Wednesday, March 9, 2011

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE: Holden's Focus on Materialism, Poverty, and His Desire for Permanence

Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, but especially in chapters 14-16, Holden shares incidents and reflections that show he focuses on materialism and poverty. He also seems to seek some sort of stability or permanence in his life. Detail a specific example that demonstrates Holden’s preoccupation with one of these concerns. Explain his reaction, and specify how his response adds to your understanding of his character. Cite chapter you’re referencing. (Due by 10:00 p.m. 03.10.11. Full credit possibility: 10 pts.)

11 comments:

  1. Holden focuses on materialism and poverty throughout the novel. When Holden was eating eggs he saw two nuns with suitcases. He said the suitcases were very inexpensive looking. On page 108 Holden said, “It isn’t important, I know, but I hate it when somebody has cheap suitcases. Holden’s old roommate, Dick Slagle, had very inexpensive suitcases and looking at them depressed Holden. He gave the two nuns he saw ten dollars as a contribution, but he kept rest of his money. He needed money to buy tickets for his date with Sally. On page 113, Holden said, “Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell.” By knowing poverty and materialism is important to Holden it helps to show that he likes his items new and he worries about money.
    -Chapter 15

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  2. (In chapter 15) While Holden was in the cab, he counted his money. He said he didn’t know how much he had left, but he knew it wasn’t a fortune. He spent a lot of money in the past two weeks. He said what he doesn’t spend, he ends up losing. He forgets to pick up his change half the time at restaurants and night clubs, which drives his parents crazy. Holden talks about how wealthy his dad is because he is a corporation lawyer and he invests money in shows on Broadway.

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  3. In chapter 16, on pages 113 and 114, Holden expresses how much he hates poverty. Holden talks about the nuns and how they stand outside with a straw basket and ask for money for poor people. Holden tries to see members of his family doing the same thing. He then talks about his aunt and how she does charity work but that she is well kept and gets dressed up. Holden shows that he really doesn’t like poverty and people who are scummy.

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  4. It a lot of the book Holden seems to be ignorant about how much things cost. He also shows some irritation when people don't have as much expensive things as he does. It's not that he doesn't like poor people it's just that he doesn't like being richer and/or better then someone. A good example of this is in chapter 15 pages 108 and 109 when he sees the nun's suitcases and he starts telling the story of his roommate with the cheap suitcases who started getting kind of hostile because he was jealous of Holden's nice suitcases. He goes on to say that he ended up just putting his suitcases under the bed so that his roommate would stop feeling bad, but it ended up that his roommate wanted to make other people think that Holden was the poor one by putting his own suitcases in place of Holden's. Holden didn't seem to mind that part incredibly though.

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  5. Holden Caulfield is an ignorant person when it comes to monitary value. He doesn't know any better. His father is rich, so he gets mostly everything he wants. An example of his need for material things would be in chapter fifteen when his breakfast was optimistically interupted by the nuns. Rather than judging their wealth by the clothes that they wore, he judged their suitcases. He said that they were rather, "Inexpensive", looking. It didn't bother him, but it certainly made him look at them differently as people. His reaction was subtle, and went on talking and conversing with them until it was time for them to move along.

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  6. He lacks permanence in many ways but the main way that he lacks stability is in his education and school. He has gotten kicked out of many schools including Pencey Prep. he has already failed 4/5 classes there and doesn't have any stability in his schooling because of how often he changes. His reaction seems to be that he doesn't really care. If he did care, he wouldn't continue to do this but he does. He blames it on the phonies and says thats the reason why he flunked and stopped caring.

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  7. Holden really focuses on materialism and poverty. Something that he said really stood out to me in ch 16. In chapter 16 he decides that he wants to kill time before meeting Sally by trying to find a record store that is open on Sunday that sells the record, "Little Shirley Beans." (on pg 114-115) This was a very hard record to get. Anyways, while he is on the way to the record store there is this family walking in front of him. He says, "There was one nice thing. This family that you could tell just came out of some church were walking right in front of me-a father, a mother, and a little kid about six years old." This is when he focuses on the poverty and materialistic part, he says... "They looked sort of poor. The father had on one of those pearl-gray hats that poor guys wear a lot when they want to look sharp." The thing that made him feel not so depressed anymore is when he got a little closer to the kid cause he heard him singing and humming something. The name of the song was, "If a body catch a body coming through the rye." I think this is where the rye comes in, in the title of the book. The thing that bothered him on Broadway was all the people dressed up that wanted to go to the movies. That really bothered him. Then he says, "I was lucky. The first record store I went into had a copy of "Little Shirley Beans. They charged me five bucks for it, because it was so hard to get, BUT I DIDN'T CARE."
    These are the things in chapter 16 that showed me that he focuses on poverty and materialism. He really focuses on the POOR family.

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  8. Holden is someone who always picks out others based on judgements including materialism and poverty. Holden through the book just spends his money but in the recent chapters, He just goes to breakfest because he had nothing to do than compliments on the nuns on the way they are so cheaply spending and than gives them money. Also he compliments on the suitcases and how he hates " cheap ones". Than holden goes to movies, out, dates. He just spends money like its no big deal and than judges others on how they are different because they are not alike of him.

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  9. I think that holden reallys cares about poverty and materialism. In chapter 16, holden sees the nuns with low quality suit cases. He then treets them worse then how he treets his class of friends. This shows that holden was brought up as a wealthy child and that he was better then lower class people. This shows that holden trie to seem like it dosent bother him, but deep down, it does bother him when people of a lower class think they are as good as him.
    Which i my eyes they are just as good as him.

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  10. Holden says a lot about materialism and poverty, and my fellow peers have done a good job explaining that, in my opinion though, the only reason he talks about it is because its what he is dealing with it, and it is his own fault that hes in the situation that he is in. His own carelessness, he doesn't realize hes in trouble until its already to late. In the beginning, he said he had a lot of dough, but we don't actually know that, he never really told us how much he really had, he just assumed he had a lot because, he had just received some money from his rich grandmother. Plus he mentions that his father is a layer at a cooperation, and he gets a lot of money too. So he goes about with the mindset that he has a lot of money, and he will have enough to last. I think the only reason he makes such a big deal about materialism and poverty, is because hes actually complaining about his own carelessness

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  11. Holden focuses on materialism and poverty throughout the novel. He has gotten kicked out of many schools including Prency Prep. he doent do good in school. He blames everything on the phonies. He is not very nice to the two nuns with the inexpensive suitcase. he is really now kind of focusing on materialism and poverty in the book.

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