Catcher in the Rye ~ Week 2

To start off, I would like to say that I can feel this book is just getting better and better as it goes along. It is impossible for me to get bored reading this, as Holden is a character that grips my attention at every moment.
Holden is a character that I am still trying to figure out as a person. I am usually quite good at being able to read people and their personalities in a matter of minutes, but I guess reading about a person is more difficult. Because of my difficulty in understanding him, it is hard to predict what he will do next. This keeps me on my toes as I read along. This also makes it very difficult to put myself in his shoes. If I were to be kicked out of school as myself, I would be too ashamed to show my face to anyone I knew. I would feel like a complete failure and beg my parents for mercy, not expecting to receive any. This is because school is very important to me, as well as my overall success in life. However, being a rich teenage boy with no real interest in school, being expelled would be the last thing I would be worried about. I would do the same thing as Holden, going off to crash on a friends couch for a few days or take a vacation before returning home. For a kid who doesn't quite have his priorities straight, home is not the top place on his list of importance, nor is school.
I would really appreciate having Jane introduced into the story sometime soon, as a real person rather than just a memory. I feel that if I met her in person, I would not be a big fan of her. She seems extremely moody and stuck-up. On the other hand, this IS a parallel to Holden's character, so I can see why he likes her. I can appreciate Holden's unannounced love for Jane. When someone goes out of their way to notice every little detail about a person and doesn't even realize the attention they are paying to that person, THAT is when you know there is love in the air. It sounds terribly cheesy, but it is absolutely true! When Holden rambled on to Stradlater about how she made certain moves in checkers and how she smiles a certain way, that is when I really knew he loved her. I hope she realized how much he felt for her, because he deserved to be loved back after all he went through to keep her in his thoughts. Even a simple action like remembering is a huge gesture of love towards another person.
When Holden states that people are always ruining things for him, I could understand why. His life as a whole has not gone so smoothly, with one brother dying and another becoming a prostitute. He had a terrible group of boys living around him, negatively influencing him all the time. The interactions he has had with people have not been necessarily successful ones, which leads to his belief that his life's falls are due to the actions if other people. I myself have to disagree with his statement that people are "always" ruining things. I choose to blame myself for the tolls taken on my happiness each day. This may be because I have been very self-judgmental since I was in lower elementary school, especially when it came to education. How you grasp the day is up to you; enjoy the decent things that happen to you or point out the bad things. Coming from a family that seemingly had everything, I can see why Holden blames others when something bad happens, because he believes he must not have had anything to do with it. In general, Holden tends to show his pessimist side to the reader.
A time when someone "ruined" something for me was when I was showing off a project that I had been working on for a long time to my friends. One of my friends pointed out a flaw I had made and that I would get marked down on my grade because of that flaw. Though it was true that I had made a small mistake that defied the grading rubric, I spent the entire day prior to handing it in only worrying about that one small problem. Instead of focusing on how great the rest if the project was and appreciating how much work I had put into it, I turned the project in angry with myself for messing up. I look back on it now and realize that I could have accepted the slightly reduced grade and been proud of my work, ignoring the pressure my friends had put on me for messing up.
That's all for this week!
Sayonara!

Catcher in the Rye ~ Week 1

From the first 6 chapters of Catcher in the Rye, I can tell that this should be a very interesting book.  I appreciate how straight forward it is, and the teenager language is one that I can understand easily, as if someone were talking to me.  Unfortunately, the rough teen dialect comes with an excess of foul language, which I hear in the house from my relatives on more than one occasion (don't tell my mother I said that).  I can, however, get over the frequent "goddam"s and whatnot.
Uniqueness is becoming a very important theme in the book, mostly because of the extreme lack of it.  Holden is surrounded by an extreme about of unintelligent jocks (from what I have observed) and seems to not be too upset about flunking out.  We can easily blame part of these stone feelings on the fact that he was expecting the grades he got, but I also believe that he strives to just get out of Pencey Prep, like any sensible young man would.  Though he may not have realized his true intentions yet, I can tell that inside he wants to go off into a world that does not have boundaries made of dorm room walls or campus sidewalks.  His head doesn't know what to think, but his heart is pulling him towards "the Jungle" of mystery, where he can find himself, his individuality.  Being unique is standing aside from others, being able to say why you can be observed as an individual. 
This quality of individuality seems to fade in the adult world.  Not disappear completely, just fade.  One could argue that people going off and finding careers of their own is an example of a person finding a job that fits them individually.  However, in our economy, choices are often reduced, and people are pushed into living a life that doesn't quite match their personality.  I have noticed that Holden has the opportunity, because he is not an adult quite yet, to find both individuality AND adulthood.  His case probably does not apply to many people his age, because he is forced to grow up in a matter of three days, or however long this book lasts.  I do believe, however, that teenagers have the opportunity to build character in their journey to adulthood, whether they take that opportunity or not. 
I would say that my favorite person (that I know) would be my best friend, Sarah.  She is always fun to be around, no matter what kind of crazy mood we are in.  She is my most loyal friend and is simply there to catch me when I fall (figuratively, of course).  She is open to my slightly insane ideas and sometimes accepts them.  For example, she has taken my love for opera and Korean pop music and made it her own.  Overall, I am thankful to have a person like her around, and I couldn't ask for a better friend. 
Holden's relationship with his little brother was one that touched my heart.  They were loyal and always picked out the best in each other.  Even after Allie was gone, Holden remembered him for the great little boy he once was.  Allie was always able to make Holden laugh, just as Sarah can send me into a giggle fit with just one facial expression.  The only thing keeping Sarah and I from having as strong a friendship as Holden does with Allie is the fact that we aren't family members and neither one of us is passed away.  We do, however, trust each other the way that the brothers did. I can only hope that Sarah and I have as strong a friendship as we do now later on in our life, when we eventually part ways.
That's all for this week,
Sayonara!