Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Comparing Holden with his Author

After reading Salinger’s book and researching his life I have discovered that there are a number of similarities between the author’s personal life and his character, Holden.   I think it is clear that the Catcher in the Rye is autobiographical.  Salinger was a reclusive person and I believe he found the writing of this novel to be an important vehicle to express his feelings and views.  Salinger gave an interview to a school magazine in 1953 and admitted that the book was “sort of” autobiographical, explaining that the adventure of the young boy was similar to his own childhood and he went on to say that it was relief telling people about it.  Following from the success of the book there has been a continued interest in bringing the novel to the screen.  It is written that Salinger was, early in his career, keen to see his work adapted for the screen.  However, an early adaption of another of his works was critically panned and this is acknowledged as the reason he changed his position to not endorse any proposal, having received numerous offers to adapt the story for the cinema and refusing them all.  In 1999 Joyce Maynard, an American author who is also known because of her relationship with Salinger, definitively concluded: "The only person who might ever have played Holden Caulfield would have been J. D. Salinger."

The Similarities between Salinger and Holden. Both were born and raised in Manhattan, New York and they both attended preparatory, all-boys schools in Pennsylvania.

Similarly, they struggled with poor grades and were expelled from numerous colleges.  Despite Salinger’s failure with his grades, he showed competence in English writing and drama. At one school he was editor of the school newspaper. In the Catcher in the Rye, Holden shows intelligence and yet continually fails his classes.

I think physically they were similar.  Although I haven’t found anything descriptively about J D Salinger’s physical appearance, the few documented photos available online suggest that he was like Holden, who is described as six feet; two-and-a-half inches tall, is gangly, and has black hair with some gray showing.  Both Salinger and Holden had one sister, although Holden’s was a younger sibling and Salinger’s sister, Doris, was his elder.

The two of them had to struggle to come to terms with their religious faith.  Having been brought up in the Jewish faith, Salinger was disappointed that his mother had hidden that she was a catholic, a fact that he only discovered after his Bar Mitzvah. In the early at years at public school he changed his Jewish birth name of David to Jerry because it sounded less Jewish.

In the book, Holden displays his mixed feelings towards Catholics.  His meeting with two catholic nuns presents a dilemma to Holden.  He genuinely wants to donate money to them which I think symbolizes the point that he has a sincere affection towards them, perhaps a nod to his mother, yet at the end of the encounter when he offers the donation, he accidently blows cigarette smoke in the nuns faces, suggesting that, although he likes them as individuals, he is letting them know that he is still uncomfortable about Catholics.
There is another autobiographical experience that  J.D. Salinger has paralleled in his novel and that is the love for a woman who has turned him down for the affections of an older man.  In my opinion, this is perhaps the main reason that the book was written to allow his hurt and emotion to be channeled through the written word.  As I understand it, Salinger became romantically involved with Oona O'Neill, the daughter of Eugene O'Neill, the famous playwright. After a year J. D. Salinger was called up to fight in the second world war. Whilst Salinger was away fighting in the war, and despite writing to Oona daily,  Oona met the actor Charlie Chaplin whilst she was being encouraged to act in one of his films.  The two fell in love and married in 1943 despite Oona's father disapproved of his young daughter, she was only eighteen years old at the time, marrying fifty-four Mr. Chaplin.  Salinger was deeply hurt by Oona, and, apart from reacting angrily with a letter to her, I think it is clear that he has echoed his rejection through his writing.

We can see this in "The Catcher in the Rye". Holden's roommate, Stradlater, goes out on a date with Holden's childhood girlfriend, Jane Gallagher. It appears that one of Holden's anxieties about their date is that Stradlater is too old and sexually experienced for Jane. Holden is also extremely worried and nervous that  Stradlater will make sexual advances towards Jane.

Salinger has created Stradlater is the Charlie Chaplin figure, and Jane as Oona. In both situations, Salinger and Holden feel their relationship with the "Jane" in their lives is being taken away by the "Stradlater" figure.
Both Stradlater and Chaplin are older, well known, and popular. And finally, both Holden and Salinger still have strong feelings of affection for their first loves, and are jealous to hear they are dating someone else. 
There is an argument that the main reason why Salinger shaped Holden to have a hatred for Hollywood is the fact that Oona left Salinger for someone working in the entertainment industry. In the book, Holden expresses that his older brother was corrupted by writing scripts for films instead of chasing a serious livelihood writing literature. He also believes that actors and actresses in movies and plays seem too insincere, or, as Holden would describe “phony”. When  Holden meets worthy actors, he then reasons that they are too good at what they do and seem too confident as can be quoted from page 152:

"In the first place, I hate actors. They never act like people. They just think they do. Some of the good ones do, in a very slight way, but not in a way that's fun to watch. And if any actor's good, you can always tell he knows he's good, and that spoils it."

I believe Salinger was still upset from this experience with Oona and he used his intellect to attack the ‘industry’ that took away his first love.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Shopping

Man, I know everyone needs clothes, but what’s with everyday clothes shopping? I mean, think about it, walking into a store, just regular clothes hanging on stands and folded on shelves’, what’s so great about that?

Another thing with the clothes is that all the people wear them to the goddamn movies; I mean what’s the big deal? Seriously, it’s just a movie! Maybe it’s just to look rich looking, but I’m pretty wealthy, but do I look it? I don’t give a damn about shopping, it’s not the whole world just fitted into one shop. Phonies think that it’s all in one place, and nothing else in the whole goddamn world matters.

I can’t think how many people spend their goddamn money on stupid clothes and jewelry. Oh yeah, and what’s with the jewelry? I mean how important is it to wear a piece of tin around your neck? Or round your wrist and finger? I feel that people are losing their minds with all this, they don’t need it, and they still think if they don’t buy it, they’re going to die instantly of clothes and jewelry cancer.

