Memorable Passage: The Catcher in the Rye
For the English class I have at the moment we just had choose a book for a literary reading circle, wherefore I chose to read The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger. Although it is an old book and seems to be boring to a lot of people I really enjoyed it. It tells the story about Holden Caulfield, a protagonist who gets in a lot of problems caused by his rebellious nature and takes a trip to New York, to flee from his college life. In New York he experiences an important change, when he finally realizes that he has to grow up, even if he does not want it.
“All of the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them.”
In my opinion Salinger deals with a very interesting theme and I think nearly everybody has problems to grow up. Growing up is not easy and does not happen without difficulties. As life goes on life becomes more difficult. We have to learn how to handle this increasing volume of responsibility and that it gives us the power to change things but also makes us woundable. We can’t lie forever in our cradle and be feed by our parents. This is not how life is supposed to be. We are growing up and gain the possibility to achieve something. Standstill might be tempting, but it also gets depressing. We forget that when we were little we were achieving, too. As a 3-year old we looked up to the elementary kids, and later to the high school kids. It also was this achieving process that maybe made our childhood as awesome as it was. Therefore, we can’t go back to this time. We have to realize that our life is a running process and that this fact of a running process is not a bad thing but a great present. But just by living the now we can get a clear view at the nice aspects of it.
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ReplyDeleteI really liked Catcher in the Rye myself. Holden reminded me a lot of one of my old high school friends with a similar cynical wisdom and insightful observations about life and people. I'm glad you enjoyed the book and you've written about it here very well. Thanks!
ReplyDeletei really like how you tell about the books you've read, i've never been really interested in the types of books you've described in your pieces, i like other types of books but you've made me want to read the one's you've read. what you say about the books gives more insight and i like how you phrase things when you write. 'like' ^_^
ReplyDeleteThanks Mrs. Frazer! Well, nice that you like it Andiy ;) Well, I sometimes I wouldn't have read the books either, if I didn't have, too, or someone told me, too. But yeah, The Catcher in the Rye was a great one!
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