Literature And Life?
After reading article Here’s What “Catcher In The Rye” Can Teach You About Life what are you thinking about The Catcher In The Rye?
Is it a critique? Is it social commentary? Is it authentic? Other?
Please thoughtfully reply using complete sentences and include any
quotations as needed. Blog response needs to be completed during class
today.
posted by Greg T at Friday, November 11, 2016
23 Comments:
If I am being 100% honest I feel like there really was not a whole lot to take away from the novel, I see it as more of just someone else's story. I don't think that it is truly a whole lot more than just a man who has a negative life experience because he is negative literally all of the time. I don't think it is authentic because I feel as though the story isn't 100% true in everyone's life, maybe in one persons life it is true however, to most people the novel doesn't apply.
After reading the article about Catcher in the Rye, I feel like a lot of things that were talked about were more lessons taught from the book, rather that a critique of the book. I agreed, and saw a lot of the same things in Catcher in the Rye, that were talked about in this article. One of the themes it talks about is that you are not alone in your frustrations. After reading this text I can agree with that. There are many points throughout the book where a character is frustrated. I can also see this in my own life, with not only myself both others being frustrated about anything as well. After all, I think that this article talkes about the theme of Catcher rather than critiques the text.
I think that The Catcher In The Rye is just an authentic novel. I think that it mistakenly became popular; but for good reason. In the article, “Here’s What ‘The Catcher In The Rye’ Can Teach You About Life”, the author brings up a lot of valid and relatable themes that you see throughout the book. I can see how it could be over-analysed in the public eye to mean something very deep and profound but it’s just an honest story. It’s an authentic and very relatable for most people due to the fact that we are sharing someone’s inner dialogue; and it keeps the reader captivated and interested in what Holden is thinking whether it be positive or negative.
I am thinking of Catcher in the Rye in the sense of a lot of morals and teachings. The biggest thing in the article that stood out to me was that excellent writing can transport you. This book is an excellent writing that can transport you and teach you about beauty and life and struggles through everyday. Another teaching in the book is growing up is not easy and we have frustrations but we should learn from others who have been through the same situation. This book, though easy to read, has a lot of power behind it and can show readers life lessons if you just dig deep and find the deeper meaning.
I agree with what the article says you can learn from reading Catcher In The Rye, I think the book has many valuable lessons to teach kids and the book is very relatable to teenagers and older people as well, everyone was a teenager at one point and everyone has had frustrations with their life. That being said, those could be other reasons behind why the book is and has been taught widely throughout America for generations and why many people enjoy the book.
After reading this article written about "Catcher in the Rye" I think personally that the book is a social commentary. I think this because of the article about what life lessons you can learn from the book, I think that it depicts really well the social aspects of the culture and time they were in and now the culture and time that we are in. All of the points brought up in the article such as the first one, "you are not alone in your frustrations" I think that this point brought up is really relevant in our time right now because of everything that is going on with the election and just problems people have going on. I think that this is part of what makes the novel timeless because there are themes in it that won't ever go away, they will always be relevant in prevalent in the world.
"Catcher in the Rye" is a timeless piece. Although it does not have any huge plot twists and lacks action, I think that people will always be able to relate to the message of the text. Everyone has felt the way that Holden feels and I believe people can emphasize with his stubbornness. Being stubborn goes along with being a teen and today "phony" is the same thing as "fake". Plenty of teens have been through a hard time where they just want to run away and never come back much like Holden and then they realize that everything will work out well. That's why this is a timeless piece that will be relevant even ten years from now.
After reading Here’s What ‘The Catcher In The Rye’ Can Teach You About Life. The article would be best described as a social commentary that would be complementing the book The Catcher in the Rye, which is also a social commentary because the article talks about the idea of change after informing the people about the given problem, and the given problem would be Holden himself. The article does go on with explaining why his character is such a unique character that we want to hate, but we also can relate to, for example; The article says "Holden spends the bulk of the book complaining.[...]Still, his frustrations with the disingenuousness of others, and especially his grievances about dating and lost love, can help readers to understand that they aren’t the only one coping with problems, big or petty." This quote gives the basic gist of how this book could be a social commentary because the problem is still in the text and there is no way going around that, but if given the possibliy for change which social commenetry does, then the text would seem different. Overall, I believe that this social commentary of a book can be seen through a different perspective and when done, will change the way the book will be perceived.
