Holden is labeled as a romantic character, one, for his differentiating views on society, humanity, morality, etc. than the mainstream belief. He is more pro women than most men and more respectful towards them, shown in chapter 10 when he called his sister "smart" and himself "dumb". The stereotypical man during that time would have thought women to naturally be dumber than them, so Holden admitting that his sister is smarter than him shows how he has a different view than most of society, and therefore ties in with the romantic belief of looking at things differently.
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Catcher in the Rye 9-10 Option 2
Holden is a complex and contradictory character. In chapter 10, he shows how he can be a little bit of a hypocrite. Holden thinks his sister is really smart for memorizing movies, writing stories, and being able to follow a conversation silently. However, when he meets the three women in the lavender room, he automatically labels them as "dumb" because "They didn't invite me to sit down at their table-- mostly because they were too ignorant-- but I sat down anyway." (Pg 82 Salinger) Holden has a hypocritical label of "smart". He doesn't see intelligence from other's point of view and will automatically label a person dumb if they don't talk to him or talk anything of interest to him. He could be the stupid one for not realizing that the women didn't want his company, or that he wasn't interested in their interests. His label of smart is hypocritical.
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I think you did a very good job characterizing Holden. You really looked deep into the text to make those conclusions and they never stood out to me. I also like how you used time as a factor in creating your analysis instead of assuming society has always remained the same as it is today. Another note is at the beginning of chapter 9 when Holden wants to make a phone call he first considers calling girls. I think this backs up your analysis that he is respectful toward woman. Also if we look back in chapter 6 when Holden and Stradlater get into their fight Holden says "I told him he didn't even care if a girl kept all her kings in the back row or not, and the reason he didn't care was because he was a ____ stupid moron." (Salinger 44). This backs up your argument as well because this clearly shows that Holden values woman as individuals. I would like to know how you would compare Holden and Stradlater on this particular topic. We don't have as much insight on Stradlater but I think we could make a fair assessment based on chapter 4 and 6.
ReplyDeleteExcellent work! You did a great job going into detail about Holden. It was great how you mentioned that Holden was being a hypocrite. (I didn't catch on to that until you mentioned it!) I enjoy the fact that you caught onto the little details about Holden as a person. The way you described how Holden is more open minded in that society to women was great as well! Your reference to chapter 10 also really helped out to support your argument! Great job!
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