I also feel so angry when I see people with the beautiful goddamn dresses or accessories like purses, because I just think of them as…well… killers. I can’t imagine whose idea it was to kill all the animals just to make money. Money, it’s all about money isn’t it? Well I think it’s pure stupid all of this. It kills me, it really does, all of this killing is just to make some stupid goddamn money! I mean, what did the animals do to deserve getting stabbed or shot? They’re innocent little phonies, like the kids, they stay innocent and don’t give a damn about anything that’s not on their conscious.

God, people don’t realize that they are being just plain idiots, big phonies that care about nothing but themselves. Furniture shopping kills me too, waiting for hours why your phonies who are also known as your parents, carelessly look around for a stupid chair, and say they want it, but then they change their mind. But it doesn’t bother me as much; it’s the clothes that give me a stab.

 I feel that everything is about goddamn clothes and jewelry. They think that it all just makes you more glam and attractive, but you wear for one stupid party, then you throw the dress away, and their goes $5,000 down the drain. The money people spend just makes me sick; they are greedy little bastards that just spend the money for the hell of it. You know, a lot of people have the worst taste in the world; they probably pick the most lousy, ugly dress in the whole store, and think they got some looks on them, but really, all they’re wearing is trash thrown on them. They don’t know what dirty, crumby hands have been on the damn dresses, or what they are even made of.

Man, I don’t know what it is, but something inside me makes me think a complete opposite with this, and this is with all the kids. If you take my sister Phoebe, she’s no slob, she neatly puts everything neatly on her chair ready for the next day, and her shoes and socks lined up right next to each other on the goddamn floor. I guess the phony adults all put their stuff up neatly, but it makes me sick when I see theirs, and phoebe it’s just different, I got to admit, I’m a madman. I’m a person who is crazy, a goddamn phony who cares nothing about clothes & shopping.

Anyway, I don’t get what all the fashion style and tin is all about; it’s just crap. The rusty diamonds that have been buried dead in the ground for thousands of long years, finally come out of the ground and end up round a phonies neck, I mean, who does that? Everyone? Well, not me, I can’t stand thinking about all the jewelry and clothes at the minute, I just feel like having a cigarette and having Jane come over and keep me company for the sake of it.

But I can’t think about Jane at the minute, because the goddamn clothes are still running through my goddamn head. It’s just… well, I don’t know what to call it, but people are gonna get completely broke if they spend anymore stupid little pieces of metal or paper on stupid clothes and tin. And also, why it’s in my mind, why is the tin and clothes so expensive??  I mean, what’s so special about things that cover you?? Well I guess you need them, but not 1000 outfits! I don’t give a damn about any of this, which I’m sure I’ve already said, but it just kills be completely.

So what’s the point? The style? The money? Goddamn Money, let me tell ya something, it always ends up making you look as blue as hell. I can tell you now, shopping is just a waste of every adult’s phony life.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Seeing the Madman

I was walking gingerly around central park, clad in my plain t-shirt, jeans and sneakers, trying to avoid getting kidnapped or, well, I can’t think of any other reasons at the minute. While I was walking and enjoying the pervasive smell of the fresh New York trees, I noticed a pretty young guy, around my age actually, standing near the lake. He was wearing something that I remembered from Elkton hills, it was a red hunting cap; I started to surmise it was Holden, Holden Caulfield, and when I got a bit closer, I found out I was right.


Holden, who was in my English class, was a very smart, intelligent guy in that subject. I started to walk a bit closer to him, and for some reason, my hands were starting to shake, and I think it was because the first time I spoke to him, he rebuffed me straight away to me when I asked if I could borrow a pen, and he was pretty mean to be honest with you.

I was still walking, and while I was, he turned around and saw me too. He didn’t move, he basically stood there like a lemon. He had a soft grimace on his face, and I noticed a small abrasion on his left cheek as well.

“Hi,” I said holding out my tremulous hand. He looked quite irascible from my point of view, but he still gave me his dirty right hand and shook mine.

“Hi,” he replied. I have to admit, Holden’s manner was certainly not affable, he was more audacious in my opinion, he was just looking cluelessly around, not seeming to be shocked or anything to see me. Anyway, I never thought I would run into him, and it was even more bizarre, since we both got expelled on the same day, at the same exact time, and in the same room and school.

“So, Katy, what have you been up to?” he asked me. All of a sudden, he wasn’t even being lackadaisical anymore, he was being, well… nice, since before he showed no attention or enthusiasm at all.  

“Nothing really, what’s that your holding?” I asked him. I noticed a black thin circle object gripped tightly around his right hand. It looked like a record or something, but I asked anyway, just to get a conversion going. I knew he wouldn’t start a really long conversation, not like a tirade where they drag on and on with some boring lame story, he would probably just make it concise; that’s one thing I like about him, he makes it quick. Holden looked at the circle, then he gave it to me.

“It’s a ‘Little Shirley Beans record’” he said. “ it’s for my little sister Phoebe.” He explained. I remembered his sister, she was a very lovely, sweet girl, and she was very smart too I had profound joy when I was with her, she just made me smile. I am, as you may, well, not know, in love with little kids. I just love them! They’re so cute and innocent, I’ll admit it, I do really miss being that little.

“Phoebe? Oh wow! Well, I better let you go give it to her, I would tag along too, but I’m meeting a friend in 30 minutes. Nice seeing you.” After I said that, I just turned around and ran.
Well, that was pretty strange. Holden’s disposition certainly was peculiar. I didn’t have a clue why he acted so disrespectful at first, and then he just turned his frown upside down. He just modified his personality when he asked me how I was. Anyway, this moment is probably going to haunt me for a while…