Subject: Re: weak points
From: Angela Faye Oon (ange@pacific.net.sg)
Date: Thu Feb 20 1997 - 23:28:25 GMT
At 18:26 20/02/97 -0600, you wrote:
the gist of the
>paper was that hemingway devoted his novel to showing people who deal with
(and
>contribute to) the insincerity and phoniness of adulthood, while salinger dealt
>with a character devoted to circumventing the crap associated with adulthood.
I shall not comment on the Hemingway, but I do have some opinions with
regards to CITR. Firstly, Holden does not successfully circumvent "the crap
associated with adulthood", although the entire novel chronicles his
attempts to do so. Holden is in denial; he escapes from his school, yet
during his NY weekend finds the need to call upon the same phony
acquaintances he is trying to get away from. The scene at the end of the
novel is what some people on this list has called Holden's "epiphany"; the
realisation that he _cannot_ and should not be the catcher in the rye. He
has to let Phoebe reach after the golden ring, and if she misses and gets
hurt, that is part of the experience.
he said that the scene at the end of citr where
>holden has gotten phoebe to ride the carousel was not a successful attempt at
>preserving the innocence of childhood, but was rather the illusion of such
>success. he noted that this was one of the weak points of the novel and
that it
>seemed to end there not because holden had achieved what he was seeking, but
>because to go any further would reveal the illusion for what it is.
That view of the carousel scene is directly contrary to what I have written
above. In what way does standing in the rain and letting Pheobe go round and
round the carousel without going forward to protect her Holden's attempt to
preserve her innocence? Isn't it the opposite of what he is trying to do? I
think that far from being a weak point in the novel, the carousel scene is
actually the conclusion and, dare I say, moral of the novel (as opposed to
Antolini's advice). It is the culmination of Holden's search for the answer
to the phony crap of adulthood. Holden's own account of his experiences end
there, and from there he accepts treatment and rest, and prepares to rejoin
society (go back to school).
Hope that introduces another view, Matthew.
Ange.
____________________________________________________________
Angela Faye Oon <ange@pacific.net.sg>
<cynicd@hotmail.com>
<Angela.Faye.Oon@bosco.com.sg>
Fax your new insight to: (065) 469-1769
Je me presse de rire de tout, de peur d'être obligé d'en pleurer.
- Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais
-
To remove yourself from the bananafish list, send the command:
unsubscribe bananafish
in the body of a message to "Majordomo@mass-usr.com".
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Mon Oct 09 2000 - 14:59:01 GMT