1. Help us understand Holden Caulfield.
Holden Caufield is a depressed teenager that feels as though he is different from the rest of the world, even though he isn't. He sees almost everyone he meets as phony. This makes him hate about everyone that he meets. It is assumed that Holden sees himself as genuine since he hates fake people. But though out the story it is revealed that he is as phony as everyone he talks about.
Holden has 2 younger siblings, Allie and Phoebe, who he considers to be real and genuine people. His older brother, D.B., is phony, according to Holden. Since the only people he knows that are genuine are children, he associates growing up with phoniness; this causes Holden to have a fear of growing up. This is why Holden acts very immature a lot of the time. He still hasn't grown up, thinking that he will become phony. Even though this has already happened, it isn't true that age causes phoniness.
It can be inferred that Holden has some psychological trouble. His brother dies when he was a child and it seems like Holden still has trouble with that. He doesn't apply himself to school and because of that, he has flunked out of multiple schools. He acts like a child in this way. Holden isn't concerned about his future, he spends all of his money on useless things (simply because he is rich and it's not actually his money), and often gives up on things because he just "isn't in the right mood".
Holden is a child, but to justify to himself that he isn't, he does things that are very adult-like. Things such as leaving on his own to New York and takings taxis and going to bars and getting drinks and hiring a prostitute. Holden wants to seem grown up, but doesn't actually want to because of his fear of being phony.
2. Choose a symbol in the text and discuss how it functions in The Catcher. (example: golden ring)
The Catcher in the Rye is a story that contains a lot of symbolism and hidden meanings. One example of this is Holden Caufield's red hunting hat that he wears backwards. At the beginning of the story, Holden reveals that he got his hat from a store on the way back from the fencing match for $1. He wears this hat only at the moments where he feels like he needs confidence. One time he needed confidence as when he was approaching Stradlater. Stradlater was being very rude to Holden, after Holden had written an English composition for him. The English composition that Holden wrote was about something that was very personal to him. He shares a rough part of his past, a baseball glove belonging to his dead brother. It takes a lot of confidence for Holden to write about this, so he puts his hat on to try to get this extra confidence. Another time he wears the hat was when Holden was leaving his school, Pencey Prep. He puts on the hat and shouts at the school, while crying. As much as he said he hated the school and the people in it, it was hard for him to leave. He needed to feel confident and independent to do this. The last time that Holden wheres the hat is at the end of the book. His kid sister, Phoebe, gives him the hat because she likes who he is when he wears it. She notices the difference. When wearing the hat at the end of the story, Holden has the confidence to return home, and not run away (his original plan). It would have been much easier to run away from school and home and growing up. Instead, he decides to face the consequences of staying home, even if it meant going back to school with "phonies" and getting treatment for being "sick". This red hunting hat that Holden wears is a symbol of confidence and independence.
3. What is meant by the last two sentences of the novel: "Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."
The last sentences of The Catcher in the Rye are very interesting, considering everything that the reader learns about Holden through out the story. Holden explains that he regrets telling people about the story and that he now misses a lot of the people that he talked about. This is interesting because Holden talks about hating about everybody he meets. So it is really out of character for him to talk about missing people that he previously said he hated. One example is Ackley and Morris. During the story, Holden said that he hates them both. But in the end, he specifically says that he sorta misses them. This lead to the thought that Holden was being phony as a narrator. He could have been as phony with the reader as he was with others that he met. The reason would be to make the reader think that he was someone that he really wasn't. Yes, he is phony and immature and has psychological problems, but he might not be as cynical and hateful and depressed as he says he is. So the Holden Caufield that the reader knows may not be who he says he is.
The line "Don't ever tell anybody anything" might be referring to him regretting telling other, or even regretting telling the reader. Holden is known for lying all of the time for no particular reason, so there isn't a reason why he wouldn't lie to the people that he told the story to. The line "If you do, you start missing everybody" is the hint that Holden might have been lying the whole time. He made the whole journey sound like it was terrible, but if he misses them, it must not have been that bad.
4. Choose your best dialectical entry from the novel. Transpose it to your blog (quote and "response").
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth" (Salinger, pg 1)
Response:
This is a very well written opening sentence for a very well written book. It already starts to reveal what kind of person Holden Caufield is. He starts off by saying that you probably want to know what his childhood and family was like, and introduces a bunch of other ideas, but then says he doesn't feel like getting into it. It is a good start to the story because right away Holden is acting like you would expect him to.
