ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
- Why does Holden seem so ambivalent about the adult world?
- Why does Holden fear or resist change?
- Why does Holden struggle to develop meaningful relationships with his family and peers?
SAMPLE POST:
Why does Holden seem so ambivalent about the adult world?
When describing the difference between what ads at Pencey promise and what the school is really like, Holden reveals how suspicious he is of the adult world . He doubts that "they do any more molding at Pencey than they do at any other school." (Salinger 2) Holden implies that schools do not make us who we are and might even give us a false impression of who we could or should become.
When Holden talks about getting kicked out of Pencey he explains how his mother, "gets very hysterical"(Salinger 51). Holden before this also explains how he wants to give his parents time to digest the letter from Pencey explaining how Holden got kicked out. This is why Holden resists change because he's afraid that he will disappoint his parents. Since his older brother is succesful and his younger brother died, he wants to make his parents proud.
ReplyDeleteAfters Holden's fight with Stradlater he ends up laying on Elys bed in Ackleys room. He notices that when Stradlater gets back he doesn't bother finding Holden. "He didn't look around to see where I was"..." I got feeling so lonesome and rotten, I even felt like waking Ackley up" (50). Holden believes people are going to come back chasing for him therefore it causes him to struggle with meaningful relationships.
ReplyDeleteHolden has decided that he isn't going to wait until Wednesday to leave Pencey, and he's going to leave now. "When I was all set to go, when I had my bags an all, I stood for a while next to the stairs and took a last look down the goddam corridor. I was sort of crying. I don't know why" (Salinger 52). Holden claims he can't wait to be rid of Pencey, and all of the kids there. But when he is all set to go, he starts crying, but doesn't know why. It's probably because inside, he doesn't want to keep changing schools, and he doesn't actually want to leave Pencey. He's afraid of changing so much.
ReplyDeleteHolden struggles to develope meaningful relationships with people because he always puts his opinions first and what he has to say is more important that what everyone else is doing. He wakes Ackley up just because he wanted to ask him a question. "Aah, go back to sleep. I'm not gonna join one anyway" (Salinger 50). He only had that one question and woke Ackley up just for that and then said nevermind.
ReplyDeleteWhen Holden is packing to leave Pencey, he says that "One thing about packing depressed me a little. I had to pack these brand-new ice skates my mother had practically just sent me a few days before". Holden's mother sent him these ice skate so he could go ice skating a Pencey, but he wont get a chance to use them because he's leaving, and he resents it. This is because he is fearful of change.
ReplyDeleteHolden struggles to develop a relationship with his peers because he never tells them what is happening or what has happened in his life. Ackley asks Holden what he was fighting about and he just says, " 'it's a long story. I don't wanna bore ya, Ackley. I'm thinking of your welfare' I never discussed my personal life with him" (47). This shows he doesn't want to open up and explain what happened. Also on the next page Ackley asks again and Holden writes, "I didn't answer him. All I did was, I got up and went over and looked out the window"(48). This also explains that he isn't even willing to try and let people know what's happening he is isolated in his own thoughts. Even thought Ackley could help him.
ReplyDeleteHolden shows his struggle to maintain meaningful relationships with family and friends when he says, "almost every time somebody gives me a preasent, it ends up making me sad," (Salinger 53). Holden can't even make meaningful relationships with people if they give him preasents, which are suppost to bring him joy, but they bring him sadness.
ReplyDeleteHolden has trouble developing meaningful relationships with people because he is always describing people negatively, and he doesn't really like many people. For example Holden thought as he was fighting stradlater " I didn't even answer him. God how I hated him"(Salinger 42). If Holden reacts this way to people then it is almost impossible for him to develop meaningful relationships. It's not just stradlater though he has also been like this with Mr. Spencer and Ackley.
ReplyDeleteHolden lies allot even though this is with an adult he could also lie to his peers. This would restrict his relationships with his peers because lots of relationships are based on trust for example on page 54 ,"may I ask your name, dear?" "Rudolf Schmidt" which isn't his name.
ReplyDeleteAckley asks Holden what he and Stradlator are fighting about. Holden says, " 'Its a long story. I don't wanna bore ya, Ackley. I'm thinking of your welfare'I told him. I never discussed my personal life with him"(Salinger 47). This shows how Holden has a difficult time developing meaningful relationships with others, because he has a hard time opening up to them, and telling them what is happening in his life. In this case, Ackley may have been able to help Holden express the things he is feeling, and feel better about them.
ReplyDeleteAfter Stradlater gets back from his date with Jane, Holden keeps questioning what they did. When Stradlater threatens him to stop asking, Holden says, "Why should I? That's the trouble with all you morons. You never want ti discuss anything. That's the way you can always tell a moron" (Salinger 45). In this example, Holden is so eager to know what Stradlater and Jane did that he forgets that it's wrong and not private. Therefore, he does not change and stop asking because he thinks he's doing the right thing.
