Weblog 15

Significance of the boy singing, “If a body catch a body coming through the rye”

In chapter 16, Holden saw the boy as he was walking to the park. The boy, who was around six years of age, was with his mother and father in front of Holden and he could tell that the family had “just came out of some church” (Page 115.) The parents of the children were talking as they were walking alone and did not pay any attention the little boy. Holden describes the kid as ‘swell’ because Holden believes he, like all children, is the essence of innocence and genuineness. The carefree child sings the poem by Robert Burns, ‘If a body catch a body coming through the rye,’ as he walks on the street with cars zooming by. Holden admits that it made him ‘feel better’ and ‘not so depressed any more’ (Page 115.) This shows how Holden admires children’s non-phoniness and it is a continuation of Holden’s desire to retrieve his innocence. The parents represent how the adult society is corrupt and neglectful towards innocence, in other words, phony. The cars represent are an extension of society’s phoniness because they do their best to ‘slow down’ in front of the boy, however, in reality, the cars and drivers really want to go fast and get to their own destination. This passage also influenced his conversation with Phoebe later in the book. Holden claims that he wants to be the ‘catcher’ in the rye of innocent children. In other words, he wants to be the older figure, protecting children’s innocence. However, he didn’t realize that the poem did not actually consist of the word ‘catch’ but instead, it was ‘If a body MEET a body coming through the rye.’ Also, it is the first example where readers can spot a correlation between the title of the book and the story or theme of the book. The boy singing

Catcher in the Rye Cover

Describe and explain the design scheme of the book cover you turned in.
The book cover, which was drawn after reading only approximately nine chapters of the book, is a representation of what I think the book cover should have been. The front shows a scene of Holden walking with a cigarette in his mouth holding his Gladstone with Pencey written on it. It also depicts the scene where Holden recently got out of the cab and is walking to the hotel across the street. I added the cigarette because it is one of the primary objects that keep him unfit physically and mentally, which leads to his cynicism. The cynicism can be carried on to represent Holden’s alienation from society. The cigarette represents his alienation from society because it shows how Holden is much different from most people his age, who usually do not smoke. I also added in the Gladstone with Pencey written on it because I feel it was a pretty big part of Holden’s life. However, like most luggage, it is a burden, which he must carry around. Additionally, the scene which shows him getting out of a cab and going to a hotel represents Holden’s transition from trying to conform to society’s or his school’s rules and going into a new part of his life, which he abandons his education for the moment. Also, I purposely put the title in the pond because the title, which may mean Holden’s desire to be the protector of innocence or simply represent innocence, is surrounded by society’s ‘phoniness.’ The dull buildings and landscape may represent society’s phoniness. However, I also added the lamp because I believe the lamp may symbolize the few genuine people in the adult world that Holden meets. Some examples of these people are the nuns and Ernest Morrow’s mother. The back page, on the other hand, is completely different to the front page. The front page represents the reality in which Holden lives in, however, the back page represents what Holden wishes to acquire at the moment. The entity that Holden wishes to obtain or repossess is either being the protector of innocence in society or becoming innocent again, so that he does not have to deal with society’s fakery. This, described in the book, was being in a field of rye where children can play freely and not be corrupted by society. The big tree represents Holden and how he wanted to be the protector of these children.

Weblog 12

Why does Holden find the trip to Ackley’s room heighten his sense of loneliness?

Before going to Ackley’s room, Holden had a verbal and physical fight with Stradlater in which Holden tried to kill him. Although Holden had tried to kill Stradlater by punching Stradlater’s toothbrush down his throat, Holden missed and the fight was over soon after Stradlater gained the upper hand with his strength. Stradlater, who was Holden’s roommate was, in all likelihood, one of the only people in which Holden was slightly friendly with. After the fight, however, Holden’s most viable option was to go to Ackley’s room. Holden, however, had many feelings towards Ackley; but enjoying his company was not one of them. Holden had described Ackley as a “peculiar guy” who “had a terrible personality” and “was also sort of a nasty guy” (page 19). Holden also added that Ackley had “lousy manners” (page 23) and said his room “always had a funny stink in it, because he was so crumby in his personal habits” (page 46). Holden’s description of Ackley were very demeaning towards Ackley and it would be implied that Holden would never really want to hang out that much with Ackley simply because he did not like Ackley as a person and that his personal hygiene was very repellent. However, after the fight with Stradlater, Holden did not have much of an option but to go to Ackley’s room for to be comforted by Ackley’s company; this, however, degraded Holden to Ackley’s ‘level.’ In addition to resorting to Ackley for comfort, Ackley himself did not want Holden’s company. While Holden wanted to communicate with Ackley, Ackley simply just wanted to sleep. A sign where Ackley wanted to get rid of Holden was when Holden wanted to sleep on Ackley’s roommate, Ely’s, bed, but Ackley pretended to have manners and said that couldn’t “just tell somebody they can sleep in his [Ely’s] goddamn bed if they want to” (page 47). Also, Ackley said directly to Holden that he could leave if he doesn’t like the room on page 48. “If you don’t like it, you know what you can do…” This shows that Ackley is implying that Holden should leave his room. Thus, because Ackley, a person who Holden believed was so inferior did not want to be with Holden, made Holden feel much worse than before. This was probably the time where Holden acknowledged his true sense of loneliness and how he had nobody in Pencey.