Option 1: J.D. Salinger’s diction (word choice) for Holden Caulfield is unique and interesting. His voice is easily distinguished among literary characters.
- What do you find interesting/unique/distinguishable about Holden’s style of speech? What types of words does he use? What is the tone? Is he grammatically correct?
- How does his diction and voice characterize, develop, reveal about himself? What does it reveal about Holden's attitudes towards others?
- Who is Holden? What do we know, not know, possibly know about him?
Option 2: Provide your observations and insights. Include a quote that you think is the most essential for these chapters.
If you really want to hear about him, I will tell you about Holden Caulfield. Holden has attitude. He uses a lot of cuss words and bad grammar to tell his story. He doesn't like to follow society's rules. In short, Holden is real; he doesn't try to be someone he is not.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing noticeable about Holden is his grammar. He uses a lot of run-on sentences to tell his story. When he visits his sick history teacher to tell him goodbye his teacher starts to lecture him, because he is being kicked out of the school. At first he listens, but eventually he can't stand being lecture anymore. He thinks,
"I just couldn't hang around there any longer, the way we were on opposite sides of the pole, and the way he kept missing the bed whenever he chucked something at it, and his sad old bathrobe with his chest showing, and that grippy smell of Vicks Nose Drops all over the place(15)."
There are no periods until the very end of his flow of thoughts. All of Holden's thoughts in this sentence are linked together with ", and." The structure creates a stream of consciousness; we hear what Holden is thinking as he thinks it. The stream of consciousness allows the reader to better understand Holden, because they can see his thoughts. I think it also helps Holden seem like a real person. I don't think there are many people who think with perfect grammar all the time. I think most people have thoughts that jump from one thing to the next. I think this makes him relatable to the audience, and makes his character likable.
The second thing noticeable about Holden is his diction. Holden uses a lot of cuss words and inappropriate language. I thought his language was a bit excessive. However, I think the language is an important part of his character. When this story came out people were shocked with the language, because people tried to keep their language clean. Despite the possible disapproval of his audience Holden does not try to filter his language. He uses cuss words to put feeling and emotion into the story. His language shows his attitude. When he is describing the school, Pencey, he is being kicked out of he uses some colorful language. He says, "They don't do any damn more molding at Pencey than they do at any other school(2)." Holden does not care for Pencey one bit. He does not care for them because they try to "mold" their students just like every school. I think he uses a cuss word to express his anger and frustration. Holden is angry that people are trying to mold him into something. He does not want to be someone he is not; he wants to be real.
Holden does not filter his thoughts or his language, because that would make him a "phony." He doesn't like "phony" people. He disliked the headmaster of Pencey, because the headmaster was a phony. When he was talking about the headmaster's daughter he said she did not talk about how great her father was, because she probably knew he was a "phony," Holden said, "[The headmaster's daughter] probably knew what a phony slob he was(3)." Holden was not complementing the headmaster. He called him a "phony slob." Nobody calls someone they like and respect a "phony slob." Holden did not think the headmaster was sincere and real. Holden thinks that being real is important. It is probably the reason that Holden does not like the movies; they are fake. Holden does not want to follow society, and be someone he is not. He wants to be real and sincere. However, I think this brings up a question: Is he real?
It is a good observation that Holden does not filter his thoughts or language; it does make him more real. I might question if he does this to be avoid being a phony. I agree that this is a strong reason, but I also wonder if he is doing it to rebel or shock his audience? Does he want attention?
DeleteHolden does seem to want attention because he hates being alone and when he is, he always seems to be depressed and looking for people to see and talk to. Holden seems unable to stand being alone for excessive amounts of time, however, he can't stand being with people because there is always something wrong with them. So, I think the language does stem more from a point where he want people (the audience) to pay attention to him and listen to what he has to say.
