Chapters 14-15 of The Catcher And The Rye (Quotes)

'Better is one's own duty imperfectly carried out than

following perfectly the law of another.

Better is death in the fulfillment of one's own law,

for to follow another's law is perilous.'

-The Bhagavad-Gita

 To me this quote can relate to Holden Caulfield a lot. I say this because, to me this quote is talking about how it is better to go your own way instead of going someone else's way. Meaning, that a person has to be original, they can't just copy everyone around them, they have to be an individual, which is what Holden is all about. He hates it when people just go with everyone else and the aren't being themselves, they are just being phoney. It brings him to the point where he gets sick and wants to through up. Secretly, I believe this is Holden Caulfield's motto, because this is exactly what he always says just in different words. 

 

 "It is the quality of ones convictions that determines success, 

not the number of followers."

  -R.J LUPEN 

 

This quote, to me, also shows Holden Caulfield. This quote is saying the choices you make in life makes you who you are, and it doesn't matter how many agree with you or how many people don't agree with you, as long as you are successful in your own eyes. Don't try to be "cool" just so you can have friends, be yourself and as long as you are happy, then it doesn't matter what other people think. I think that Holden is like this in some ways. 

"He was a very nice kid, and I liked him, but I could never see eye to eye with him on a lot of stuff in the Bible, especially the Disciples. He kept telling me if I didn't like the Disciples, then I didn't like Jesus and all. He said that because Jesus picked the Disciples, you were suppose to like them. I said I knew He picked them, but that He picked them at random. I said he didn't have time to go around analyzing everybody. I said I wasn't blaming Jesus or anything. It wasn't His fault that He didn't have any time."

In this quote from the book, it show Holden arguing with a guy about religion and the Disciples. During this conversation he isn't worried about what the other guy is going to think of him. The guy said that he didn't like Jesus and Holden just corrected him and said his opinion about the Disciples and how Jesus didn't have time to hold interviews with everybody. Holden doesn't really care about what other people think about him, and I think that fits my quote.

 

 

Chapters 8-11 of The Catcher And The Rye

After reading chapters 8-11 I think Holden is an okay guy. Sometimes you get a glimpse of this really caring nice guy who regrets some of his decisions, but then sometimes you see this kid, who is kind of annoying and who lies to people like it's his job. Like in chapter 8 you see the guy who is lying his face off but then after he talks to the women he regrets lying to her, Holden says, ""...I have to have an operation.""Oh! I'm so sorry," she said. She really was, too. I was right away sorry I'd said it, but it was too late." He tells these lies because he is used to it but he ends up feeling bad about it. I think that makes him a good guy. He recognizes his mistakes and he how it feels when you tell a lie. However, something that makes him kind of a bad guy is that he is kind of a creep, I don't really know a good word to describe him I don't want to say pervert or weirdo or anything, so I think he is just kind of a creep. In chapter 9 when he goes into his hotel room, and he is seeing all the people in the other rooms he is creepin'.
"You'd be surprised what was going on on the other side of the hotel. They didn't even bother to pull down their shades down. I saw one guy, a gray-haired, very distinguished-looking guy with only his shorts on, do something you wouldn't believe me if I told you. First he put his suitcase on the bed. Then he took out these women's clothes, and put them on. Real women's clothes-silk stockings, high-heeled shoes, brassiére, and one of those corsets with the straps hanging down and all....Then, in the window almost right over his, I saw a man and a woman squirting water out of their mouths at each other. It probably was highballs, not water, but I couldn't see their glasses....The trouble was, that kind of junk is sort of fascinating to watch, even if you don't want it to be. For instance, that girl that was getting water squirted all over her face, she was pretty good-looking. I mean that's my big trouble. In my mind, I'm probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw."
That is a total creeper move. Watching people through windows! That is pretty sketchy. And I feel that only creepers would say the line, "In my mind, I'm probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw." This makes him a bad guy because he is spying on other people. Yeah, the people leave their blinds open but that don't mean you have to watch!

I guess that Holden can be a good guy and bad guy, it just depends on the day.

