Thursday, March 5, 2015
Written With Intent
While reading for class I realized that out of the three novels we have read, only one appeared normal from the outside. I find this interesting because you would think that these authors would write a novel so that it could hit hime for many more readers. I would have thought Holden would have been much more relatable but the only thing that truly enticed me about his character was his attitude. He didn't care what anyone thought and never let it show. Eventually we start to see that Holden is actually lying to himself, but up to that point it is more a character that I would like to know and not someone I could really be. I think the same thing can be said about Esther. Her purity routine really is startling and makes me not really trust her character. The farther we read we see that this is not really news to anyone. I just imagined that the author would try and make the character have more of an impact. Then again, maybe the whole point is that all 3 of these novels are more of an autobiography than a fictional world. I don't know what the true intent of these novels were but they really don't seem to be about making an impact and conveying a message. It is more of just a realistic portrayal of life.
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Actually, I think the books do have a point, they just tend to convey it in an orthodox manner. The point, as I see it, is to make their (or at least some, if we don't want to call them autobiographies) extraordinary experiences or attitudes relatable to a larger audience. Given how widely read these books are, I'd say they succeeded.
ReplyDeleteSee, you don't want to know Holden, you already are Holden. So am I. So is just about every reader of Catcher in the Rye, because we all lie to ourselves. We've all got aspects of our personality or world that we just can't come to terms with, so we lie to ourselves to avoid that reality. The way Salinger presents Holden as an honest liar was one of the most interesting parts of Catcher for me, and simultaneously one of the most relatable.
ReplyDeleteJonah, I'd been trying to think of a way to phrase that idea, but you did it pretty well already in that last sentence so I have nothing really to add.
DeleteJackson, I'm not exactly sure what you meant by "more of an impact". It seems to me that these stories have had a profound impact on almost 100% of their readers. What makes them that way in my head is the fact that they're representative of the mind of an adolescent for the sake of representing their mind, and the actual events in the book are just the background. So it's more about the character and how they think, which is cool and very enticing to people in general, but specifically to people our age.
I think that the point of these books isn't to tell of the great feats that the characters encountered and overcame, but of everyday situations and how the characters handle them. These are the kind of books that make people feel like they aren't the only ones, and other people have these struggles. It also helps illustrate people's issues from a first person experience. Often times people judge others based on their actions, but judge themselves based on their intentions. In these books we see the characters actions and intentions, and it helps us understand where they're coming from.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how "abnormal" Holden appears from the outside--I fear we may have exaggerated his obnoxiousness or eccentricity in class. We have plenty of evidence that people around him, even the phonies at these schools he hates, think of him as a funny and cool guy, the kind of kid you'd chuck a football around with in the evening after dinner, or go to the movies with. His disastrous date with Sally is clearly unprecedented--they're virtually boyfriend/girlfriend, and he's pulled this off to the extent that he's been invited to her house Christmas eve. We're seeing him at a particularly fraught time, but it's important to recognize how well he is able to play the game, to seem like a chill kid who'd be fun to hang with. Because, in my view, he recognizes this, and kind of hates himself for what he perceives to be the compromises he's made to endear himself to people. He feels phony--and it's crucial that he's in a position to *reject* that popularity and success. It's not that he couldn't have it if he wanted it.
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