, or something more believable, he tells her he has a brain tumor. "It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain" (58); now, this may seem childish, or to be the hallucinations of an insane person; however, he is merely expressing how he feels about himself. His awareness is the tumor that is on the outside, and can be removed very easily, by giving into the phoniness and becoming just like everyone else. The tumor seems to symbolize his pain and confusion, and how he wants to remove it all from his mind, but that would leave him with a wound, a bullet wound to be more precise. Several times he imagines, while drunk, that he has been shot, and he is stumbling around holding his gut "to keep the blood from dripping all over the place...concealing the fact that [he][is] a wounded sonuvabitch" (150). He pretends to not want anyone to know he's been shot; nevertheless, he wants to call up Jane, the girl he likes. He goes to a payphone, but he doesn't really want to completely mess things up with her, so he calls Sally instead. He acts like he is hiding his pain, but all he really wants is for someone to care that he is hurt, enough to come patch him up and take care of him. He seems to think he is crazy, and needs taking care of, but his "craziness" is merely depression from knowing the truth and not being able to block it out, unlike those "goddam" phonies.
Holden has trouble relating to the people around him, so he fantasizes about the possibility of escaping the phoniness of the city and going somewhere peaceful with someone to whom he can connect. He is always thinking about running off to a cabin or ranch somewhere far away, even asking his friend Sally Hayes if she will go away with him. "It's everything." he says to her, "I hate living in New York and all" (130), he hates everything about the city, he goes on to rant about all the things he hates, the transportation, the elevators, the pants, the cars, the phony people who like the phony actors-basically everything that makes the city the city. However, Sally has her doubts, the way Holden talks, he jumps from one thing to the other, and Sally cannot follow his train of thought, so she is confused and scared by his sudden, "crazy" outburst. She says, "...we're both practically children. And did you ever stop to think what you'd do if you didn't get a job when your money ran out? We'd starve to death" (132). She doesn't understand what the cabin means to him, and she can't imagine why he would hate the city so much. In some ways Holden's idea appears mature and realistic, in that he wants to grow up and marry Sally and be independent, but he hasn't really thought it through, and it would be very immature for him to just leave town, with no proper plan, with a girl he doesn't even really like, and go live out in the middle of nowhere. He feels trapped in the city and hates it, but he can't just run off like that. Besides, they "both hated each other's guts" (133) after only a little while together, so they couldn't stand each other's company for very long. As the "Catcher in the Rye," Holden attempts to catch Sally and stop her from being sucked into societies game and losing her innocence, by taking her away from the city.
Holden's views on maturity change as the story unfolds, and he slowly begins to recognize that fantasy cannot last forever; he has to either grow up or be left behind. At first, Holden imagines himself to be the "Catcher in the Rye," he is the one who has to run around on top of a cliff, and "catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff" (173). He thinks has to stop all the little kids from making a mistake and falling, which in reality is maturing. Holden himself is like a little kid in many regards, always making things up, making rash decisions, and not planning for the future. He has not matured at a normal rate, so now he is stuck trying not to "fall off the cliff," and lose his innocence, or let any of the others off the cliff. He feels that in doing so, he will fall even further behind the kids. He is scared to take the plunge and mature, so he wont let others do it either. He struggles with this concept, trying to remain innocent in that respect. Nevertheless, after becoming extremely depressed, he sees his sister Phoebe on the carousel, and realizes she still has some of her innocence, when she is still "mad about the carousel" (210), and she isn't too big to ride it, even though he previously believed she had lost it. Holden discovers that losing your innocence is not so bad. Falling off the cliff isn't the problem, you must try to "grab for the gold ring" (211), meaning maturity, or you will never make it. He realizes that "if they fall off, they fall off, but its bad if you say anything to them" (211), he cant change what happens; it's out of his hands. Everyone has to mature sooner or later. They must find their maturity on their own, and learn to pick themselves back up after they fall, or they will never make it in life. If you say anything or try to help them along, then later they will fall and wont know how to help themselves. He sits watching Phoebe on the carousel in the pouring rain, so happy that he "was damn near bawling" (213) just to see his sister having fun and enjoying being a kid while she still can.
Holden's fantasies throughout the book seem to be "crazy," but they are just exaggerations of his feelings, desires, and depression from knowing how messed up the world is, culminating into a world he wishes to be real, no matter how insane. He becomes more and more depressed as he tries to bring his fantasies into reality, but realizes that he can't make them unite, and he has to find a way to be happy in reality, even though he knows the truth about the world. Holden finally realizes that, after all, reality isn't always so horrible; there are good things that can block out the bad, if he just lets them.