Collage: Catcher in the Rye

Collage:
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Quotes + Explanations:

Who are we accountable to for our actions?

 “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one”. P.188

à This quote shows how we are basically accountable for our own actions. The way we live our life reflects who we are, and can only be based upon what we believe and therefore the responsibility falls upon us. In the end, people will only judge us for our actions and see where it took us, to base their own actions upon.

"I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. It's terrible." P.16

à This quote again shows that we are accountable for our own actions. In this case, Holden takes responsibility for his lying instinct; lying even when it is completely unnecessary and to absolutely no benefit. We are liable for the things we say, and others should not be held accountable or responsible for any false words or even true words that leave our mouth.

How can one balance cultural and societal expectations with one’s own beliefs?

“Anyway, it was the Saturday of the football game […] I remember around three o’clocl that afternoon I was standing way the hell up on top of Thomsen Hill […] You could see the whole field from there, and you could see the two teams bashing eachother all over the place.” P.2

à When things become too overwhelming for us; the expectations from society (school and peers), sometimes we just have to stand back by ourselves and isolate ourselves from others to intake a moment of peace. Sometimes, in order to balance cultural and societal expectations with our own beliefs, is to simple be alone and allow ourselves to recover from the tiring struggle in attempting to please all sides of an inner conflict.

"I don't even know what I was running for - I guess I just felt like it." P.5

àAfter being kicked out of his school (because of not being able to meet the school standards) and not being able to go home (because of being afraid of his parents), Holden decides to simply run. Through this quote, we see that sometimes when our own beliefs cannot match up with the expectations of others (school, friends, and parents) there is no simple way to balance the values. In the end, sometimes all we can do is run from our differences, unable to think logically or sensibly.

How do our relationships with others show our values?

"Most guys at Pencey just talked about having sexual intercourse with girls all the time - like Ackley, for instance - but old Stradlater really did it. I was personally acquainted with at least two girls he gave the time to. That's the truth." P. 48-49

à This quote demonstrates how our relationships with others shows are values. The things we do to interact with other people demonstrate our values. For example, in this quote, Stradlater communicates with females to ‘give them the time’. This shows through his relationships of intercourse, his value of using other people to accomplish his body’s wants. His values do not necessarily reflect respect for other people, but more so the momentary judgement on one’s appearance.

“I roomed with this boy, Dick Slagle… The day after I put mine under my bed, he took them out and put them back on the rack… The reason he did it, it took me a while to find out, was because he wanted people to think my bags were his.” P.108

à The relationship between Holden and his roommate Dick Slagle also shows how relationships reflect peoples’ values. Both people hold a relationship of being friendly roommates. This relationship shows both people's values through their thoughts on why they choose to befriend the other. Holden does not care for the suitcases which shows that he possesses a value of equality and judges a person on their personality itself. However, Dick Slagle, uses Holden to show off his suitcases, pretending to be the possessor of them. This shows that he values much more monetary status, and is more afraid of the judgements of other people on his surface level assets.

"God, I love it when a kid's nice and polite when you tighten their skate for them or something. Most kids are. They really are" P.119

à The way we associate with others will ultimately build the way our relationship looks with them. In this quote, Holden appreciates the child’s politeness and kindness. The value of respect for others and their deeds shows through his relationship with the child: an openness to being with him.

“At the end of the first act we went out with all the other jerks for a cigarette. What a deal that was. You never saw so many phonies in all your life, everybody smoking their ears off and talking about the play so that everybody could hear and know how sharp they were.”P.126

à Through this quote, we see that Holden refuses to hold any positive relationship with the people outside that are talking about the play superficially to demonstrate their ‘superior knowledge’. This demonstrates Holden’s value for honesty and modesty, as he clearly dislikes people who put up a fake prestigious front to seem higher on the social ladder than other people. Holden enjoys people act as themselves, other people who value people who come as they are. This quote shows that the relationship we share with others shows our value as we reveal our thoughts and opinions about others' actions.

comment

You should thank Yanessa for her comment about the Eq. You borught it back to power to help wrap it up. Well done Daniel. You have creatively shown M's development and transformation throughout the play. You have brought in some good examples from the play to show his integrity and his change from it. I like how you referred to Neptune's seas. You have definitely demonstrated his evolution as a character. Good work.

