blog #4

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Chapters 15 - 19

The next morning, Holden goes on a date with Hayes. He then meets two nuns and contributes some money to their charity, but later on regrets that he should've paid more and concludes that money depresses people. After that, Holden again thinks about Phoebe and overwhelmingly compliments her. He says she can truly understand Holden’s feelings. After buying a theater ticket for the date with Sally, he meets this girl that knows Phoebe and where she was the day before. Although, a day has passed, Holden still goes to the museum, where he heard Phoebe was, reminiscing and saying that museum gives a feeling of change whenever he visits. Holden meets Sally at the hotel, and loves how she looks. In the theater, Holden criticizes on the “phoniness” of the actors. Afterwards, they decide to go ice-skating. He also finds Sally phony, but he likes her physical appearance, so he forgives her. They get into a fight, and Holden leaves her crying. Holden again called Jane, but she didn’t pick up her phone, so Holden called a guy named Luce who used to be the “big brother” to have a drink. Before he meets, he catches a quick phony movie. When he meets Luce, Holden asks sex questions Luce used to discuss a long time before. Annoyed, Luce leaves.

In these chapters, I have realized Holden Caulfield is beginning to use the word phony a lot. He thinks everything and everyone except for himself, Jane--who he loved, and Phoebe--who is his sister are all phony. I think this act of thinking so selfishly is kind of phony himself. His situation is actually phony, in my opinion because I have also noticed that whenever he wants to call someone up, it's not the right person who actually gets the phone, but always a person Holden does not really like. Despite his dislike, though, he still meets them up because he has no other option to choose from. I think Holden has to realize that if it weren't for the "phony" people like Luce, whom he met, he would've probably been in the hotel being beaten up by the elevator operator.

blog #3

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger Chapters 10 - 14 This portion of the book contained a lot of events as it did in previous chapters. To start off with, Holden reminisces about Pheobe, how he liked her a lot. Then, he goes to a nightclub and flirts with some girls for a while and leaves because he is annoyed. Then, he thinks about Jane and the good old times with her. He says the time with Jane was like heaven. Thinking about her made him upset, so he went to another nightclub called Ernie's, where he met a girl he doesn't like, so returns to the hotel. While going up to his room in the elevator, the operator offers a prostitute, and to my surprise, Holden accepts. He thinks a lot while he's waiting in his room about the choice he made and about his past. When the young-looking prostitue came in, Holden became extremely nervous and lies that he can't have sex. He gives her 5 bucks, but she asks for another 5 and Holden refuses. After she leaves, Holden tries to sleep just when there's a knock on his door. Maurice, the elevator operator comes in with Sunny demanding 5 more bucks. Holden refuses and gets beaten up. Holden acts like a movie star pretending he's hit by a gangster's bullet and then sleeps.

This chapter was kind of amusing to me, especially the ending where Holden acts like a movie star. This fact that he's trying to avoid the situation makes me think that he's just acting more immature and like a baby. While throughout the book so far, Holden continuously insists on that he is "better" in a sense of looking older and being smarter than anyone else. He looks down on others and indirectly state that others are inferior as everyone is "phony." In these chapters, to be specific, Holden reminisces a lot about good times of his life. I think these flashbacks contradict his current life, which can almost be considered as failure. As the chapter ends with a beating of Holden, his life does not seem happy to me.

blog #2

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Chapters 5~9

This portion of the book starts out Holden and his friends eating out and returning to the dorm. Ackley then bothers Holden again, so Holden kicks Ackley out of the room and writes the english composition for Stradlater. It's supposed to be description of a simple object, but Holden decides to write about Allie's, his dead brother, baseball glove. When Stradlater returns from his date with Jane Gallagher and reads the composition, he is infuriated because the composition is off-topic. Holden gets angry and rips it and smokes to bother Stradlater. Holden asks about the date, but Stradlater refuses to tell him the details. Angered, Holden attacks Stradlater, but is soon overpowered because Stradlater is stronger. While Holden continues to insult Stradlater, Stradlater makes him a bloody nose and leaves the room. Holden goes to Ackley's room and talk. Ackley is uninterested. Then, Holden decides an excursion to New York until his parents hear about the expulsion. Holden gets on a late train, where he encounters his classmate's mother. Although, Holden dislikes his classmate (Ernest), he makes up absurd lies about his name, his reason of going to New York, and about Ernest. When Holden arrives, He tries to think of a person to call, but he finds himself with no one to call on. He then takes a cab to the hotel. In the cab, he asks where the ducks go in the Central Park lagoon during winter. The driver is uninterested, though. When Holden gets into the hotel room and looks out the window, there are numerous sexual activities going on, which bugs Holden because Holden doesn't like simple sexes. He then calls a girl named Cavendish, which is a friend of a guy he met at a club for a date. He is rejected because the girl wants to sleep, but Holden also refuses to wait for a reschedule.

My first impression to the 5 chapters I have read, is that Holden is pitiful. This moment is probably the hardest time of his life: he has no power, no money, no education, no friends, and most importantly, no purpose of life or whatsoever. His actions are vastly determined by his emotions, which are also unstable. Therefore, his actions are stupid, as it is evident in his attack to Stradlater. Even though he knew (as it is mentioned previously in the book) Stradlater was stronger than him, Holden flew on Stradlater, resulting to have a bloody nose. I think the probable reason he became so unstable emtionally is after his brother's death. In the chapters, it says he broke all the windows in the garage "just for the hell of it," breaking his hand. I think this portrays that Holden doesn't think beforehand of his actions. These sets of actions can also be characterized as immaturity. I think Holden often tries to act nonchalant through the events that truly infuriate him, and over-react or cannot express at all on things that aren't so important. Therefore, in a way, Holden contains some characteristics of a child. Over-reaction is evident on the jump to Stradlater and unable to express feelings are evident in the numerous lies to his classmate's mother. As I have progressed 9 chapters of this book, I am beginning to think that the theme of this book is puberty.