dumplingstudent-blog

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Catcher in the rye #6

Quote: “After old sunny was gone, I sat in the chair for a while and smoked a couple of cigarettes.Boy, I felt miserable. I felt so depressed, you can’t imagine” (Salinger, 98)

Content: Holden goes back to Edmont after his terrible visit to Ernie’s, and while he is in the elevator, the elevator operator offers him a prostitute for five dollars. Holden, blinded by his depression, accepts the offer. However, his dawning realization of his impulsive behavior made him feel less passionate to sleep with the prostitute, leading to him rejecting to have sexual intercourse with her. Offering her five dollars instead of her demand for ten, which infuriates her, Holden's depression comes back. With his thoughts darkening, Holden begins to reflect on Allie’s death while smoking.

Response- Extratextual/personal connections

Throughout the book, it is evident that Holden frequently drinks and smokes to cope with his depression. While the usage of substances can numb Holden’s pain, grief, and depression temporarily, but it led to substances abuse. Today, our society generalizes the usage of certain drugs through the media to the point where we become insensitive to their serious consequences. For instance, people including elementary kids, are exposed to countless songs that talk about the usage of drugs to cope with their problems. As a result, according to CNN, the rate of teen drug overdoses climbed up 19% in one year.(Nadia Kounang, 2018) Even though Holden uses drugs to cope with temporary pain, we the readers can witness the possible aftermath as the possibility of Holden killing is still there despite their usage. Moreover, statistics from the Promises Treatment Center, 623000 teenagers suffer from alcohol abuse and 651000 suffer from marijuana addiction. (Laura Nott, 2016) Within the book, alcoholic beverages are always included in many of the social events, allowing people to be insensitive to the consequences to them. In realistic terms, Isaac Babinsky, an 18 years old who was looking forward to his graduation ceremony passed away due to his substance abuse; the mixture of Xanax and alcohol subsequently led to his death.(Erin Brohman, 2016) Despite the fact that Isaac’s substance abuse was for the purpose of the entertainment or celebration, his death is enough evidence that displays the problems within our society as we have normalized the consumption of drugs. Even though the book was written in 1951, it overlaps with today’s society as we are both insensitively tolerant to the usage of drugs to cope with our problems.

Synthesize

Instead of seeking help, Holden decides to be under the influence of drugs to cope with his grief and depression. Drugs and alcohol have been used as a common coping mechanism for a long time as they allow you to escape from reality temporarily. Holden tortures himself by feeling guilty towards his brother and by consuming unhealthy amounts of drugs to improperly manage his feelings. Holden’s action can’t be counted as an individual’s mistake as he is displaying the trends of modern society. Even though Holden is painfully dealing with his grief, he still chooses not to seek help; which also a common theme occurring today. People are either too embarrassed or afraid to visit psychiatrists that ironically ‘we are so brave when it comes to putting drugs in our bodies’. In conclusion, Holden's tragic tale of substance abuse and avoidance to seek help is a proof that our society needs to reinforce the mental health system and prevent individuals from using drugs to deal with their problems.

Citation:

Kounang, Nadia. “Teen overdose death rate climbed 19% in one year.” CNN, Cable News Network, 16 Aug. 2017, www.cnn.com/2017/08/16/health/teen-overdose-death-rate/index.html.

Brohman, Erin. “'We're losing kids': Family talks about risks of Xanax, alcohol after teen's death.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 15 Aug. 2016, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-family-speaks-teen-mixes-xanax-alcohol-1.3720962

Nott, Laura. “Grief and Substance Abuse - Coping after a Loss.” Addiction Treatment | Elements | Drug Rehab Treatment Centers, Element Behavioural health, 16 Dec. 2016,https://www.elementsbehavioralhealth.com/featured/grief-and-substance-abuse-coping-after-a-loss/

Salinger, J. D. The catcher in the rye. Boston, Little, Brown, 1991

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Catcher in the rye #5

Quote: “He was trying to act very goddam casual and cool and all, but he wasn’t any too goddam cool. Take my word.” (Salinger 192)

Context: Holden arrives at Mr.Antolini’s house to spend the night. While Mr. Antolini is greeting him, Holden recognizes that Mr. Antolini’s has been drinking. When Holden takes a seat, Mr. Antolini begins to discuss his concern for Holden’s future as he tried to convince him to try and put more effort into his work. In conclusion of their discussion, Holden could not resist but to yawn; Mr.Antolini lets him fall asleep on his couch. However, while he sleeps, Holden recognized Mr.Antolini stroking his head. Feeling uncomfortable, he decided to leave.