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After reading the article, I am thinking that I did not pick up on what other people picked up on while reading the story. The Catcher in the Rye is a social commentary about society as a whole and how everybody thinks and acts differently.The story does not feel authentic when paired with the ideas from the article because while reading the novel, I did not find or even notice the life lessons described by the article. I only picked up on the fact that Holden is very negative and pessimistic, but he called things like he saw them. He was not afraid to speak his mind and be honest. Overall, I did not agree with how the article analyzed and saw the story, I feel like nothing in the article was present in the actual book.
Many times while reading Catcher, I can see it as being critical about the cynical ways of society but I as I continue to think and read, I see it as something else, not so much a critique on society, but on people, individuals. It's clear, Holden despises many things, claiming them to be 'phony' and fake, and like him I tend to do the same thing with a lot of what our society is built on today. More often than not, I find myself relating to Holden's opinions and moods, but I also think I act like him when it comes to social niceties. Many times I can absolutely despise a person, but when we actually converse, I would never express my true thoughts about them, and I would instead be a charming conversationalist, even if it is just a charade. That is what I believe the author of this story is trying to say, that the message of Catcher, is that, as much as we won't want to admit, that Holden Caulfield is a reflection on people, and what we truly think, and how we consider ourselves nice people, even though we are all really just a cynical as Holden. But the thing is, that what we feel, we cannot control, and that is okay. It's okay to be judgmental about others, and want to change how others 'are', as long as we don't act on those thoughts, then no one has to know.
I don;t believe this is a critique of the book because they actually compliment it quire a few times. They aren't critiquing it but are telling us as readers the life lessons that are in the book. Many of these life lessons that were stated I saw these same things. Like for example when they say that you aren't alone in your frustrations I saw that throughout the book. Many times there are characters that are frustrated and this causes other frustrations and other characters getting frustrated. This happens in my own life there are times where maybe someone in my family is frustrated and may take it out on me. Then I am frustrated and it just keeps growing.
The Catcher in the Rye is a book that despite its age still offers us many things to think about. Issues with being a teenager and not having things always go how you want them too is something many teen including myself can relate to. How this story portrays Holden is what makes him relevant. He is a character that despite the time period is easy to relate too due to his uncensored story. Being in high school we know what goes on "in shadows" and Holden being upfront and honest with the reader makes him feel far more authentic. This authenticity allows Holden to get a grasp on us throughout the novel and will allow other to relate to him for years to come.
I think that The Catcher In The Rye is a book that can teach people of all ages valuable lessons. Yes, it does focus on the life of a teenager but the things it says shows that it is more. The mistakes that Holden makes can show how adults were once that age and they probably made similar ones. It also can reflect how adults still do make mistakes. It could also show how much the youth of those days are like us and how they are different. In the end The Catcher In The Rye is not just a book that teens should read but also one that adults should try as well.
After reading the article, I am thinking more so about the lessons that this book conveys to its readers. Because the article showed me these lessons are taught throughout the book, I am now perceiving the book more the way that the article wanted me to perceive it. The novel could be seen as a critique at some time when Holden does analyze and comment on society and others. It also could be social commentary at times when Holden evaluates issues in society.
