Final Blog Entry

1. Open Ended Question

Why do you think that Phoebe changed her middle name from Josephine to Weatherfield?

2. Close Ended Question

Why did Holden specifically called his English teacher Mr. Antolini while he was with Phoebe?

3. World Connection

How do you think the teacher-student relationship like Mr. Antolini and Holden has changed over the years?

4. Universal theme

Why do you suppose Holden gave his red hunting hat to Phoebe when he left?

5. Literary Analysis

Why do you think that Holden wants to be the "catcher in the rye?" Do you think he is warning teenagers about the struggles you face when you go into adulthood, or he just wants to be the life savior?

Answer to 5

I don't think that Holden wants to save little kids from falling off the cliff just to gain fame and become the 'life savior'. He wants to be the catcher in the rye because he wants warn teens that has yet to seen the adult life about the difficulties and struggles one can face if he/she does not accept the reality. Holden has experienced the problems he faced during the transition.

Soundtrack 2 my Life

I picked Soundtrack to my life by Kid Cudi as one of the songs that I could connect to Holden's life. The song is about how people around him don't realize the problems that he is facing.

He says, "I have got some issues, that nobody can see. And all of these emotions are pouring outta me, I bring em to the light for you it's only right", I can really relate this verse with Holden's life. Holden has obviously went through a lot of stuff and nobody seems to understand him. Moreover, Holden gets depressed whenever he starts thinking about Allie or Jane Gallagher.

He says, "Or even explain the troubles that haunted my mom," Holden understands his mom. He knows how she felt after Allie's death. Holden also knows that he is a trouble in my family. He is not meeting their expectations and certainly being a trouble to his mom. He doesn't care about school.

The song says, "So now I'm in the cut, alcohol in the wound. My heart's an open sore that I hope heals soon," this line really shows my perspective on Holden. I believe Holden wants to recover from whatever he is suffering from and try to move on in his life. He wants to forget about the tragedies he had in his past life. He wants to be a better happy person but the only he can be is only if he moves on in his life.

Look at Me

I always wanted to make relationships,

But no one understood.

I always wanted to share feelings,

But I can't look at my past.

It hurts, and no one cared.

I would lay down on the bed,

And think about the simplicity of life.

A life where nobody changed,

like a museum where the Eskimos and Native Americans

never moved.

I loved it.

Everyone was same, nothing different.

Trust me, it was that simple.

School is funny.

What's the point of it?

You learn nothing but stupid stuff.

I don't care about all that.

I want to go out far away, and live a life that is different.

And, I want someone to be with me,

you know.

I can live by myself.

I would be bored, and I don't want that to happen to me.

At least I hope it won't.

But who knows.

The world is full of phoniness.

And i wouldn't live with a phony girl.

That would be wrong.

I am a madman.

I am weird.

Sometimes, I would annoy a single person all the time.

I wouldn't even let him take a deep breath.

That's how annoying I can get.

On the other hand, I can be really nice and caring.
I would listen to people and talk about their problems.

But Hey,

When I am under pressure, I do bad things.

because I can't think deep enough to decide whether it's bad or not.

Like, One time I paid a prostitute to come in my hotel room to do stuff.
But I didn't do anything.

I know, i am weird,

But you know what,

I am a madman!

Chapters 16-18

"The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move. . . . Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you."

Holden says this quote when he visits the museum of natural history before his date with Sally Hayes. This quote explains why Holden Caulfield loves to go to the museum and it reminds him of the school trips that he took to this museum.

As we know, Holden doesn't want change, he is scared of to face the reality. He doesn't want to deal with the complexities of life, and he just want to be the same Holden Caulfield. I think the museum is a symbolism of a life that he wants to live. The Eskimos, the Native Americans don't move at all. He says, everybody always stayed right where it was, that showed that everything stays the same and nobody changes. Holden Caulfield likes that because he wants to live in a world of things that always stay the same, things that do not change. Holden doesn't want to face challenges of life, or the reality.

He wants to live a simple and a silent life just like the museum.

Love and Relationship

From reading chapters 14 and 15, i thought Holden had a very positive take on love and companionship. Holden was trying to get in a relationship. I feel like Holden is trying to move on and stop thinking about Jane Gallagher. She slows him down in various things. And he simply couldn't thinking about her. It definitely shows that he liked Jane, even though he didn't have physical relationship with her, he had emotional satisfaction.
Therefore, I think Sunny represents Holden's attempt to get in a relationship. He knows that he wouldn't feel the emotional satisfaction he had with Jane however he could have a sexual experience with Sunny.
Holden wants to live in a simple world, I don't think he demands sex. But loneliness and fear of adulthood pressured him to meet people like Sunny. It's very clear that he is confused about his life and lost in between childhood and adulthood. He doesn't want to call Jane and he is scared to sleep with Sunny. He wants to be alienated from the world but he couldn't stand it. It only bring him bad memories, sadness, and loneliness.