Response-Intertextual connection (Between)

Throughout the book, Holden rarely speaks highly of people though Mr.Antolini is one of the exceptional few that he speaks highly of. To elaborate, Holden mentions the fact that “he was about the best teacher I ever had.” (Salinger, 174) Unfortunately, during his visit to Mr. Antolini’s house, Holden is sexually assaulted and soon becomes disappointed in him. Holden’s experience reminded me of a specific scene in the tv show called ‘Riverdale’: within the show, a high school student interested in music named Archie, always admired her music teacher because of her gentle and warm-hearted personality. Archie’s admiration and Ms.Grundy’s interest in him lead to an inappropriate relationship as she got exposed for committing statutory rape. However, Ms.Grundy’s attention for Archie wasn’t evidently special as she repeated her inappropriate relationship with other underage students. Therefore, unlike Archie’s expectations, Ms.Grundy was just a pedophile who manipulated underage students by using her charming character. For this reason, I thought about Archie and Holden sharing similarities as they were deceived by their adult admirers. Throughout this experience, it is evident they Archie and Holden are both lacking in judgment as they only started to face the reality. They were both too inexperienced to see the true face of people, though fortunately, as they grow older and undergo similar situations, they will no longer be deceived.

Synthesize: Holden is afraid of facing reality but his episode with Mr.Antolini is evidence that he needs to accept actuality to develop his insights even more. Also, despite Holden’s attempt to behave mature, he is clearly an immature teenager lacking in understanding people. Holden should have known that the ‘phoniness’ within people does not define an individual's worth, as his method of doing so prevents him from fitting in with people since humans are social animals. Moreover, Holden's perspective of his teacher would have been biased towards seeing his teacher in a positive light, only until he experienced Mr. Anatoli's inappropriate behavior.Thus, even the people that Holden approved can have the flaws that even the ‘phony’ people possess. This leads to the conclusion that humans live with flaws and it may define them but evidently strive to be better. Therefore, I believe as we face more challenges in the future, we should no longer be deceived by them in return of previous experiences.

 Media: I believe reality is like a pill because even though they taste sour and unappetizing, it aids your health. For instance, the challenges Holden endures is stressful and heartbreaking but through his experiences, he will be stronger and wiser.

Citation:  Salinger, J. D. The catcher in the rye. Boston, Little, Brown, 1991

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The Catcher in the rye #4

Quote: “If you want to know the truth, I don’t even know why I started all that stuff with her. I mean about going away somewhere, to Massachusetts and Vermont and all. I probably wouldn’t taken her even if she’d wanted to go with me.” (Salinger 134)

Context: Holden meets up with Sally at the Biltmore Hotel and even though she was late, he was blinded by her beauty and forgive her tardiness. Despite Sally’s attractive appearance, Holden was irritated by her because she wouldn’t stop flirting with a handsome boy from another prep school. Despite her phoniness, Holden continues his date with Sally and takes her ice-skating at “Radio City”. Whilst skating, Holden comes to the realization that neither of them really know how to skate and Sally only wants to skate to wear a short skirt to show off her body. Starting a conversation with her, initially, Holden ranted about how several individuals were ‘phonies’ until he brought up a more intense question of asking her to run away with him to start a new life.

Response- intratextual connections (within)

Throughout the book, Holden’s critical perspective of people begins to deteriorate, leading to him becoming frustrated as he has a hard time finding ‘genuine’ people. Eventually, he comes to the conclusion that he is lonely and desperately needs the company to rely on. At the beginning of Holden’s journey, he isolated himself by watching people participate eagerly in a football game. His relationship with Ackley is also of note as he despised having him as a companion, as mentioned by his pessimistic views on his behavior and appearance. Eventually, Holden decides to leave his isolation as it can be seen that even though he dislikes Sally for her ‘phoniness’, he asks her to run away with him. To further elaborate, Holden faced a tough time in understanding his own proposal since he saw in her to be the phoniest girl that he detests. Though his action may seem hypocritical, it’s evidential that he cannot continue his avoidance of people that he considers phonies.

