Option 1:
- Although Allie, Holden’s brother, is not actually alive in the novel, he is an important character. Holden even talks to him throughout the novel. This is called an apostrophe. Why is he so important to understanding this novel? Describe Allie with as much detail as you can. What effect does Allie’s death have on Holden? Does Holden blame himself for Allie’s death? What do you think about the situation?
- OR
- Holden states several times throughout the novel that he feels as if he is disappearing. Particularly at the end of the novel he more frequently states he feels this way. What is the significance of this? What could it mean?
Option 2:
- Provide your observations and insights. Include a quote that you think is the most essential for these chapters.
Allie is important to understand because he is the key to understanding Holden's mental state. Whenever Holden gets really depressed his mind starts to wander to Allie. Allie's death was a very traumatizing event for Holden. I believe that it explains why he isolates himself from everyone. Allie was Holden's younger brother who die of Leukemia. Allie was a rather intelligent kid, and appears to have been the most genuine person Holden has ever known. I believe this is why Holden expresses such a disdain for anyone and anything superficial. To Holden it is blasphemous to his brother's memory. I do not believe that Holden holds himself responsible for Allie's death, but I do believe that this event shattered Holden's spirit.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Allie was an ideal person in Holden's eyes. Holden would definitely not call Allie a "phony". Allie's death made Holden develop a cynical view of the world, because he attributed Allie's death to the death of innocence and childhood in the whole world. Holden's response to the death was also astonishing: he broke his hand because he was smashing glass. He became so emotionally distraught he could not control himself. Allie also represents the ideal child to Holden: he was not fake, he was smart, nice, funny, and overall just a great kid.
DeleteI agree that Allie's death could be a reason why he doesn't like people and considers them all to be phonies. I think that Holden doesn't think it's fair that Allie died and all of these other people not nearly as great as Allie get to live.
DeleteIf you don't understand Allie or know who he is, you probably won't understand this story. Allie's character does play a big part in understanding Holden as well, even though Allie is dead. I agree that Holden doesn't hold himself responsible for Allie's death, however, I think that Holden wishes that he was dead instead of Allie. Allie was so smart and sweet and Holden was not. Maybe Holden thought that Allie would have served more of a purpose in the world than he did.
DeleteIn The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D Salinger, uses the literary device of dialogue to convey Holden’s issues of isolation, and honest people. When Holden goes on a date with his old girlfriend, Sally, he tells her how terrible it is to go to school. “It's full of phonies… The guys that are on the basketball team stick together, the Catholics stick together, the goddam intellectuals stick together, the guys that play bridge stick together. Even the guys that belong to the goddam Book-of-the-Month Club stick together.” (Page 131). Throughout the story Holden is most cynical towards people who try to be someone they’re not. I believe that he is bitter because Holden doesn’t belong to anything because he doesn’t care enough to put forth the “fakeness,” or tolerance it takes to be a part of a club or group of people. However, the reader has to be aware of how “phony” the people Holden encounter really are since it’s from Holden’s cynical point of view and is therefore probably biased. Holden himself is a self-proclaimed compulsive liar, however to the reader he seems so honest and raw because we are able to read his stream of consciousness.
ReplyDeleteIt really seems to be ironic how Holden accuses everyone he meets to be phonies, when Holden is a pretty phony person. As you mentioned, he lies all the time and exaggerates most of what he tells the readers. Holden believes that children are innocent and pure, yet he cannot stand being young. He is always trying to look older, talk older, and in general, just act older than he really is.
DeleteAllie is key to the novel because in Holden’s mind he is the ideal person. He was a young, sweet, intelligent kid. He was very authentic, not a self-absorbed “phony”. “He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent. He was terrifically intelligent. His teachers were always writing letters to my mother, telling her what a pleasure it was having a boy like Allie in their class. And they weren't just shooting the crap. They really meant it. But it wasn't just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody.” When he died, Holden was shaken: his death turned him into a cynic and removed what little faith he had left in the world.
ReplyDeleteAllie was a young, red-headed boy. He excelled in school and made everyone love him and his kind-hearted nature. As I said above, he is the ideal person in Holden’s eyes. Allie is perhaps the only person Holden truly respects and admires wholeheartedly.
Holden does not seem to blame himself for Allie’s death. Nonetheless, it still left him mentally and irreparably scarred. As if this long-term impact was not troublesome enough, even Holden’s immediate responses to his death were scary. “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it. I even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was already broken and everything by that time, and I couldn't do it. It was a very stupid thing to do, I'll admit, but I hardly didn't even know I was doing it, and you didn't know Allie.”
