#4 Journal Sophs--From a Different Point of View
If you don't trust Holden as a reliable narrator, how about if you tell your version of the story? YOU, of course, are NOT you. You will now retell some part of the Holden chronicles from the point of view of any one of the characters in the book, like Mr. Spencer, Phoebe, Stradlater, Ackley, Jane Gallagher, Sally Hayes, Mr. Antolini, etc. If you don't want to retell any one incident, then just tell me what you think of this Holden character.In completing this assignment, try to imagine how your character would "talk" to the reader. In other words, don't make your character sound like Holden.
This is your last journal assignment of the quarter. Print out all four responses and turn in on Friday, January 15.
Any worthwhile and creative assignment of this type is going to be at least a FULL page long.
posted by JTF @ 9:16 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
In my opinion Holden is very weird kid but weird as in the sense of not like other kids. One example is how Holden loves to throw the football around and baseball but he will never play an actual game because he doesnt like anything that is competitive. Holden likes innocent things such as little children because they are polite and care free or noticing the little things in life such as where the birds go. Holden obviously seeks someone that he can be close to or connect with such as the little girl or the nuns. Holden is very lonely which is why it is sort of easy to understand some of his behaviors like getting a prostitute he just wants to talk to because he wants companionship. It seems also like Holden doesnt trust people because of how he dislikes the apostles because they kept letting Jesus down. Overall Holden is a very complex character but a good person.
I’m going to have Stradlater say what he thinks of Holden in his own point of view. “This is Stradlater speaking and I’m going to tell you what I think of Holden Caulfield. Holden is quite the character. He is like no one else that I have met before. Holden isn’t your typical, teenage boy here at Pencey. What I mean by that is Holden doesn’t bring lots of friends over and in fact I’m not quite sure if he has too many. He doesn’t exactly run in the cool crowd. I mean, you never see him talking to the football players or hanging with the big shots. I really don’t even see him with girls and to be honest, I don’t think he’s ever had a girlfriend before. I don’t really listen too well when he talks to me about his personal life, but I’ve heard him mention his dead brother Allie many times. He sure does him; I can tell. I guess you could say Holden and I are friends, but we just don’t hang with the same crowd. He’s a really good guy, especially when he does my homework. You can’t ask for a better roommate then that, can you? Just the other day I went on a date and I regret mentioning the name of the girl because he knew her. Ever since then all he asks me is this girl Jane. I started getting really annoyed so I sort of just tuned him out and ignored him. I also beat him up and I totally won. No offense, but he’s not the biggest guy out there. Overall, Holden is just a different guy, but he’s not too bad after you get to know him better.”
I chose to write my journal from the point of view of Sally Hayes because I thought it would be funny to think of how she would most likely blow everything out of proportion.
I had written Holden a while ago and he hadn’t written me back yet. He hadn’t even called me up yet. I almost gave up on him until today when he called; I knew he would have to eventually. When I got to the phone I already knew who it was, but I didn’t want Holden to know that I was expecting a call from him. He asked if I was busy or not and if I wanted to go see a matinee with him. I thought that was a grand idea so of course I agreed. I spent the rest of the day picking out my outfit to wear for the matinee. I was hoping the whole time that we would get to see a love story. There was this one that I absolutely had to see called “The Lunts” it looked so romantic I couldn’t wait.
