Hey /lit/, I just finished re-reading The Catcher in the Rye. I'm trying to process it fully, and in my note-taking I'm trying to figure out what the three most important encounters Holden has. There's simply some many to choose from, I'm not sure which. I'm simply just trying to connect which events cause his character to develop, but I only want 3. If I do anymore I'll probably expand way too much, and I tend to do that when I take notes for books I read. So, I suppose what I'm asking of you guys is to help me identify three major events Holden had, and why you believe that those are so. Any takers?
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Anonymous2010-01-25 6:19
Ah, forgive me, I meant /book/.
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Anonymous2010-01-25 6:23
i put The Catcher in the Rye in my mouth.. and now i have herpes..!!!
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Anonymous2010-01-25 7:07
You're doing a rather shoddy job at disguising the homework assignment due tomorrow as an honest question. Read the goddamn book.
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Anonymous2010-01-26 3:06
Are there trolls here as well?
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Anonymous2010-01-26 13:37
>>5
Yes. I am big and green and scary and I live under a bridge. I am a troll
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Anonymous2010-01-26 14:39
If you can't identify 'em, either you haven't read the book or you don't understand what you've read.
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Anonymous2010-01-26 19:17
1. The "good" aliens arrive on the Starship Edmont, take Holden, and he meets the princess.
2. He learns of his destiny and studies combat under General Maurice.
3. During the final battle with the "evil" aliens, he looses control of his fighter, crashes into a world filled with animals, and is marooned forever.
What a piece of shit. A book for whiny teens with huge egos and no balls.
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Anonymous2010-01-26 22:53
>>8
Yeah, but the whole point of the book was how much of a loser (or a "phony") Holden is. I still didn't like it, because I hated him too much, but the idea of the book is admirable.
>>10
Isn't that what it's supposed to be? Or am I just crazy.
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Anonymous2010-01-27 3:10
I understand hating a book you are forced to read, but the problem everyone seems to have with Holden is not that he's a whiny crybaby but that he doesn't murder everyone like Hamlet, who is also a whiny crybaby but he murders people and tries to hump his mom. I bet more people love Patrick Bateman than Holden.
If you didn't like the book because you hated Holden...?
I weep for you.
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Anonymous2010-01-28 23:15
yall are a bunch of phonies
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Anonymous2010-01-29 4:45
I like the part when Holden says phony
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Anonymous2010-01-29 9:38
>>16
You seem to have completely missed the point of the post you responded to. Perhaps you are a retard?
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Anonymous2010-01-29 14:51
The point of the novel is that all human collusion leads to "phoniness," and that at a deeper level this is due to the fundamental ambiguousness of human perception. At the same time, trying to convey this message to the reader constitutes an unavoidable act of "phoniness" by the author himself.
That's why Salinger became a deluded loner/closet pedo later in life. The inherent irony in this book drove him bananas.
derp derp derp adults are evil children are good and innocent when people grow up they lose their innocence and become phony fucktards derp
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Anonymous2010-01-31 0:08
>>21
You seem to have completely missed the point of the book. Perhaps you are a retard?
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Anonymous2010-01-31 1:17
The book is about loss of innocence you fucking idiots. It's about the inevitable loss of innocence and the realization of how people are "phony"
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Anonymous2010-01-31 9:19
>>23
People may think they can get away with losing of innocence, but I would say to those people: I wouldn't want to mess around if I were them.
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Anonymous2010-02-02 7:24
>>1 in my note-taking
You sorry piece of shits can't even read a book normally. You think what teachers teach you is ACTUALLY how one reads books? You think intelligent people actually make notes when they read?
I'll enlighten you. Note-taking while reading mother fucking FICTION is what only absolute morons do. Morons, or really clueless people.
I finished reading it I didn't like it. It showed promise at the start with Holden being witty but nothing really happened. The ending was a big cop out too
Anyone who repeats the "loss of innocence" line is moron who didn't actually understand the book. Get your own interpretation of the book instead of just pissing out the generally accepted one.
you bunch of phonies
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Anonymous2010-03-20 2:18
Patrick Bateman is better.
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Anonymous2010-03-22 6:27
Hate to break it to you guys but this book is simply a character study of a fictional young man, most likely based on the author's own personality. The author in question wrote it as part of a concentrated effort to become a popular writer. He chose to do a character study because that was his forte. He chose to write about a angsty young man because he understood this way of thinking. All events in the book are simply literary devices used to extrapolate the main character. The only reason you try and find larger meaning in it is because you happened to have to "study" it in a highschool class. >>20
This is possible. One could also say that death is what people are driven to by the inherent irony of having to convey solid messages while perceiving in an ambiguous way. The tension between mind and body. It leads to death by phoniness for us all.