I think it is sad that Allie died; he seemed like a great kid. However, Holden does seem to take his death to the extreme. Holden should move on and try to find good in the world: it does exist, you just have to be open to finding it. One thing to note about Allie’s death though is if he would have lived to see adulthood, he may have eventually developed into a phony. So in this sense, Allie’s death preserved him as a child before he had the chance to grow up. Seeing Allie transform into an adult may have scarred Holden even more than his untimely death.
Allie is so important to understanding the book because it is the whole reasoning behind Holden's thoughts, feelings, and actions. Holden overall thinks that it is unfair that Allie was the one to pass away, and that Holden is still given the opportunity to live despite all the bad he is doing. Allie was a great kid. He played baseball, he was interested in poetry- even writing it on his baseball glove in order to pass the time-, Holden claims that Allie was the smartest of the Caulfields, Holden describes him as incredibly smart, friendly, red-headed, and passed away with leukemia. The death of Allie has a huge effect on Holden. It depresses him and the depression from Allie's death causes Holden to be depressed in all other areas in his life, and is extremely unhappy with everything going on around him. If it wasn't for Holden's unsettled feeling toward Allie's death, he probably wouldn't be flunking out of his schools, he probably wouldn't dislike so many people, and he probably wouldn't have made all of those decisions between the time of leaving Pencey and the end of the book. I think that the situation is pretty crappy. Holden clearly doesn't know how to handle his emotions well, especially the sad ones about losing Allie, and that sadness has overcome all other aspects within his life. Because of that event, Holden no longer wants to be himself, he doesn't like other people, he makes bad decisions, and he basically wants to quit life. If he just got the help to come to terms with Allie's death in the beginning, he would be so much happier, and would have never had to deal with all of the pain and struggles that he has been going through.
ReplyDeleteHolden is trying to escape his own life. Rather than confronting Allie's death Holden runs from it. This is seen in the way that Holden is never still, and he never stays in one place very long. He is running away from the truth. This would also explain his chronic lying, which he claims that he can not help. He can not stand the truth that is his life, and therefore, can only think about escaping it.
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Allie has a key role in this story, even though he is dead. Allie is Holden's younger brother who died at the age of eleven from cancer. He was young, sweet, and innocent, nothing like his older brother Holden. After Allie died, Holden went crazy and and broke all the windows in his house. His parents were concerned so they put him in a hospital. I think Allie's death changed Holden. I don't think that Holden blames himself for Allie's death, but it definitely bugs him. After Allie's death, Holden has been kicked out of three different schools. It doesn't sound like he was like this before since he says he loved English. I think that Holden's behavior is affected by Holden's death greatly. Holden also seems to be having some mental disorders going on. He sounds very sick and isn't really with it. He is still mourning his younger brother's death. I feel that Holden doesn't want to act himself anymore, he feels that he has to act a different way now that his brother is dead. I think that if he would have talked to someone about the death, or had someone to talk to about it in the first place, he wouldn't be so messed up.
ReplyDeleteAllie's death, not Holden's
DeleteI believe that Allie's death shattered Holden's spirit. Allie represented something to Holden that was lacking in the world. Allie was genuine and real. Allie was not superficial like most of the world around him. To Holden, losing Allie meant losing one of the few genuine people in his life. Afterwards, everyone who appeared to Holden to be superficial or a phony was insulting to his brother's memory.
DeleteI really agree with the fact that Holden would be better if he had someone to talk to. Allie seems to be one of the only people he enjoyed in his life. I think that he has distanced himself from people now or he is bothered by things they do.
DeleteHolden is definitely deeply affected by the death of Allie. I don't think that Holden used to be the type to drop out of school before Allie's passing, but it caused him to be. I think the idea that Allie didn't get to live despite being such a great kid, and Holden does even though he probably doesn't see himself as someone worthy of continuing to live.
DeleteI believe that Allie, Holden’s brother is essential to understanding why Holden is the way he is. I think that he does suffer mentally from something without having his brother die, but I think that his brother dying worsens his illness. His brother Allie died of leukemia. He talks about Allie a lot and how he was one of the only people in his life that wasn’t phony. Holden keeps a baseball glove that was Allie’s and it has poems written on it in green ink. Allie thought the best war poet was Emily Dickinson and D.B. (Holden’s older brother) had him get a baseball mit. In this section, Holden also talked about watching a guy play the kettle drums up close with Allie and Allie sent him a postcard. Holden made Allie appear very intelligent and described him as someone he would look up to. “But it wasn't just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody. People with red hair are supposed to get mad very easily, but Allie never did, and he had very red hair,” (Salinger, 38.) Allie was described as intelligent and someone his teachers enjoyed having in class. Holden described him with much detail because he was writing a composition for his roommate, Stradlater, but he seemed to enjoy having to describe him.