Religion (Chrisitianity, Catholicism)

Holden starts talking about religion when he remembers of an incident before Allie's death he excluded him from a BB gun game. He feels bad for leaving Allie by himself and not accompanying me. He tries to sleep and he thinks about praying but he doesn't.

Holden Caulfield meets two nuns who were teachers at a school in Manhattan. He talks with them about Romeo and Juliet. And he was amazed that even the nuns had great passion in one of the most romantic stories like Romeo and Juliet. I thought he realized that judging people is the worst thing to do because he always thought that the nuns conform to the organized rules of a religion. He was also shocked to know that the nuns didn't have 'phoniness' that he expects to find in every adult.

I think Holden thinks if you believe in a religion or your a religious person you have to completely conform to the rules of the religion.

Chapters 9-11 Blog

Holden Caufield is lost in two worlds. Adulthood and Childhood. I think Holden fears change in his life. He doesn't want to become an adult. He thinks adulthood is complicated and full of complexity. He describes adulthood in just one word, "phoniness." He basically notices phoniness in almost every adult. For instance, he calls the headmaster of one of the high schools phony for shaking hands with parents of the students during a function. This example really shows that he doesn't want to become an adult and get into the life of complexions and "phoniness."

In chapter 9, he talks about sex and acknowledges that sex is something that he just can not understand. From my perspective, it portrays that Holden is a child. He doesn't understand sex. He doens't understand that sex is a part of adult life. And he doesn't want to accept the reality. It scares him. He wants everything to be easy to understand.

Teenagers in our society struggles with maturity and lack of responsbility as they transition from childhood to adulthood. For example, I fear of getting all the bills paid, being a good dad and most importantly living a happy life with my family. I think most of the teens now are like Holden. But we accept the reality. We know the challenges that we will face in adulthood and we would have to work hard to overcomet those problems, but for Holden, he doesn't even accept the reality.

Optional Blog

Does Holden have a lack of respect for authority? A lack of motivation? Does this apply to today? Why do you think so many students suffer from lack of authority and/or motivation in school? How might this problem be counteracted? Think about this response and formulate your own response on your blog.

From my perspective, I do think that Holden lacks motivation and respect for authority. After reading several chapters of the book, it's very obvious that Holden has no desire to study and graduate high school. He was kicked out of other schools because of his grades and he is still failing four classes at Pencey. Holden lacks motivation. Many students in America lack motivation to do things that actually matters in their future. The main reason behind this is that in American high schools there is not enough role models. We don't have many students that actually set the bar high for the rest of the students. Moreover, students don't really help others who need help and who are struggling in school. They are self-centered. They only care about themselves getting through. Obviously, there are teachers. They are there to help the students. But students might not neccessarily feel comfortable talking to them about the problems they are facing in school. Student's know each other. We know the problems because we have gone through those. That's why the brighter students should help others who are having tough time in different classes.

First Impressions of Holden

After reading the first chapter, I didn't feel either sympathy or empathy for Holden Caulfield. I thought Holden didn't care about getting kicked out of school. He was flunking four subjects at Pencey. And he was warned several times by the school to apply himself and work hard but he refused to do it. He said, "They gave me frequent warning to start applying himself-especially around mid-terms, when my parents came up for a conference with old Thurmer-but I didn't do it." This quote really shows that Holden is an immature person because he doesn't realize that he is very close to getting kicked out of Pencey.

Another thing I noticed that he is very jealous about his brother D.B. Holden says,"The secret Goldfish... It was about this little kid that wouldn't let anybody look at his goldfish because he'd bought it with his own money. It killed me. Now he is out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute. If there's one thing I hate, it's the movies. Don't even mention them to me." This quote depicts how jealous Holden is about his brother D.B. D.B. is rich because of his talents to write great books such as "The Secret Goldfish". And he is pretty much the opposite of Holden.

Pre-reading question

1. Explain TWO struggles you or others face as they move from childhood to adulthood?

From my point of view, the biggest problems teenagers face as we move from childhood to adulthood is that we have much more responsibilities. You aren't the same young teen getting away with lot of things and hanging out with friends everyday. You are a new person. You have to take care of your family, pay the bills, send your child to school and get a job. When you become an adult, you have many things to worry about. You will face different family problems, and if you don't have a good job you will most likely have hard time paying off all the bills.

Second important struggle is how you are going to react to different situations. Since teenagers are immature, they handle things very differently. But after you become an adult, you may struggle reacting in a bad way to different situations. Adults handle things differently than teens because they are matured.

Multi-media project

I will be working with Darrell and Jake Henry on the Multi-media project. We really haven't discussed about what we are going to do but we are thinking about making a short documentary about the American Dream. We will interview different kinds of people around the town.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8Wi9g-KVaw&feature=popular