DeleteAfter reading the first few chapters, Holden’s stream of consciousness helps us understand how he sees the world and the people in it. And what I have taken from it is that Holden is a character whose mind just does not function like that of others. His thoughts and feelings are all over the place which add to the fact that he is different from everyone else. The little things seem to bother him the most. For example, when he visits Mr. Spencer, he thinks about how, in class, he is always dropping the chalk piece from his hand and someone in the front row has to pick it up and give it back to him. In Holden’s mind this is “awful”. Holden also gets irritated because of Mr. Spencer’s loud voice, bathrobe, bumpy chest, legs, and even the way he nods his head through conversation. These small things seem like big inconveniences to Holden. The passage where Mr. Spencer is lecturing Holden about “playing by the rules” in “life’s game” shows Holden’s character best in these first few chapters. On the outside, Holden is compliant and nodding along with Spencer, but on the inside, Holden’s thoughts are otherwise, “Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, all right—I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game,” (8). This illustrates Holden’s feelings of alienation; he believes that he is an “outsider” per say, and everyone else is against him. The inner monologue also shows his silent contempt for adults or maybe just those who try to upper-hand Holden. We see this because of his diction: curses and ridicule. This is somewhat strange because he is, seemingly, an intelligent boy from a privileged family, yet, he still feels victimized.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I believe he has a very cynical personality and easily bothered. However, throughout the book Holden seems to be "phony" which is one of the many things he seems to hate. He tries to act older than he really is throughout the entire book, by paying for the prostitute, and going to the bars. He is a self-proclaimed compulsive liar even. He is very apt to be a part of adult life inwardly, but outwardly rejects it.
DeleteIf you look deeper into how Holden feels about Mr. Spencer when he is speaking with him, he actually feels pretty bad for the guy. He has to depend on other people for many tasks that are seemingly simple for most people. The dropping of the chalk, and missing the bed when he tries to throw stuff onto it are just some of the actions that most people can do with ease and then there are people like Mr. Spencer that can't even do it on their own. Holden just doesn't seem to have the ability to express those kinds of thoughts in any other way than disgust and annoyance. He doesn't want to look at Mr. Spencer because he doesn't want to feel the sadness for him because he can no longer control what is happening to him. Holden is unhappy with something overall which causes him to focus on smaller actions so he doesn't have to deal with the bigger picture.
DeleteWhat might be the bigger picture that Holden is avoiding? Why might he choose to focus on small details? The stream of consciousness also reflects Holden's inability to focus and distractability.
DeleteIn The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, the author develops the narrator’s (Holden) angsty personality by the use of the literary devices diction and dialogue. Holden narrates in a very sarcastic, crude way which develops his seemingly uncaring attitude that is illustrated in the beginning of the story from his continuous dropping out of school. However, Holden’s roommate, Stradlater, went out with an old friend, Jane, which struck Holden wrong because Stradlater doesn’t treat girls well. “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 goddam stupid moron.” (Page 44). This quote shows that while Holden may have a crude personality explicated by his use of curses, he values emotional relationships such as that with Jane unlike Stradlater, which is the reason he is so angry. Stradlater was placed in the story in order to further develop Holden’s personality by showing contrast. Stradlater is a “rule follower” meanwhile, Holden smokes in the dorm rooms. Stradlater is well built, handsome, and passing classes, while Holden is slim and getting kicked out of school. Because Stradlater is very prominent in the first few chapters, Holden’s angsty and crude diction and dialogue directed at him help further develop Holden’s personality.
ReplyDeleteIt is also interesting tha Stradlater asks Holden to write his composition for him. While Holden won't do his own homework or assignments, he will write a paper for someone he claims not to like. Additionally, Holden seems to take care with the subject and shows that there is more depth or emotion or sensitivity to him. His cursing and criticizing of everything and everyone initially portrays him as a big jerk, but the writing about the baseball gloves shows him to be more. Why then does Holden tear up the paper when Stradlater complains about it? What might this further reveal about Holden? His concern for Jane is also interesting? What do you thinking he meant by keeping her "kings in the back row"? Why does he appreciate this?