ReplyDeleteHolden described how it upset him that when he went to visit his brother’s cemetery it was always raining and people would just run back into their cars and eat dinner. It upset him that everyone could escape the rain except Allie. “I couldn’t stand it. I know it’s only his body and all that’s in the cemetery, and his soul’s in Heaven and all that crap, but I couldn’t stand it anyway. I just wish he wasn’t there. You didn’t know him. If you’d known him, you’d know what I mean,” (Salinger, 156.) Earlier in the book it describes how Holden slept in the garage the night Allie died and broke all the windows with his fist. He seems to hold a very special place in his heart for Allie. I also think it is important to notice that Allie died as a child basically. He was two years younger than Holden and all the people Holden considered “phony” and “cowards” were older. The only people he talked to that he enjoyed were maybe Jane, but mostly Phoebe. Phoebe is still a young child and he sees the intelligence and promise in her eyes. Holden appreciating Allie and Phoebe is representative of Holden not wanting to escape his childhood. He is immature as old Luce, his student advisor at Whooton; a school he attended. He doesn’t focus on school and his thought process is very spacey. I think that Holden does in a way blame himself for Allie’s death because it’s a big part of what he talks about. He talks about all the memories he experienced with Allie. Holden seems like the type of character who would focus all his energy into blaming himself for something he can’t control. He sets very high standards for himself and doesn’t seem to meet them as well as he claims Phoebe and Allie do with their intelligence.
Holden has a very eccentric way of thinking and acting compared to most other people. This is shown when Holden is having a conversation with Sally inside a restaurant in Radio City after ice skating together. Holden is first talking about school, then rambling about things he hates, then even starts shouting about cars. “‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ old Sally said. ‘You jump from one --’,”(131). Holden’s brain is scattered and he even starts raising his voice until Sally tells him to stop shouting at her, and he does not even realize it… Or maybe he does realize but just want the attention of Sally to stay on him by acting out. Then he even asks her to practically run away with him. This just further proves that Holden is very immature and maybe even lonely because he always seems to need attention from someone. It also reveals more about how Holden is living, almost in an imaginary world, and cannot come up with a practical or realistic goal for the future.
ReplyDeleteI agree, being that the book is first person we are able to see exactly what Holden is thinking. He can never focus on one things for very long, except for maybe his brother. He is very impulsive and does things on a whim. He doesn't think things through, such as walking through the cold park, hiring a prostitute, and asking Sally to run away with him.
DeleteHolden is very eccentric, which made me question the whole book. I don't think that he was describing what was happening very accurately. He is an unreliable narrator. I felt like the book was someone's weird dream that they decided to make into a book.
DeleteHolden is definitely a character. He is all over the place with his thoughts, he has a lot on his mind obviously. He probably does realize he is shouting, but just wants attention from someone because he doesn't get attention from anyone else. Allie's death may have affected it too. He might feel lonely after Allie's death and looking for someone to comfort him without specifically asking.
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ReplyDeleteAllie was Holden's younger brother that died of leukemia at age 11. Holden was two years older than him and describes him as "terrifically intelligent" and also very nice. He explains to the reader, "He never got mad at anybody." He also had very red hair and wrote poems on a baseball glove in green ink which Holden possesses. Allie is somewhat unusual in the sense that he has a lot of unique characteristics that, even years later, stick in Holden's mind. Holden doesn't seem to blame himself for Allie's death because there's really nothing he could have done to prevent it as much as he just wishes that Allie hadn't died. It is important to understand the relationship between Holden and Allie because Holden obviously idealized his brother and the loss of him severely damaged his ability to grow emotionally. Now, as a teenager, Holder is still not over Allie's death and has developed a very particular view of the world and the way it should be. Obviously, the world does not conform to his views and opinions so Holden is often "depressed" when situations don't turn out the way he thinks they should which causes him to have a generally negative attitude. His inability to let go of Allie's death also inhibits him from facing his problems and moving on to adulthood. This may be his motivation for wanting to be the catcher in the rye to catch children before they "go over the cliff" which could symbolize adulthood and maturity. In the scene where Holden feels like he is disappearing, this may be a parallel to Holden's fantasy where instead his brother Allie is the catcher in the rye and he is the one preventing Holden from moving on from the events of his childhood and entering into adulthood. When he begs Allie not to let him disappear, it is almost as if he sees Allie as his guardian angel in a sense and doesn't want to move on from his death.
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