Synthesize

As a result of his pessimistic views, he gets disappointed in people that he opens up to as a means of protecting himself from facing reality. Holden’s procrastination to face reality might have been the result of his traumatic experience with bereavement. For instance, according to Royal College of Psychiatrists, the circumstances of a death can have a profound impact on a child. (Rcpsych.ac.uk, 2017) Also, the study showed that unlike the children, teenagers face challenges in applying emotions into words and may not show their feelings openly. (Rcpsych.ac.uk, 2017) Thus, this explains Holden’s erratic behavior that a 3rd person can’t possibly understand as well as his negative insight. He may be desperately needing someone to help recover or to find the motivation to continue living as he goes through a serious depression.

Citation:  

1.Salinger, J. D. The catcher in the rye. Boston, Little, Brown, 1991

2.Rcpsych.ac.uk. (2017). Death in the family - helping children to cope: information for parents, carers and anyone who works with young people. http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/healthadvice/parentsandyoungpeople/parentscarers/deathinthefamily.aspx [Accessed 24 Feb. 2018]. 

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The Catcher in the Rye #3

Quote “Then I went over and laid down on Ely's bed. Boy, did I feel rotten. I felt so damn lonesome” (Salinger 48)

Context- After his fight with Stradlater, Holden headed to Ackley’s room to sleep over. Even though Holden complained about Ackleys disgusting, lousy and annoying behavior, he wanted to spend his night with him out of loneliness. To Ackley's dismay, as he continuously asked Holden to leave his room, he ignores his request and asks him if he could still reside in a monastery without being Christian.

Intertextual Connections (within)

Holden is usually an independent person who isolates himself from everybody because he only sees the flaws in them. Throughout the book, Holden’s hatred towards Ackley seemed to be genuine as he complained about his hygiene problems as well as his annoying personality. However, despite his hatred towards everyone, his desire to be accompanied can be seen by how he wanted to sleep over at Ackley’s room. Holden always thought himself to better off alone as he calls everyone ‘phonies’ but after the fight with Stradlater, Holden’s change in character can be spotted as he desperately wanted a company.

Holden has been described to be an independent individual who isolated himself in order to avoid interactions with those that he sees with a critical view. Throughout the book, Holden's hatred towards Ackley seems genuine as he complains about his hygienic problems, as well as what he considers to be an annoying personality. However, despite his deep-rooted hatred towards everyone, his desire to be accompanied can be seen how he overlooks his ‘annoying’ traits by wanting to sleep over in Ackley's room. As for the rest of society, which he believes that they are ‘phonies’, begins to shift after his fight with Stradlater; Holden’s change in character can be evidently spotted as he desperately wants company, regardless of their poor status in his eyes. Even though Holden thinks his pessimistic perspective of the world will hold true in the end, this quote reminds me that Holden is just like everyone else; who wants to be loved and still seeks out attention even though he isolates himself. Thus, I believe his isolation isn’t purely out of hatred towards the world but rather out of self-defense because he doesn’t want to get hurt again.

 Synthesize: Holden’s negative perspective on life can be developed via Allie’s death, his attempt at isolation from the world as a means of a self-defense mechanism. I believe he gets disappointed with those he meets as he tries to see Allie’s character within them, but instead, he sees their flaws. Due to the lack of available external support to assist Holden in recovering from the tragic death of Allie, he represents the outcome of a failed social support system, as he developed an unhealthy way to cope with his grief. In the end, within Holden’s tough, careless behavior, I see a young boy who misses his brother and a wounded soul that is need of being taken care of.

Media- “me and my broken heart” by Rixton

“All I need is a little love in my life. All I need is a little love in the dark. A little but I’m hoping it might kick start. Me and my broken heart.” This particular part of the song reminded me of Holden and his psychological state.  Also, his broken heart can be the result of Allie’s death. Even though he tries to see the flaws in the world and isolate himself from everyone, I believe that he is just like everyone else who wants to be loved. 

work cited:  

 Salinger, J. D. The catcher in the rye. Boston, Little, Brown, 1991

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The Catcher in the Rye #2

Quote- “But all of a sudden, I changed my mind. All of a sudden, I decided what I’d really do, I’d get the hell out of Pencey-right that same night and all…” (Salinger 51)

Context- After the fight with Stradlater, Holden decided that he would go to Ackley’s room to sleep over, but Ackley refuses. Ignoring Ackley's request, Holden is distracted with the thought of Stradleater’s date with Jane, infuriating him further. Eventually, he decides to leave Pence and go to New York based off of his depression.

