After reading the first four chapters of The Catcher and the Rye I feel like I can connect a lot to Holden. He seems a lot like a typical teenager, but he also seems to have something different about him.
"'Oh, I feel concern for my future, all right. Sure. Sure, I do.' I thought about it for a minutes. 'But not too much, I guess. Not too much, I guess.'" I admire that he isn't so worried about failing out of Pencey, he just assumes it will all work out in some way. If this were me I don't think it be like that, I would be so worried about what my parents would say, what would happen next and how it would affect my future.
"'Hey,' Stradlater said. 'Wanna do me a big favor?'" His friendship with Stradlater seems a lot like a friendship I have with someone. You can talk for hours with them behind closed doors but the second you step out in public it's like you don't even know each other. I don't really like having these friendships, it makes me feel like I'm not good enough to deserve their time where people can see, almost like they are embarrassed by me. They use you, and sometimes you are completely blind to that fact until that person is out of your life.
I can connect to Holden in many ways, yet, at the same time I can't.
I think it is weird that he isn't the least bit worried about failing Pencey. If I were kicked out of a school I wouldn't be worried about what my parents would say I would be too worried about where my education was coming from, my teachers and my fellow students, I would think about starting over in a new school and how that would affect me. I would do anything in my power to stay at my school. Well that just may be because I love my school.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Holden's reaction to being kicked out is a lot different from how a lot of people would react, and I think that it is very realistic for a lot of teenagers. I'm not sure if it's really a trait to be admired, because that kind of shortsightedness will probably lead to a lot more problems later on. I notice that I sometimes get that attitude of not caring that Holden exhibits, and it rarely leads to a good outcome.
ReplyDelete