Monday, April 7, 2014

Lit Analysis #2 Catcher in the Rye

1) Catcher in the Rye is about a young man named Holden Caulfield. Holden recently got expelled from Pencey Prep. Most of the story is set in New York City around the late 1940's. Holden got in a fight with his roommate. He then leaves school two days earlier to explore the wonderful New York City. While exploring the city he interacts with a lot of people and learns a lot about himself and the real world. Holden gets in a lot of trouble, he smokes and drinks and is very depressed. We don't understand why until Allie is talked about. His brother who passed away from Leukemia. I think the author's purpose of the story is to tell the world that we all need someone to look out for us.2) Loneliness is portrayed in the story. Holden seeks companionship he has meaningless encounters through out the novel. But, the whole time he's still lonely and lost. He is very dependent on his loneliness. He isolates himself from the world. Growing up and it's consequences is also a huge theme. Holden refuses to mature yet he smokes and does multiple adult activities that clashes with that pain of growing up. Love and Sex are also themes that are shown in the story. Holden is a very sensitive young man and is unable to divert his feelings into numbness. He's a very jealous person and it causes him to get in trouble. Holden gets into situations too deeply and too fast which causes him to shut down. He can't have sex because deep down all he wants is a person who will listen to him.3) Catcher in the Rye is very cynical and nostalgic.- "What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of good-by. I mean I've left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don't care if it's a sad goody-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse."-"It was that kind of crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed the road."-"What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff--I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere to catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be catcher in the rye and all."
4) "He put my goddamn paper down then looked at me like he'd just beaten hell out of me in ping pong or something." Simile
-"It's really ironical, because I'm six foot two and a half and I have gray hair. I really do. Te one side of my head-the right side- is full of millions of gray hairs. I've had them ever since I was a kid. And yet I still act sometimes like I was only about twelve." Hyperbole
-"
Characterization 1) "All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot-shot.."At the end of it all I can understand what Holden goes through. He's been through a lot and it shows why he can be arrogant and cynical. 
2)The author's syntax and diction is a huge impact on the story. Through out the whole story the diction and tone is the same.
3) Holden is a flat character. He doesn't change at all. He's still very cynical in the end. 4) After reading the story I felt like there are many teenagers who are just like Holden. He's a very realistic character.

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