The Catcher In The Rye is an interesting piece of literature. It sparks many ideas within the minds of people. It challenges thinking and opinions. It causes some emotions to be more present than others, but it does have some very valuable life lessons hidden within it. My favorite lesson is when he is explaining to Phoebe what he wants to be; A Catcher in the Rye. He explains that he wants to catch kids from falling off the cliff. This stuck out to me because I feel like we all get this sense of invincibility that causes us to want to save everyone that is struggling, or about to fall off of the cliff. In reality though, we can’t save everyone and that is the difficult part. We try to save all these children, but if there are thousands, we aren’t able to reach everyone. That is a valuable life lesson because it shows readers to let go of things that were previously haunting you. I think this book was somewhat interesting, but the life lessons hidden in the text were even more interesting. I enjoyed the life lessons because they helped me understand myself better.
I think Catcher in the rye is somewhat of a critique of our society and its people. It is authentic, and relatable in the ways of what Holden complains a lot, although most of us can't relate to complaining that much, but I can relate to some of the things he complains about and some of the things he thinks. It's Holden's life story (or at least some of it) and by reading it we can learn these things with him or relate to having learned them through our own life stories. It's kind of a social commentary when he makes statements that he believes are true. For example, how he thinks almost everyone is phony, or what he says about social niceties.
This article is authentic and gives a positive perspective on the book. Generally, people who read the book are mesmerized by how negative and not interesting it can be. Although they're many bad things to say about it, they focused on the good side. I agree with "You're not alone in your frustrations" because Holden is a young and he's trying to deal with all the issues that involve being a teenager just like everyone in this class. "Growing up means channeling your frustrations into something productive". You get great advice on how teenagers should react when problems approach them. There's always something that makes you happy, "Beauty is rare and worth holding onto" explains how even though you're miserably unhappy there's always something that we cherish in life.
After reading the article "Here's What 'the Catcher in the Rye' Can Teach You About life" I only really though about how some people and can really take a lot away from a book and others won't, regardless of the books understanding. The article gives a short list of accessible themes within the book and understand able perspectives. That being said I still think that "Cather in the Rye" was mostly underwhelming, I wasn't particularly bored with the book but it was never as controversial exciting as some hype it up to be but it wasn't boring either, just fine. That was my biggest problem with the book there was never a moment when I really cared about a character or empathized much and there was never in stakes to interest me or justify its popularity outside of and academic setting.
After reading the article and Catcher in the Rye, I view catcher and the rye as a social evaluation of what makes up or culture. Holden is always critiquing his community and what goes on around him, we can relate to him because he often has a negative outlook on things as we do sometimes. I think the real purpose of Catcher and the Rye is to inform people, that you can alter your reality be thinking differently about social situations. Like waiting in line at a restaurant is often perceived as negative. But if you have a positive outlook you can make yourself happy and the people around happy in bad situations.
After reading that article I am thinking that the Catcher in the Rye book is about a boy just trying to understand life's hard situations but there are going to be those frustrations involved with his life and throughout the book Holden complains even more but its because hes going through first love and loss.The second reason makes me think about how we all try to be and conform to these social norms because its whats almost expected of us at that time so I think Holden is only doing because he has to.
The article shows you the positive side of the novel. I think catcher in the rye relates to some people who sees the society and the world as a phony place. Holden always sees the negative side of people and world. He is very honest and is not afraid to speak his mind. His life is miserable like how he always gets kicked out of school and that maybe he is cynical about love. This novel was interesting to read because it was a very different perspective on life.
Catcher in the Rye is a social commentary and a critique. I think there are a few things to learn from it, but they are very vague in the book. For instance, there is the example of teenage angst used throughout the book. Between Holden not wanting to grow up, or Carl Luce pretending to be someone he is not, it demonstrates that everyone feels they can’t meet the expectations of others. On the other hand though, the novel hardly brings that to our attention. By the end of the book, these characters are hardly changed, and they haven’t learned a lesson from behaving as a phony. It doesn’t teach the reader it’s intended lessons.
The main purpose of the novel is to comment on what Salinger feels exists in today’s society, even on the smallest scal he could imagine: a 16 year old kid who lives in New York. His main commentaries cover everything from phoniness (ever apparent in our own world today) to the whimsical nature of life, remarkably through the optic of a young man in New York.
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