ReplyDeleteWhen holden was like "I shut the damn door and went out in the corridor." It shows that holden is having difficulty to develop meaningful relationship with his peers. He fights and argues with his friends frequently.
ReplyDeleteWhen Holden decides to leave Pencey and go to New York, he packs everything then puts his "red hunting hat on, and turned the peak around to the back, the way [he] liked it" (Salinger 52). This is something that Holden had done previously in chapter 6, and he has made it clear that he likes to turn the hat backwards when he puts it on. This shows his reluctance to change, he wants things to stay the way they are. So every time he puts the hat on, it makes him happy because its exactly the way it has always been.
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ReplyDeleteHolden goes into Ackley's room after the fight and Ackley continues to ask him, "what the hell was the fight about, anyhow? (Salinger 48)". Although, Holden will not tell him and this is one of the reasons he struggles to build meaningful relationships. He is the one who went to Ackley but he cannot even communicate or have a meaningful conversation with him.
When Sqtradlater complains about Holden's paper Holden writes, "I went over and pulled it right out of his goddamn hand. Then I tore it up" (Salinger 41). Holden struggles to maintain relationships because he overreacts when someone insults him. Instead of being able to handle criticism, he reacts brashly and destroys what he wrote.
ReplyDeleteWhen Holden is in Ackley's room, he can't take his mind off of Stradlater and Jane, narrating, "it just drove me stark staring mad when I thought about her and Stradlater parked somewhere" (Salinger 48). Holden resists the change of Jane's new relationship with Stradlater because Holden wants to think of her the way she used to be. Holden feels a need to hold onto the past and remembering Jane the way she was was one way for him to do so, before her date with Stradlater.
ReplyDeleteWhen Stradlater returns to the dorm Holden starts to smoke and think,"You weren't allowed to smoke in the dorm...I did it to annoy Stradlater. It drove him crazy when you broke any rules" (Salinger 41).This shows that Holden has trouble developing meaningful relationships, because he cares so little about peoples feeling, that he looks for ways to annoy them. He smokes just to annoy Stradlater just like he calls Ackley "Ackley kid" because it annoys him.
ReplyDeleteWhen leaving Pencey Holden thinks, "almost every time someone gives me a present it makes me sad". It makes him sad because he resists change in his life. Holden wishes he could just keep what he already has.
ReplyDeleteHolden has decided that he isn't going to wait until Wednesday to leave Pencey, and he's going to leave now. "When I was all set to go, when I had my bags an all, I stood for a while next to the stairs and took a last look down the goddam corridor. I was sort of crying. I don't know why" (Salinger 52). Holden keeps claiming that he wants to be rid of Pencey he finds himself crying and he doesn't seem to understand why. Maybe it's the fact that he doesn't want to keep changing schools and he has a conception to pencey but just doesn't feel the courage to admit it.
ReplyDelete"When I was all set to go, when I had my bags and all, I stood for a while next to the stairs and took a last look down the goddamn corridor. I was sort of crying. I don't know why." Holden say that he wants to leave Pencey, but he is still very sad to leave. He's had so much change in his life he just wants something to stay the same.
ReplyDeleteHoldens life with chaos and change so for him the haunting hat and his specially way of wearing it are a sort of consistency in his crazy life. " "I put it on and put the old peak back the way I like it" The hunting hat is now a constant in Holden's life something he can rely on, every where he goes he wears the hat and he always wears it the same exact way. The hunting hat is to Holden what keeping her kings in the back in checkers was to jane! a resistance to change.
ReplyDeleteWhen Holden decides that he is going to leave Pencey immediately, he reflects," Anyway, that's what I decided I'd do. So I went back to the room,..., to start packing and all. ... One thing about packing depressed me a little" (Salinger 51). His reflection makes evident that he is fearful of change. Even though, earlier in the page he declares that staying there will make his life miserable, he doesn't express his nostalgia of the school and doesn't what to leave Pencey. This causes Holden to have a sense of insecurity because he isn't ready to accept the future.
ReplyDeleteOne reason Holden struggles to develop meaningful relationships with his family and peers is that he purposely antagonizes them sometimes. For example, on page 41 he starts breaking a rule and smoking in the dorm "to annoy Stradlater. It drove him crazy when you broke any rules." He knows that what he's doing will annoy Stradlater so he does for that reason alone.
ReplyDeleteWhen Stradlater insults Holden's paper, Holden writes, "I went over and pulled it right out of his goddamn hand. Then I tore it up" (Salinger 41). This demonstrates Holden's inability to develop and maintatin a good relationship because he is unable to appropriately react when somebody criticizes him.
ReplyDeleteHolden demonstrates his struggle to develop meaningful relationships when he says, "Almost every time somebody gives me a present, it ends up making me sad" (Salinger 52). Holden's struggle is shown here because he doesn't feel good or thankful when people give him gifts, he feels sad.
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