DeleteHolden is a mysterious character in my eyes. I have noticed that he doesn't have good grammar at all. His sentences run on and on with no periods separating thoughts. Holden told us that he has been kicked out of three different schools within the span of a few days and is now at a school called Pencey. Pencey sounds like more of an institution to me rather than a high school. He explains that they try to mold the students into people they are not, or at least this is how Holden sees it since he wants to be the unique person. He definitely has a real personality and embraces it. He hates the idea of being a fake person, or a phony. He is really not fond of phony's at all. Ellison wrote, "I ran all the way to the main gate, and then I waited a second till I got my breath. I have no wind, if you want to know the truth. I'm quite a heavy smoker, for one thing—that is, I used to be. They made me cut it out. Another thing, I grew six and a half inches last year. That's also how I practically got t.b. and came out here for all these goddam checkups and stuff. I'm pretty healthy though." There is a main gate at this place he is at and they are providing "check ups and stuff" which is quite odd. It also sounds like he is running from this place as if he doesn't belong there. He refers to the facility he is at as "here" and the people there as "they". These are pretty vague details into what this place is or who they are. I believe that it is a mental institution of some sort and they are doctors taking care of him. He probably did something bad at one of the schools he got expelled from and they sent him here. I think that quote kind of sums up these chapters because we are getting to know Holden at this point. We can see from the quote that he has bad grammar and that he is in some facility of some sort with people there to take care of him, but he doesn't appreciate it and doesn't want to change his personality like they want him too.
ReplyDeleteSalinger, not Ellison
DeleteHolden does not like to be influenced by anything; he does not want someone to mold him. I think that explains why he does not apply himself in many of the subjects in school. He applies himself to English, because he likes it. Although, he did not do to well on the Oral speeches they had to do. I think he did not do well on that part of English, because he did not like it. If Holden does not like something he does not do it. If he did do something he did not want to do, then he would be allowing people to mold him into something else. Do you think it is a bad to allow people to mold you? How can someone learn if they are not willing to be influenced by teachers and mentors?
DeleteHolden alludes to where he is currently at, but does not explicitly tell the audience. Is he avoiding the audience or himself? I would question is Holden has bad grammar or chooses to use bad grammar? How does this develop him or make his voice perhaps more or less authentic? How does mold differ in connotation than a word like mentor, guide, or even shape?
DeleteWhen Holden uses the word "mold" to describe the teachings at Pencey, rather than other words such as mentor, or shape, it holds a meaning that further shows his distaste for school and "phonies". Mold means that the school is almost forcing everyone to be the same and think the same way that the school thinks is best. The school is in control. If Holden used the word mentor, it would have meant that the school helps the students find their own way while giving them pushes in the right direction and everyone would have their own way of thinking that may differ than the norm. This would make them less "phony" than Holden believes.
Delete
ReplyDeleteHolden’s diction in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is full of cuss words and run on sentences portraying how Holden is very scatter-brained and wandering with his mind. This is very odd as he knows himself that he is very good at English and everyone else does as well. English is the only class he doesn’t fail too as he has failed every other class. Holden Caufield is on his third high school because he has been kicked out of every school and now he’s getting kicked out of Pencey. He seems to be indifferent about being kicked out. His diction suggests that he doesn’t really care about his future but he also claims that he is sad to be leaving. I think it is interesting that he will say one thing and then say another thing that contradicts what he just said. “‘I’m the one that’s flunking out of the goddam place, and you’re asking me to write you a goddam composition,’ I said.” (Salinger, 28.) He knows he’s good at English yet he claims that he wouldn’t be good at it because he’s getting kicked out. He also cusses adding to his character that he’s a bit angry. Holden seems to say goddam quite a bit. For someone who’s supposedly good at English, he doesn’t always use correct grammar or the best language. This seems to reveal that there’s something in him that he’s angry about. I think it also reveals that he’s not afraid to express himself and be who he really is. A lot of the people he describes seem to be fake and more concerned with things that aren’t important like Stradlater with his looks. Holden isn’t necessarily interested in doing much of anything but it is important to him to be genuine. He seems to have a kind heart with his action of inviting Ackley to the movies with him, but he still complains about him nevertheless. Holden will act like he’s okay with someone at first like Stradlater, Ackley, and his history teacher, but after being around them for too long he’ll get angry and frustrated with the person. He called Stradlater a “dirty stupid sonuvabitch of a moron” repeatedly during their fight mostly just because he was upset about him getting with his friend, Jane. Earlier in the section he said he didn’t mind Stradlater that much but after hearing about Jane he just wasn’t having it. When Holden decides to leave the school a few days early, he wakes up the entire floor and calls them bastards. This shows that Holden truly doesn’t seem to care about anyone’s feelings but himself at this point. He seems to be struggling with something inside him and doesn’t know how to express it except by being difficult.
