Meaningful Vignette Moments in Catcher in the Rye

Holden was talking about his old roommate, Dick Slagle, and how he had cheap suitcases. Holden hates cheap suitcases, probably for the reason he hates a lot of other things; it’s phony. One detail I drew from this moment was when Holden was describing how Slagle described Holden’s things as bourgeois: “Everything I had was bourgeois as ----. Even my fountain pen was bourgeois. [Slagle] borrowed it off me all the time, but it was bourgeois anyway” (108). In this moment what I believe Holden was trying to tell us was people ridicule things that they wish they would have, but know they would never get. In this case Slagle wanted to have Holden’s things like the pen or the expensive suitcases or anything that was “bourgeois” of Holden’s, but instead he has the inexpensive suitcases and no fountain pen and nothing that could be considered “bourgeois”.

Catcher in the Rye 9-10

Catcher in the Rye 9-10

Morgan Watkins

In Chapter 10, Holden showed complex characteristics as a character that were exposed in this part of the book. One of the first instances in which he shows his complex character is when he was ordering a drink at the bar in the club that was located at the hotel he was staying at. He ordered a drink and when the bartender refused to give it to him without ID, Holden gave a “very cold stare, like he’d insulted the ---- out of me” (69). This shows annoyance and anger out of Holden which is not complex in and of itself but when paired with Holden’s next reaction, is complex. After the bartender kept refusing, Holden then “asked him very nicely and all” (69) and he finally accepted the bartender’s choice and realized how the bartender would be affected if he had given Holden alcohol. He acknowledged the punishment when he says, “They lose their jobs if they get caught selling to a minor. I’m a ----- minor” (70). This shows how complex of a character Holden is and how he can be all tough in one moment and totally sympathetic and sorry and accepting in the next. These complex characteristics can apply to the Romantic ideals that apply to Holden as a character. One way Holden’s characterization supports the Romantic ideal of the emphasis on feeling and intuition is Holden goes with whatever he is sentiment about in that moment: wanting alcohol and then not wanting for the bartender to get in trouble. He doesn’t think through it, but he goes with his gut. In this instance, Holden goes with his gut and tries to lie to get alcohol from the bartender, but as soon as he realizes the bartender won’t give it to him, he changes his mind and goes with a Coke. Trying to lie and then changing his mind all do with going with your gut and not thinking about it which is what Romanticism is about: feeling and intuition over reason and intellect. As you could see, Holden does not try to reason through what his gut tells him to. 

Something different...

So I wanted to mix it up since it's the LAST BLOG POST! I am going to blog about a book, that I haven't read yet.. Let's see how this goes!
 So I have always wanted to read to Kill A Mocking Bird. Apparently, it is not about physically killing a mocking bird. Thank goodness! And it is supposed to be a love story. I am ready to read this!
It is not about what the title says it to be. An example of not judging something by its cover. But I wondered why she decided to name it that.

So in a Yahoo!® answer(which is probably not the best source) they refered to a line in the text, "Atticus said to Jem one day, "I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird." That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. "Your father’s right," she said. "Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird."
I'm guessing that this was a pretty important line in the text. But the only way to understand is to read it!

Woah...what just happened?

Have you ever read a book where in the beginning, you have no idea what's happening? I bet you have. But have you ever had a book where, a guy commits suicide, the main character wakes up in the hospital with a gunshot wound to the head and no memory, and the doctor gets shot in the chest by a mysterious woman with spiked hair? I don't think so; unless you've read The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.
"Langdon watched in horror as Dr. Marconi staggered backward into the room, falling to the floor, clutching his chest, his white lab coat drenched in blood." (25)
That was the last sentence of Chapter One of The Lost Symbol. This author sure knows what he is doing, because from that point on, I was hooked to that book. You have to have good beginning to get your reader hooked. Without a good beginning, it will be slow and it will be hard to get your reader to keep reading your book. I have personally stopped reading books because it was so hard for me to get into it. If you ever right a book, and I highly doubt you will, but just in case, write a good beginning that stays with the reader and makes them blog about it!

(When I die young) 2x

If any of you are not Twilight fans, then do not keep reading because you will not like this blog very much. This blog does not talk specifically about Bella, Edward, or Jacob, though it does have to do with their way of life. If you are a Twilight fan then you might have heard about the book that Stephenie Meyer wrote off of her book Eclipse; The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. Bree Tanner made an appearance in Eclipse when the Cullen's were fighting against the newborn vampires. Bree Tanner was one of those vampires. But then she got burned by the Volturi and died. Well this book shows her life after she got turned into a vampire and before she got burned by the Volturi.
Bree was 15 when she got turned into a vampire. She has been a vampire for three months and she just recently met Diego who was one of the older, tamer, vampires and Riley's (the boss) right hand man. But when she met him, he actually talked to her and made her think and not about blood which is on her mind 24/7.  She, of course, ends up falling in love with him, and I think Diego is doing the same. But, Bree does get burned by the Volturi so her romance can't last forever. But maybe her romance with Diego will spark and they will die loving eachother.

Lego Lifesavers

Locking into the magic of Legos

When they say Krista Ramsey makes the invisible visible, they were right. I mean, who thinks about Legos? Ramsey's column, Locking into the magic of Legos, was very insightful. She talks about how Legos are great for kids and for parents. Kids develop good characteristics when they build Legos that they learn all on their own. Parents get quiet and alone time that they sometimes do not realize they need.

One line that really stood out to me was when she was talking about how kids are so involved with other stuff that Lego's are a good thing to sit down with every once in a while. "They're in a world beyond learning objectives and select soccer, safely out of reach of arranged play dates and online language programs." Krista Ramsey is using a listing technique to try to put an effect on the reader on how the children these days and what they do for fun is very serious with a lot of pressure on them. They need something simple and something they can use their imagination with; like Lego's.

Krista Ramsey's writing style is meant to bring out your emotions; sadness, humor, thoughtfulness, curiosity.

Some questions I would ask her:

Did she know she wanted to be a columnist and how did she know what to do in college to be a columnist writer?

Did she experience a lot with her voice and writing style before she found the right one?

Do the situations she writes about just come to her, or does she go out and find them?

The Pigpen Cipher

Usually, I read because I love the adventures books take me on, and how they help me escape from the real world. But reading The Lost Symbol, I realized a whole other reason I read.
My dad tells me that whoever reads is really smart because you are gaining knowledge and getting smarter. Well, I don't know that if you read you automatically become smarter. (But I am smart and I read a lot so it just might work!) But I can definitely agree that you are gaining knowledge when you read and that is the other reason I read. To gain knowledge. And I have realized this when reading The Lost Symbol. Want to know what I learned? ↓↓↓↓↓↓

The Pigpen Cipher! When I saw this, I thought this was so cool! In the book, the main character, Robert Langdon, discovers a small pyramid with this code on it. This was the old Masonic code that the Masons used to write in code. But since it was so easy to break they went to another code.

Using the key above try to decipher this:




Hilarious right? But if you do not have an incentive to read books, read them for new, cool knowledge. And start with this series by Dan Brown!