Catcher and the Rye Part III

I finally finished the Catcher and the Rye. The last part of the book was filled with a lot of questions and awkward parts. The last part of the book started off with Holden wanting to see Phoebe. As a matter of fact, Holden's been wanting to see Phoebe throughout the book. I think he is so attached to Phoebe because he was as, or if not more attached to Allie, and he did not want anything to happen to her. Anyway, Holden successfully sneaks into his house, and wakes up his sister. They talk for a while, and she realizes that he has been kicked out. Afterwards, Phoebe lends Holden her Christmas money since he ran out of his money. This leads me to believe that they have special relationship since most siblings won't give each other money.... especially their Christmas money.

  After Holden leaves his house, he goes to Mr. Antolini's house. Mr. Antolini gives Holden this huge speech and then he falls to sleep. After that, Holden is woken up and finds Mr. Antolini touching his head. Afraid that he's a "flit", or a gay, Holden runs away. This is where the author is unclear. Is Mr. Antolini really gay, or is he just touching Holden's head as a friendly gesture or something? Anyway, he sleeps in Grand Central, and then walks around in the morning. He happens to see Allie everywhere he goes. I think that his death has had the biggest impact on who Holden had come to be and his concept of the catcher in the rye. The end of the book then ends with him and Phoebe in the park. This raises many questions. What happened with Mr. Antolini, DB, and the other characters introduced by Holden? And the biggest question of all, what happens to Holden and his family... and will Holden finally get his priorities in order and live a normal life?

Catcher and the Rye Part II

The second part of the Catcher and the Rye can be summarized easily...Holden is CRAZY. At the beginning of the book, the reader gets a glimpse of how stupid Holden is, but the second part really brings out his craziness. A classical example of this craziness is his date with Sally Hayes. It mostly occurs because he's bored.  During the date, he tells her he loves her and then starts talking about getting married and moving to the west?!?! When Sally rejects his proposal, he calls her a "pain in the ass" and exits the restaurant calling himself a madman. He then starts walking around the city and calls Carl Luce up. On a side note, I find it interesting and queer that Holden out of the blue thinks of random people to have a date with or talk with. The peculiar thing is that it always come down to calling Jane Gallagher...and Holden never actually talks to her. Anyway, Holden then gets drunk, just because he feels like it when he cannot legally drink. He then starts talking about more random things and tries to ask the singer out. Finally, he exits the bar and goes starts walking. The next part that I thought was very weird is that he starts to walk to the park just because he wants to see how the ducks are doing. This raises the question, what's Holden's obsession with ducks?Holden really needs to get his priorities in order.  I end this entry with a simple equation: HOLDEN=CRAZY/INSANE.

Catcher and the Rye

The Catcher and the Rye, a novel by J.D. Salinger is pretty boring and uninteresting. Even though this novel is uninteresting, its rich description provides a very realistic images of the adventures of Holden Caufield. One example of how this novel is dull and uninteresting, but descriptive is when Salinger spends about a whole chapter describing Holden's conversation with Mr. Spencer. In my opinion, this chapter is just a space-filler because it doesn't introduce the reader to any new information, but just goes on and on and on and on. 

The book also leaves many questions unanswered that the reader would like to know. One question I would like to find the answer to is why Holden is so attached to Jane Gallagher. Even though the author does inform the reader that she was a neighbor of his, and that they played checkers together, it is peculiar that Holden gets defensive and disoriented (in a way)when Stradlater dates him. I would also like to know why Holden seems to have an aversion towards his parents, who seem very caring and protective from the descriptions that are given by Salinger. It also seems ironic that Holden starts crying and whimpering when the two goons who work at the hotel and come take money from him; at Pency Prep., the reader gets the message that Holden is pretty popular and tough. 

So overall, I though the Catcher and the Rye so far was pretty dull and uninteresting. There was way to much detail at places which made me want to put down the book right away. There was also too much profanity and sexual connotation for my liking. The part in this book in which Holden invited a prostitute to his hotel room to provide an aversion for his mind also reminded me of A Farewell to Arms where Henry started his relationship with Catherine to distract himself from the war.