teenage interpretations...
EEver73319 (EEver73319@aol.com)
Mon, 08 Dec 1997 00:13:29 -0500 (EST)
<<<There's another interesting tangent. Many students in high school (or
earlier) who study literature are encouraged to read the text as the
teacher says it should be read; a couple of people who have written
privately to me have said that reading Catcher for school was the first
time when the assigned book seized their imaginations and got them to think
that their interpretations were at least as good as the teacher's, and
might even be superior.
I find that intriguing.
--tim>>>
It is indeed intruiging. I personally read Catcher for the first time in
English class, but had an English teacher that was more interested in OUR (the
class's) interpretations of the book than his own...it was a good thing.
Young people can sympathize with Holden much more than with Huck Finn or any
other character in the mainstream English course curricullum (sp). I think
that for many teenagers Catcher can be an "eye-opener" to the world and to the
self. When some teens find some connection with Holden it can be a reassuring
realization... that SOMEBODY at least sees what they see, feels how they feel.
I think that without this realization, many teens become extremely rebellious
and anti-social. Holden's view of the world is certainly an adolescent one,
but its probably neccesary to go through such a stage if one wants to become a
Seymour Glass or a Mr. Antolini. I would certainly prefer to be Antolini over
say Lane or someone like him. Hopefully CITR intrigues teens enough to move
on to some of the Glass stories or Nine Stories, as they in my view contain
much more mature and enlightened being.
Just some thoughts,
Eric
(18, a senior in high school)