I disagree that his diction suggests that he doesn't care about his future but I see how it can be interpreted that way. I think that his diction suggests that he is mourning. He is struggling to find himself again after his brother's death. I do agree that he doesn't care about anyone but himself at this point. He is very selfish in being kicked out of three nicer schools and comes from a fairly wealthy family. Does he have problems with social skills by chance? Does this affect his relationships or ability to make relationships with people?
DeleteIs the future even on his radar? Where does he spend most of his thinking? His language can be viewed as very flippant, but it could also be viewed as a defense. Does finishing te novel change perspectives?
DeleteHolden rarely thinks into the future; most of Holden's thoughts focus, erratically, on the present or even the past. When he does think about the future, such as when he thinks of what he wants to do when he grows up, it is very imaginative. He says he wants to be the catcher in the rye, that saves little kids from their deaths, but this isn't a realistic future for him, or anyone. This can further show how out of touch Holden is with reality (the world and people around him).
DeleteI find it interesting that Holden talks in such an unprofessional, mostly rude way. It is easily distinguishable that he is a teenager who does not really care about how he speaks. "That annoyed me, for some reason. 'Oh, Christ. Don't spoil it,' I said. 'I'm twelve, for Chrissake. I'm big for my age.'" Though he harbors great insecurities, which we will find out more later on, he really does not seem concerned with how people see him. I also found it interesting how poor his grammar is, both in his spoken and written word; the only other story I recall with such poor grammar at times was "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” In addition to highlighting this poor sentence formation, this quote also makes clear the aforementioned insecurities and cynicism. Lastly, the types of words he uses are very profane. Controversial at the time but much more typical now, Holden was a teenager who was no stranger to cussing and profanity. "Besides, I'm not going to tell you my whole goddam autobiography or
ReplyDeleteanything." "It cost him damn near four thousand bucks." "'I don't know, and I don't give a damn. How 'bout sitting down or something, Ackley kid? You're right in my goddam light.'" It doesn't matter if he's talking to a peer, recounting an event to himself, or even talking to an adult; his use of foul language knows no bounds.
Holden's voice and diction reveal he is a very cynical young man with internal turmoil. He constantly calls people "phonies" and expresses disdain at other people. "She probably knew what a phony slob he was." "...then old Hans would just shake hands with them and give them a phony smile..." Specifically, he expresses specifically Ackley's flaws. "He was one of these very, very tall, round-shouldered guys--he was about six four--with lousy teeth." "Besides that, he had a lot of pimples." "...he had a terrible personality. He was also sort of a nasty guy. I wasn't too crazy about him, to tell you the truth." However, he then turns around and acts like they are best friends, even including him in his plans with other people. “I asked Mal if he minded if Ackley came along with us. The reason I asked was because Ackley never did anything on Saturday night, except stay in his room and squeeze his pimples or something." Holden additionally claims to hate the movies in general, especially how his brother "sold-out" to Hollywood to make more money than he would from just being a writer. "I hate the movies like poison, but I get a bang imitating them." But then he goes and sees one with his friends just because it is a socially normal and acceptable thing for teenagers to do. All of these contradictions serve to identify that although he has negative opinions on people and their lifestyles, he is sometimes afraid to reveal his true feeling out of fear of being socially ostracized.
I agree with the idea that Holden seems to make himself appear to be against many social norms such as going to the movies or socializing with friends yet he still does those things himself. In parts of the book, he would get sad when he had no one to be around and was always calling up people to try and meet up with them. Then he'd get fed up with the person he was spending time with and call them a phony. It seemed like nothing was ever good enough for him and he was always unsure of what he wanted. He would say he hated everyone but then he'd turn around and feel lonely and want someone to be around. I think his foul language seems to emphasize these points and show the aggressiveness of his nature. It just didn't make sense how he'd be constantly changing his mind from calling people phonies to calling them on the phone drunk in need of a friend.