Journal Entry 8

These nightmares just never seem to end. My conscience has finally taken control over my body. I feel only guilt and regret for the actions I have gone through with. Every time I look back onto the things I’ve done in the fairly recent past, I cringe at my own actions and set myself in shame. I do not know the location of my husband for almost 100% of the time, and I’d rather not know if he’s been feeling the same pain as me for doing such things to other innocent people. Was my greed for power too much for my own mind to handle? 

But no, of course not… Power is never too overwhelming for a human.. especially such a human like myself. But then, if I am such a human, why does my heart continue to pull the strings that tighten my body, making it hard to think, breathe and live? I find no reason for my life on this cruel yet beautiful planet anymore. Through all the things I have done, I am for once unsure about what I actually want. 

This just might be the last entry to my journal.

Journal Entry 7

I’ve been having the weirdest dreams ever for the past few days… It’s just me, walking to a sink, and washing the blood off my hands repeatedly… blood that seems to never disappear. The guilt in my mind for planning and committing murders within my country has been eating away at me, I will admit. But I didn’t know that this seemingly small guilt would exponentially grow into such horrifying yet terrific nightmares… I always seem to remember certain lines of my dreams, in particular something about the overwhelming strength of blood in my hands, immune to the washing for the finest perfumes of Arabia and all the oceans’ water from Neptune. These dreams have been truly detrimental to my everyday life, I can’t seem to fall asleep normally and the process of waking up is equivalent to being released from a murderer’s chokehold.

The strangest part about these dreams, is that strangely enough, when I wake up in a cold sweat, I find my hands somewhat wet… I wonder how I can rid of this guilt. I mean, what I did only benefited me and nothing more, right?

Journal Entry 6

So, it’s been a long time since I updated this journal, not much exciting seemed to happen in my life… Well, not that I can even remember of. Ha. But today my husband invited some of his company including Banquo… Who didn’t ultimately show up for one reason or another… But anyways, the dinner was going great, the food was quite delicious I must admit… Really made my taste buds dance and celebrate. Well, they sure were until my husband started going mental and hallucinating… 

Oh right, he had sent men to kill Banquo… That would explain his absence, oopsies my bad. 

But still, he was seriously scaring me and the guests… And I’m pretty sure that the guests were getting really suspicious! It was honestly too risky for me to get caught as part of this act… And… well…. Bad for him to get caugh too… I guess… So I kept telling everyone that if they paid attention to Macbeth, he would only feel embarrassed and more upset… I tried to dance it out and distract the guests by stuffing them with more food, but Macbeth seemed to steal the spotlight… very unfortunately. Wow, it was soooo frustrating ‘cause I just couldn’t get Macbeth to stop ranting on about non sense that nobody else could see and muttering.. or more like shouting… what seemed to be confessions and denial about his actions… The man I married did not ever once in his life act so foolishly… If I had known that he were to act like this in such dire situations, I would have certainly never have even agreed to meet him on a friendly basis. But I was really relieved once the company left: relieved beyond belief… As if the whole entire Scotland had been lifted off my shoulders… and other parts of our neighbouring countries too. 

That was a loooooong night… I hope that they don’t get any longer than that.

Journal Entry 5

Pretty much moments after we slaughtered those 3 men, someone rang the bells to declare that the king had been killed…. Gave me a total heart attack and I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty scared if the king’s sons were going to find out about the very beneficial deed (in my opinion at least) that my husband and I completed. And of course, my husband would have to start rambling on about unnecessary things and totally be on the verge of ratting us out, so I had no choice but to distract the men and allow this nerve-wracking conversation to halt… Falling down on purpose wasn’t as easy as I thought… But it got rid of them.

Journal Entry 4

So we set off to do the plan and like, drugged the King’s attendants so they’d obviously be sleeping pretty well… Haha. But I wasn’t able to take the knife into King Duncan myself ‘cause… well… He reminds me too much of my father… So I gave the knife to my husband Macbeth and forced him to go kill him… Which seemed to make me feel much less guilty and much more pleased in the end, even if I was against myself killing him. Lol, oh well. After we killed the king, we had to frame the two attendants and like, totally kill them to rid of any chance of us getting caught… So I took the two other knives and stabbed them… It was pretty gruesome and unladylike, I must admit. However, it had to be done to reach my goal… I mean, our goal… Cough.