Cathcher
CathcherThe Catcher in the Rye
The book Catcher in the Rye is a story of Holden Caulfield's thoughts about
life and the world around him. Holden tells many of his opinions about
people and takes the reader on a 5-day trip into his mind. Holden,
throughout the book, made other people feel inferior to his own. I can
relate to this because although I do not view people inferior to me, I
judge others unequally. Holden and I both have similar judgements of
people from the way they act and behave. We also share feelings about
motivation as well as lack of it. After reading this book, I came to the
conclusion that Holden and I are much more similar than I initially
believed.
Holden portrayed others to be inferior to his own kind all throughout
the book. He made several references as to how people aren't as perfect as
he was. "The reason Stradlater fixed himself up to look good was
because he was madly in love with himself." Holden had a
difficults with no being good. He was afraid of not having any special talents or
abilities and and did other thi8ngs to make himself look tough.
"Boy, I sat at that goddam bar till around one o'clock or so, getting drunk
as a bastard. I could hardly see straight." Holden tried all he
could to try to be cool he was faking it just to fit in. He drank, cursed and criticized life l to make it
seem he was like he knew of his habits. I myself have found me doing this
at times, also. I, at times, feel the need to fit in to a group and do
things similar to what others do in order to be accepted by others, but I do have my limitations. I
smoked a cigarratte once by myself cause I saw everybody doing that so I was like let me see how it is, I tried it and
it didn�t grow on me but that was only once. Holden and I both
put people on levels higher and lower other than our own for amount of knowledge and
and characteristic
Holden used the term 'phonies' to describe more than a few people in
this book. He used the term to be what a person is if they don't act
themselfs and follow other people's ways. Holden didn't like
phonies, he thought of them as if they were trying to show off. He didn't
like it when they showed off because it seemed fake and unnatural every
time they would act like it..
"At the end of the first act we went out with all
the other jerks for a cigarette. What a deal that
was. You never saw so many phonies in all your life,
everybody smoking their ears off and talking about
the play so that everybody could hear how sharp they
were."
I know many people like this and I really don�t pay them attention, I just let them make a
fool of themselves and I try to act like my self as much as possible. I
have many friends who talk using vocabulary that they wouldn�t normally use just to try to impress
you, and others who make note of everything they see to show you how
observant they are. People do this when they have a fear of their own
individuality and feel that they need to acy different to get people to
like them. Me, personally I don�t like seeing somebody acting differently from themselves,
cause I belive everyboddy is cool, you just have to find it in them.
Throughout the book Holden displays a lack of motivation for many
things in which he should do and like myself I acknowledge that, but I�m tool lazy to take it in to consideration.
Holden couldn't even call up an old
girlfriend whom he knew a long time ago.
"But when I got inside this phone booth, I
wasn't much in the mood any more to give old
Jane a buzz."
Holden also had a problem getting his motivation together in order to
finish schoolwork and succeed in his prep school. I have similar problems
with my motivation and find at times I must be in the mood to do something
in order for me to accomplish it. This stems from our experience in the
past being that we can get through life, or the part we've been through
already, with minimal effort. Holden has had this opportunity to notice
this as his parents have been shuffling him around to different schools
every time he flunks. He feels his parents will be there to move him
somewhere else and take care of him every time something goes wrong. I
. I find my forgetting
to do things and having my parents doing them for me spoiled me, so now I just do what I can and don�t worry bout the rest which is bad. I find I am
basically did things I was suppose to take care off. This is a bad habit
though and I am trying to get out of this lifestyle because I know I
won't always have someone to fall back on and sooner or later its gonna backfire.
Holden Caulfield and I are very similar in many ways. We tend to judge
different people similar ways. We both dislike people who act fake
because of their need to be �cool�. We also both lack motivation because of
childhood experiences which have made us who we are. In conclusion me Holden Caulfield
in many ways alike yet different.