Response- Intertextual connection (between)- Throughout the book, it characterizes Holden as being very emotional and conducts his decisions on impulse and without logic. His decision making reminds of the Netflix show ‘End of the F****** World’, which stars two rebellions teenagers: Alyssa and James. Both characters show similarities to Holden as they feel isolated from society and decided to run away from their home. To elaborate, their decisions are just as impulsive as Holden, showing no forethought nor consideration of the consequences. James, in particular, shows the greatest similarities as the traumatic loss of his mother via suicide impacted the development of his character greatly, changing his perspective on the world through a negative lens. The death of a loved one affected both of their psychological and social states poorly, with no social support system available to assist them to cope with the grief.

Synthesize-Furthermore, James, and Holden are too young to face such a loss, both sources of media displaying the dark emotional depths that they undergo; this shows the importance of mental health as their loss impacted them greatly and led to erratic behavior. For instance, Holden broke a window, displayed uncontrollable violence to Stradlater and his impulsive trip to New York can be the result of his brother’s loss. Both are the victims of a negligent social system, as the lack of support prevents from coping with their suffering.

Media- song: ‘what about us’ by pink

This song is about the grief and it reminds me of Holden when he lost his brother. For instance, “what about us? What about all the broken happy ever afters? What about all the plans that ended in disaster” Throughout this song, I was able to understand Holden’s grief because Allie and Holden shared lots of good memories together but due to Alle’s death, Holden is heartbroken, lost, and alone.

Citation

Salinger, J. D. The catcher in the rye. Boston, Little, Brown, 1991

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The Catcher in the Rye #1

Quote“The only trouble is, she is too affectionate sometimes. She’s very emotional, for a child.” (Salinger 68)

context- After the fight with Stradlater, Holden goes to New York and decides to stay at Edmont Hotel until Wednesday. In his room at the Edmont Hotel, he sees bizarre events out of the window. For instance, he sees a man trying out the women’s clothes and in the other room, a man and woman were squirting drinks on each other's face. Which leads to Holden feeling aroused by the bizarre people, so he changes his shirt to head to the Lavender Room. Then, he starts thinking about his little sister Phoebe by complimenting her personality, looks and shares the good memories he had with her. However, he recognizes her flaws too as he says she is too emotional and affectionate for a child. 

Response- personal connection

Throughout the book, Holden criticizes the adults by calling them phonies and he himself doesn’t want to be like them. For instance, adults become phonies to blend in with the society and they learn to suppress their emotions by being fake. However, it was ironic how Holden was judging Phoebe for being too emotional when kids are supposed to be emotional in the first place. Therefore, this can lead to how Holden is also slowly becoming one of the phonies that he despises and this proves that change is inevitable as you face more reality. Within this particular section of the book, I could relate this to my own personal adolescence hood and I came to the conclusion that Holden might be a hypocrite. To elaborate, I didn’t spend my adolescence hood with my parents due to their busy occupations, and I was raised under my guardian’s care most of the time. WIthin the years, I learned to hide my emotions and follow the rules which were tough for 12 years old me. Since I been hiding my emotions to myself to adapt to the environment, I also became phony-like. For this reason, I disagree with Holden as I believe children should have more freedom of expressing their emotions for mental health. Moreover, children are supposed to be affectionate because as they grow older, they will be forced to be phony like the adults in order to blend in with the society.

Through my personal experience, I couldn’t agree with Holden’s opinion on Phoebe being very emotional and in fact, I found Holden very hypocritical. In particular, Holden always complained about adults being fake and he victimizes himself by behaving rebelliously as he runs away to New York. In all respect, I used to agree with Holden’s rebellious act until I recognized his inconsistency with his opinions. For instance, he wants to protect the kids from being tainted by the adults and he never stops obsessing over the people being the phonies. However, I believe Holden is a hypocrite for calling Phoebe ‘too emotional’ as he himself fails to be emotionally stable. For instance, he attacked Stradlater due to his jealousy then he ran away from Pencey to avoid his problems and overall almost all of his decisions are based on his emotions, not logical. On the other hand, he is still a teenager who wants to be loved and his inconsistent opinions can be explained by how teenagers go through extreme confusion and how he went through the traumatic incident at such a young age. 

Media- This image displays Holden’s psychological state of feeling lost and confused. For example, he has strong faith in his opinions until he meets the wall, then he gains new perspective in understanding the society which can be the cause of his inconsistent opinions. Moreover, as he gets lost in the maze, he gets more confused causing more rebellious acts. 

Image- https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/146226319133930160/?lp=true

Citation- 

Salinger, J. D. The catcher in the rye. Boston, Little, Brown, 1991