Chapter 5- The Catcher In The Rye

After reading chapter 5 of "The Catcher In The Rye," I kind of saw Holden in a different way. When he starts writing the paper for Stradlater's English class and he starts talking about his younger brother, Allie, and his baseball glove, I almost started crying. Usually Holden kind of puts up this wall, and talks about how much he hates people or how many people are morons, but when he starts talking about Allie, you could swear that it was a different person talking. He gets so sincere and passionate and when I was reading it I could almost hear a random guys voice in my head, who had this soft tone talking about his little brother, I could hear Holden start to get a little worked up but he was trying to hold it back.

I believe that he handled his grief in a good way, because he was think about the little things that his brother did that made him a good person. Like how Allie got good grades and how all his teachers would tell his parents how amazing he was. Or how he remembered his red hair.
" People with red hair are supposed to get mad very easily, but Allie never did, and he had very red hair. I'll tell you what kind of red hair he had...I was around twelve, teeing off and all, and having a hunch that if I turned around all of a sudden, I'd see Allie. So I did, and sure enough, he was sitting on his bike outside outside the fence-there was this fence that went all around the course- and he was sitting there, about a hundred and fifty yards behind me, watching me tee off. That's the kind of red hair he had."
Just by reading that you can tell that he remembers every little memory he had of his brother. Especially the memories of his baseball glove. How he was left-handed, so he had a left-handed glove and he wrote poems all over it with green pen so that when he was out and no one was up to bat he could read something so he wouldn't get bored. Like, that is so cute! And it is even cuter that Holden remembers that!

I can relate to Holden because when I was little I lost my best friend, and I grieved for about 3 months. His name was Lorren and he also happened to be my Great Papa. In about 2003, he was too weak to live on his own so my family and I had to put him in a "Senior Home." I was against the whole idea from the beginning. I didn't want him to be in some crumby old folks home all alone. So I tried to visit him as much as I could. However one week I went to go visit him and he was fine. We had ice cream and we sat in the park and watched the geese fly on and off the lake and then after our day was over he went back to his "home," and I went back to mine. And I was unfortunately informed about two weeks later that he had pasted away. I cried for weeks and excluded myself from everyone for months. After a few months I started socializing again and I could come to the fact that my best friend past away. When I think about it today, of course I get a little worked up, but I also think about all the good times we had together. I went through my time of grieving, and still in a way I think I am still grieving but just in a different way. Yeah, I miss my Papa, but he is in a better place now. :)

^ This is My Best Friend Lorren :) ^

Chapters 2-4 of The Catcher In The Rye

While reading "The Catcher In The Rye" I didn't really know exactly how I felt about Holden Caulfield. During chapter one, I thought I could relate to him a little bit. For example, how he was the manager of the fencing team and I was the manager of the of the basketball team, and how he forgot their fencing equipment and one time I forgot the water bottles on the bus. But what makes us different is that I felt awful about it, but he thought it was funny and it didn't bother him at all. However, as I kept reading, I started realizing that I wasn't much like him at all, and that personally I think he is kind of irritating. I say this because he gets off topic or he repeats himself.

"...Then I got this book I was reading and sat down in my chair. There were two chairs in every room. I had one and my roommate, Ward Stradlater, had one. The arms were in sad shape, because everybody was always sitting on them, but they were pretty comfortable chairs." I don't understand why he has to go into so much detail, like we don't need to know that the arms of the chairs were crappy. Another time when he repeats himself is when he is talking to Stradlater about Jane Gallagher. He just keeps talking about how they played checkers and she always kept her kings on the back line because she liked how it looked, and then he just kept saying "Jane Gallagher, Jesus." Like we get it, you were good friends and you like her.

However, I think is is like the typical teenage because when he was talking about how he didn't feel bad about about leaving the equipment, he could have just been saying that because is didn't want to admit it. I think that I empathize with him sometimes, because I try to say that I am not bothered by something or I don't admit my true feelings because I don't want to be seen as "weak" or whatever. And also feel like I can relate to him when he gets bored and horses around because I get bored a lot and I make up a game or just start dancing randomly. Like how he was acting like a tap-dancer in the restroom. "The leading man can't go on. He's as drunk as a bastard. So who do they get to take his place? Me, that's who. The little ole goddam Governor's son." I would do that same thing, make up a crazy story that has nothing to do with what was going on. I think Holden is an okay guy, but can get a little irritating sometimes, but I am looking foward to finishing the book.