I made sure that I left ten minutes later than I should have. I wanted to make him wait a while to get him back for calling me so late. When I arrived he couldn’t take his eyes off of me. I knew arriving late was an absolutely grand idea. I knew it was when I asked if I was late or not and he told me I wasn’t even though he knew I was. And then he told me we were going to see “the Lunts” the whole thing was so marvelous I couldn’t stand it. When we got into the cab he told me he loved me. I told him it back to make him happy, but I could never love a guy with a crew cut they’re just so absolutely corny and I told him so. He definitly agreed. After the first act I saw a boy I had known. Holden got very sore about the whole thing, but I knew he was just jealous. After the matinee I got this marvelous idea that I knew Holden wouldn’t be able to say no to. I asked him to go ice-skating! He was so excited, he could barley stand it. When we got there they let me wear one of those absolutely adorable little dresses to go skating in. I wanted Holden to tell me how good I looked in the dress, but he didn’t say anything. You could tell he thought that I looked grand in it when he kept trying to skate behind me so he could watch me. My ankles started to hurt after a while. I am normally a grand skater, but I did not have good skates with me. I really wanted to stop skating after a while, but I didn’t want Holden to know. Then the greatest thing happened, Holden asked if I wanted to go sit down and get something to drink. It’s marvelous how well we know each other. Then he started to smoke and I did not appreciate that which got me in a bad mood but once he told me that he was definitely coming to my house for Christmas Eve I forgave him. Then he did something absolutely horrific. He started screaming like a madman about the movie and school and God knows what else. It was horrible everyone was watching. When I asked him to not speak so loud he just ignored me and got even louder. Then when I asked again he decided to make fun of me and whisper like we were in a library or something. It was absolutely traumatizing. And to make it even worse he did the most horrible thing that has ever happened to me. I was scared for life. He called me a pain in the you know what. He said so loud the next state could hear him. It was horrid and everyone in the whole place was staring. Holden eventually apologized, but only once or twice. And then he left me. I had to get a ride from my father. Imagine how traumatizing the whole thing was for me. And Holden didn’t even care he never even apologized or called me back. It was tramatizing.
I am going to tell the story in the point of view of Mr. Antolini.
"The other night, I was just sitting in bed with my wife when I got a call from an old student of mine named Holden Caulfield. He was always a good kid, he was a smart one too, especially in english. He never seemed to apply himself though. Anyway, he ended up coming over to my house late in the same night. Mrs. Antolini fixed us up some cake and coffee, and a highball for me. We had a pretty decent conversation, and I gave him so very good advice. I said I could see him dying nobly for a cause instead of living humbly for one. He is still too immature. He doesn't like many people and doesn't really know where he's going. By the time he went to sleep I was pretty drunk. I fixed myself up a couple more drinks in the kitchen. When I am drunk I get very touchy. Especially if it's somebody that I enjoy the company of. I just wanted to pat his head, and honestly in my head I was telling him what a good kid he was and that he was going to be okay. Looking back, he definitely was spooked and left. Good old Holden."
I think the person that would have an interesting point of view about Holden is his sister, Phoebe. She seems to know Holden a lot better than he knows himself. She wasn’t in the book that much but her appearances were very important parts. I’m going to recall the interactions between Phoebe and Holden, and what she might of really thought about her brother. “Maybe my brother isn’t the best at school and sometimes he gets into trouble, but that doesn’t make him a bad guy. As a matter of fact, Holden would much rather stay away from drama and not be a part of it. We’ve spent some pretty good times together. When we were younger he would play with me all the time, and always remind me to stay a kid as long as I want. I know he would do anything to protect me, I just wish he wouldn’t try so hard. You can’t just keep people away from life, he was a little obsessed about that. I know Holden means well, but his story about wanting to be a catcher in a field of rye protecting kids from a cliff was a little silly. I just pretended not to know what he was talking about. Even though I’m only 10 years old I know what Holden really meant, but I didn’t care cause my parents told me he’s having some problems right now. I love seeing him any chance I get so I just let him think whatever he wants and enjoy the time I have with him. Holden loves taking me to super cool places like the movies and the zoo. I think he just spends time with me because he’s stuck in those boring prep schools all the time. I would go crazy too if I had to be in that kind of environment 24/7. I can understand why he’s a little different, but compared to this bustling city he looks perfect. I like my relationship with my brother, and I think he enjoys how we share our thoughts with each other all the time too. He only shows up once in a while so I try to tell him as much as I can really fast before he has to leave again. He doesn’t seem to mind listening to all my stories, he just likes having company with him. I can kind of tell he doesn’t have many people to talk to, except that one girl he used to hang out with when he was