DeleteHolden's style of speech is interesting because it is not a refined form of English. He quite frequently uses sentence fragments, and he is quite fond of using slang from that period. Holden's voice and tone are what add depth to his style of speech. Holden tends to be very angry and seems to find at least one major thing wrong with everyone he encounters. The picture he paints of his life is one that is very irritating and unpleasant. In many instances Holden appears to be speaking to the audience. It is as if Holden is either having a conversation with you or he is personally presenting his story to you. Thus far we know that Holden is a slightly unstable boy with a wealthy family (this would explain why he is sent away to private boarding schools), and he appears to be suffering from some form of depression as his outlook on things tends to always be grim and angry.
ReplyDeleteHolden definitely speaks like he is a kid. The poor grammar and manner of speaking the author uses serves to remind us that this story is from the point of view of Holden. He easily could have written this story from a 3rd person perspective, or from another person, but he choose to use Holden because this would give us the most impact reading the story. He also does this to give insight on Holden's actions. If we were just looking in on him from the outside, we really would not learn that much about him, mainly because he does not open up to others much. We learn so much about his point of view that it is easy to become biased against the other characters just as he does. It is important to remember that Holden is just a person, and just as any person would do, he skewed the story to his benefit and to make his cause more appealing.
DeleteHolden uses a lot of vulgar language. Especially for the time that this book was written. From the very beginning, the reader can tell how unenthusiastic Holden is about telling this story. Not only that, but how against it he actually is. He uses damn and hell quite often to describe his actions and the things around him. He's a very pessimistic character, and he seems to be against everybody around him except for Jane.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Holden's way of speaking actually shows a lack of confidence and happiness with himself rather than everyone around him. He is missing something within his life and he's taking it out on others. He doesn't have the motivation in school to try anymore, and it results in his flunking out. The use of stream of consciousness showing Holden's thoughts as he was having them gives a really good insight into his feelings and the underlying emotions pushing him to think and feel in such a way. Holden is a high school student that is flunking out of a nice school and has an extremely negative perspective. Despite having strong feelings against all of these people, he still continues to talk to them, and likes the connections that he has with each of them. We don't know what Holden is going to do with himself before he goes home, and we don't know why he didn't try at Pencey. We possibly know that Holden has feelings for Jane, that Holden is struggling with something deeper, and that he has family problems.
I hadn't actually thought about his language and tone showing a lack of confidence before, however, now that you have mentioned that it makes sense. He is a very negative person and very well does seem to be against everyone around him for sometimes no reason at all. I think that is maybe part of his mourning process. He may be blaming everyone around him for Allie's death by being so negative to everyone and everything. Did he not try at Pencey because he is still mourning over his brother and physically cannot do it? Is he really all that smart or just not trying?
DeleteHolden has a very unique style of speech that I believe is subconsciously intentional. We know that Holden flunks out of school (not for the first time) after failing every class except English. The scene at the beginning of the book where Holden visits his history teacher gives us an outline of Holden's character. We see him speaking with a teacher whose class he failed and while he doesn't want to hear the lecture the teacher is giving him (as expected), he doesn't seem at all disappointed in himself for flunking out of yet another school. We can conclude from this that Holden doesn't care about school, which implies that Holden had to have been good at English in order for him to pass. Holden seems drawn to writing, possibly because it's an interest he sees in each of his siblings. His older brother is a writer, he enjoys reading Pheobe's "kid notebook," and his deceased brother used to have a baseball glove with poems written on it which is significant to him given that he was able to write a paper seemingly effortlessly over it. Holden also at one point interrupts his narration to inform his audience of literature he's read in the past, so to think he has bad grammar because that's just how he talks is hard to believe.
ReplyDeleteAs a teenage boy, he uses a lot slang words and cusses a lot, but his negative tone makes the way he speaks ironic. While he complains about people being "phony" he speaks with the same words and phrases as they do. Possibly the reason he uses such vulgar language is to make himself seem older and therefore more "mature." Also, Holden tends to speak without a filter, in other words, he always says what's on his mind (good or bad) and doesn't hold much back. This might be caused by a lack of confidence or the need for approval from others.
How does Salinger use elements of voice to show Holden's attitude about Stradlater?
ReplyDelete