Hold up, let's talk about Holden

   When we were first introduced to Holden in the book, "The Catcher in the Rye" I was not impressed. This young man seemed too wound up for my taste. He's cursing every other line that's not dialogue and the things that he says are mostly negative. I mean, the very first line in the book says, "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know this is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood life was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." I, personally, don't like this introduction, but not to the point where I want to stop reading. Yes, this one sentence is full of commas that makes me twitch and makes me feel like someone should be hyperventilating, but it stands out from the other pieces of literature that I have read.

   Throughout the first seven chapters, I have noticed that the grammar isn't always correct. At first, I agreed with Josiah when he told the class that Holden is thinking in his mind as if he's in a movie or something similar to that, but after I kept reading grammar errors, I realized something. What if Holden wrote this book? This smart aleck sees himself superior to others. You can tell by the way he carries himself, especially when he's having a conversation with Mr. Spencer in chapter two. Holden is saying one thing, but immediately thinking another, almost like he's breaking the fourth wall, but in a book. Holden is speaking directly to me, the reader. He's not like other characters that try to tell their story to the void. In chapter two, Mr. Spencer says, "'Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.'" then, Holden responds with, "'Yes sir. I know is is. I know it."' Immediately after Holden responds to Mr. Spencer, he thinks, "Game my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all-right I'll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren't any hot-shots, then what's a game about it?" That made me believe that Holden wrote the book. This line also made me feel upset with Holden because he's being disrespectful towards an elderly man whom wants to help Holden. As soon as this happened, any ounce of respect that may have been given to Holden was lost. I simply don't like him.

   Along with being disrespectful towards others, Holden complains a lot. There were at least four different instances in chapter two where he complained about Mr. Spencer's bed being uncomfortable. He even compared it to cement. This was all while Mr. Spencer was talking, so naturally, I came to believe that Holden wasn't really paying attention to what Mr. Spencer was saying.  This conversation with Mr. Spencer is also where I first noticed something off about the grammar. It wasn't incorrect, but it was different from what I usually see. Instead of saying that something was ironic, Salinger used the word, "ironical". It is more old fashioned, so I brushed it off. 

   Then, I noticed more differences in the grammar. Instead of saying things just once, Holden repeats himself sometimes. An example would be in chapter 2, just before chapter three when he said, "But not too much I guess. Not too much, I guess." But, that's probably just a minor detail that caught my attention. Some words, are different, like I said before. Instead of saying, "son of a b*tch" the characters in the book say, "sonuvab*tch" and instead of saying, "he*l you" or "he*l ya" the characters say, "he*lja".This, I believe, is to emphasize the characters accent, or prove my theory above to be true; Holden "wrote" this book. We've learned that Holden failed four out of his five classes. The one class that he didn't fail was English. So, maybe, he wrote this book when he was sixteen to look back on the memories he had at an older age. I don't know how the book will end concerning Holden's attitude towards everything and how he isn't the superhero that some expect Holden to be, but maybe towards the end, my feelings may change. Maybe, Holden will go through a man to self conflict and realize how negative his outlook is on everything. His roommate is perfect, but he's secretly gross and is too into himself, the person on the dorm next to them is nosy and likes to mess with everyone's stuff, and Holden himself just doesn't want to put any effort into anything anymore. All of that because he is negative. I feel like I would like him more if he was more positive and respectful towards others.

The only person that I've sen Holden show any respect for is his younger brother, Allie. Unfortunately, he passed away, but I believe that after Allie died, Holden lost it. I mean, he punched out all of the windows in his garage with his bare hands when he found out. So, maybe, Holden's respect and positivity died with his brother, Allie.