younger. She was so kind to Holden, and I loved seeing the way she made him so happy. When things started to change as the years went by Holden didn’t like it. He likes the same old things, nothing new. Maybe that’s why he never got over the fact our younger brother Allie was gone. One of the last things I remember before Holden left was him crying. I was riding the carousel, one of my favorite rides. I really wanted Holden to come but he was pretending to be too cool for his little sister. I’m not exactly sure why he was so upset, but he looked like he was thinking really hard. He was wearing that red hunting cap, he sure does love. Whatever it was I knew my brother was strong, he could get through anything. He’s just an innocent soul lost in his old childhood, or at least that’s what I overheard his psychiatrist say to my parents. All you have to do is give my brother a chance and not judge him right away. He sees things a lot different than I do, and half the time I have no idea what he’s talking about. I really look up to Holden, he’s the best big brother I could ask for. I hope D.B. doesn’t get too jealous. ”
Yeah, I know that Holden kid. He’s a really pain in the a$% sometimes. He called me up a couple of weeks ago to see if I wanted to go get a drink with him. I said yes of course, being the generous and nice man I am. I hadn’t seen him in a while either and I assumed he would have matured by now, but I guess I was wrong. He’s always used to go on about some flit here and some flit there. I think we all know we’re over stuff like that, at least I know it. I can’t believed he buzzed me. It’s been, what, three years? I was his RA for chrisssake. One of the first things he asked was if some guy I never met before was a flit. What kind of way is that to start a conversation? One of the next things he asks me is ‘how is your sex life?’ I mean what the heck does he need to know that for? Holden needs to mature like the rest of us strapping gentlemen. I have no idea what could be wrong with that boy. I recommended tat he go see a psychoanalysts or somthin’ but he wouldn’t take none of it. I even told him that I got psychoanalyzed, or I almost told him. I think he wanted to have an “intelligent” conversation, but Holden one of those boys that just never grows up even he wants to ya know? I ordered a dry martini when I was with him, two if my memory serves. I warned him from my first drink to not start this Caulfield crap, but he started anyway, just like Caulfield I suppose, never going to grow up, never going to be mature. What a shame. People just go to waste these days. My Chinese girlfriend, whom Caulfield was very interested in, had a brother in China. She talks about how he just wastes away doing nothing, it’s sad really, such an intelligent girl and she has to have a moron family. Anyway you wanted to know about Caulfield right? Well, to be honest with you, he bores me. A dry as my martini almost. I got a second martini, dryer this time, to compare Holden to. Holden was dryer. I eventually cracked on Holden though. He pushed me past my boundaries. I shouted, almost, and told him to cut the Caulfield crap again. Guess what he did? He kept the same Caulfield crap a coming.
What idiot asks how somebody’s sex life is doing? I swear it seems like he is still at Whooton or something. Kids these days. What do they teach them? I say they send Caulfield somewhere. For a summer maybe. To straighten him up. I suppose they’ll do that. Poor Caulfield though, can’t get any action, if you know what I mean. It really seemed like he wanted to go to China, to see if it would spice up his ‘sex life.' Hey, what kind of idiot is he? Then that time came I just couldn’t stand him anymore. So I said I had to go somewhere. Don’t tell him this, but I really didn’t have to go anywhere I just wanted to get away from such an immature person. He was driving me nutters and all. One thing that he asked me, at the last second before I left, is if I had ever been psychoanalyzed. I said no, I mean I have, but you can’t say stuff like that. He was really interested in it. It scared me to tell you truth. I told him that I had my father help me adjust, that way he couldn’t make fun of me, in his immature Caulfield way. That’s about it I guess. Haven’t heard from, or seen from him since. Now that I think back, it was a bit immature of to leave him like that, but fight fire with fire I guess. You never know.
In Catcher in the Rye Holden is a walking contradiction. Holden attends Pencey Prep Boarding School, which he absolutely hates, and he is expelled. Actually, Holden dislikes almost everything. Some thing he hates is competitive sports, bad dancers, show-offs, perverts, and “touchy” people. Holden has something to say about everything and is never truly satisfied. Holden is also very depressed. Often throughout the book, Holden mentions he doesn’t care if he is alive and that he will not be missed if he did die. Holden is very lonely and seeks companionship. Holden loves innocence. He wants to remain a little kid forever and is very immature. He cares about his little sister Phoebe more than anyone and would do anything to make her happy. He buys her a Little Shirley Beans record and is devastated when it breaks. Holden is also very confused. An example would be when he told Sally Hayes that he loves her. He doesn’t know why he said it because he doesn’t, but he claims that he meant it when he said it. Holden is also a compulsive liar and always takes the easy way out by lying. An example would be when he was on the train with Ernie’s mom and tells her that he has a tumor so she doesn’t wonder why he wasn’t still at Pencey. Lastly, Holden does not feel like he has a place and the world, and the book is about his journey of trying to find himself.
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