Sunday, October 15, 2017

Holden Caulfield and How He Acts Towards Women

   Holden's character, to me, is pretty annoying - that's just putting it lightly. No matter what I read, as long as I'm reading, I find myself becoming peeved because of Holden's actions. It's intriguing though, Salinger knows how to write in a way that makes the main character a complete dirt bag, but still keeps the reader loyal to the book. I cannot put the book down because I want to know what happens next. Speaking of which, this is my second blog for the book, "The Catcher in the Rye". The first blog was on my initial thought on Holden's character. This blog will be about how Holden interacts towards four different women/groups of women (hence the title of this blog) for chapters seven through fourteen.

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   While reading this set of chapters, Holden is still rude to an extent. I feel like he doesn't really know how to act around them, he certainly doesn't act like himself. One thing that Holden has in common with every woman that he has interacted with besides Jane, and his little sister, Phoebe, is the fact that he lies to every single one of them. Holden either lies about his name, age, or whether or not he has somewhere else to be. Earlier on in the book, Holden said that he was a "terrific liar" and at that moment, my class figured out that it was our job, as the reader, to decipher what is real and what is not. I figured that since Holden told us about his lying problem, he probably doesn't trust anyone. So, in chapter eight, when he met Mrs. Morrow, he gave her the name, Rudolf Schmidt only because he, "...didn't feel like giving her my life history." That's a pretty lousy excuse to not give someone their real name. That is what made me think of the fact that Holden might not trust anyone.  Related image  I mean, Holden is nice to Mrs. Morrow, other than lying about the fact that her son, Earnest, is the most modest person that he knows. Holden went on about modest Earnest because he enjoyed seeing her reaction. I, personally, couldn't keep reading that and believe that Holden is a decent person. But all in all, it's about perspective. Holden would probably think that he's doing Mrs. Morrow a favor by telling her that her son is better than he actually is, but if I were in Mrs. Morrow's position, I would want to know if my son was behaving himself or not. 

   The second female interaction that I will mention is in chapter 10, when Holden talks about his sister, Phoebe. Holden didn't speak to her in person, but he thought about her and told the audience more about her. I feel like Holden holds Phoebe to almost the same light as Allie because the three of them had special memories together when they were young.Image result for two brothers and a little sister When we were first introduced to Phoebe by Holden, we were told that she was easy to talk to. Then, he compliments her appearance and goes on about how smart she is. Phoebe is the one girl that Holden actually told us was pretty and the one girl that we got a good visual on, or at least, I did. It could honestly be because Phoebe and I both have red hair, so it's easier for me to remember how she looks. Anyway, Holden doesn't have anything bad to say about Phoebe, the worst thing that he said was that she loved the movie, "The 39 Steps" and that she knew every single line and gesture. Holden shows that he care for her by telling us that he took her to see the movie ten times just because she liked it so much. I think that Phoebe reminds Holden of Allie because they're both kind, younger than Holden, and have red hair. So, in Holden's mind, Phoebe could be like a girl version of the brother that he lost. Phoebe is also the second person that Holden says the person he's talking to would like. The first was Allie.

   The third interaction with females that I'm going to use is Jane in chapter 11. Earlier in the book, the reader saw that Holden was in love with Jane, but we only knew that along with the fact that they used to live next to each other and that Jane would keep her kings in the back row while playing checkers. Now, in chapter 11, we get to see more of Jane. Before they met, Holden's mother didn't like Jane or her mother because their dog would relieve itself in their yard. Related image Holden didn't meet Jane until he saw her at the pool and said hi. After he convinced her that he didn't care about where her dog went like his mother, they became friends. Jane ended up becoming the only person outside of Holden's family that could look at Allie's baseball mitt. This is a very big deal because that mitt is the last thing that Holden has from Allie, so it's sacred in his eyes. In order for you to be allowed to see that mitt without personally knowing Allie, you have to be special in some way. Related image
Holden wasn't the only one to open up in this friendship. While playing checkers, Jane's step-father came out, looking for cigarettes and Jane didn't respond. She simply looked down at the checkered board, acting as if she was concentrating on her next move. When he left, Holden saw the tears escape from Jane's eyes and sat next to her, kissing her (never on the lips) to comfort her. Then they went to a movie and Holden told us that they held hands. He liked holding her hand because she didn't act like it was strange like other girls. Because of that, they would hold hands frequently and Holden said that he got to know who Jane was without "necking" her. Meaning, without being intimate with her. This one point made me give Holden a little more respect because he said that he didn't need to be intimate with Jane to get to know her. They spent a lot of time together and he learned who she was. Holden respected Jane and wouldn't do anything that she didn't want him to do.

   The last female interaction that I'm going to talk about is Sunny from chapter 13. Holden was feeling down while he was in the hotel, on his way home from being kicked out at Pencey and the elevator asked him if he wanted something to do that night. After accepting the offer, Holden realized that he had hired a prostitute for a while.  Before she came over, Holden was ready to have her, he wanted to lose his virginity so that he would know for the future, but when she arrived, he couldn't do it. He would rather talk to her, which peeved her because she had to wake up in the middle of the night to go to work and ended up not even doing her job because Holden chickened out.   Holden tried being nice to her, but the harder he tried, the more upset he made her. She didn't want to talk and she wanted her money. That's it. Unfortunately, Holden couldn't see that, he wanted someone to talk to, so that's what he did before paying her the five dollars that she was supposed to get for doing her job. This is where things went downhill. The man in the elevator said that to have Sunny for a little while, it would be five dollars, but she's asking for ten and said that five was never part of the deal. Sunny ended up leaving and coming back with the elevator man and they took the other five dollars by force. Sunny didn't want Holden to get hurt, but knowing Holden, he asked for it. That is one thing that I believe will never change, if there's a slight chance of Holden getting hit, he'll ask for it. I don't know why he wants to get hit, but I know that it has some deeper meaning. Maybe since he's already in emotional pain, the physical pain will make him temporarily forget about his brother's death. I can't tell you until I read further, or maybe until I finish the book.

Going back to the women that I have mentioned earlier, all of these interactions were different. The first one, with Mrs. Morrow, Holden was full of himself and made her believe that her son was modest and he wanted to get a cocktail with her (it ended up not happening). Phoebe was the one girl that Holden blatantly said was pretty and she's his sister, so that interaction was going to be different, along with the fact that it was a memory. Jane was also a memory, but that one was more of an intimate love instead of a family love. Holden didn't tell us that he loves Jane, but it's obvious that he does from how he acted in the beginning of the book when he thought that Stradlater was intimate with her. Holden told us that he went crazy, so, when he was thinking about Jane in chapter 11, he was definitely thinking about love. The last woman, Sunny, was the first woman that we see Holden get nervous and kind of drop his kind of "bad boy" vibe. In the beginning of the book, we learned that Holden failed out of four schools and added Pencey to the list. He seemed like he just didn't care about anything, but here, when he's with Sunny, he stops. He doesn't want her services. If he truly didn't care, then he would have taken advantage of having a prostitute with him. Now, we're starting to see Holden break his icy wall that he built when Allie died. He's starting to care, even if it's a little bit.

Thank you for reading my blog :)
Have a good night!

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