The Catcher in the Rye

My first impressions of Holden Caulfield are that he is somewhat like myself. This young man is unmotivated to the maximum extent, and is very lazy in all that he does. He doesn’t give any thought to the importance of school, seeing as how he has dropped out of four of them in a matter of years. The only thing he is really concerned about is his mother’s reaction to dropping out of Pencey, which is the only reason he hasn’t headed home yet.
The aspect of Caulfield that is most confusing is the fact he lets other people stand in his way of success. The only reason he doesn’t try to do good in school is because his classmates are all “fake”. Because of this view, he thinks whatever school he happens to be attending at that point in time isn’t worth the effort. This is a serious character flaw, and something he has to address in his life at some point.
Another problem with Caulfield is that he seems to be very rash or irrational at times. From the mood swings he displays to his harsh, quick judgement of anybody he meets, Caulfield always seems to be at odds with at least one other character. Both of these traits are evident in his fight with Stradlater. Caulfield had been having mood swings on the topic of Stradlater all day, and criticizing him on various topics, seemingly just to criticize something.
From my standpoint this early in the book, Caulfield really needs to get his act together. He doesn’t seem to have a friend, hasn’t gotten over the death of a sibling, is quick to point out a person’s flaws [but somehow never mentions a nice trait], and just cannot stay devoted to anything, no matter the reason. He seems to be somewhat immature, and very stubborn. He makes decisions based on little to no logic, and honestly just needs to grow up a little.
Hopefully, as the book progresses, Caulfield will take some responsibility for his actions and start to consider his future. Otherwise, he is in for a life that will not be very fulfilling.

Dying the death of a salesman

Until reading the assignment, I had never made a connection between The Great Gatsby and The Death of a Salesman. However, after reading the thoughts that were expressed in the post, I can see how the two works do have some similarities that can help us answer whatever questions we are left with.
How do we define our dreams of success?
This question is an interesting one, because not everybody has the same dream in life. Everybody wants to be successful, but there are different definitions of success and different ways to attain it. Some people want to be rich. For those people, Charlie is right, we are only worth what we can sell. But does the same hold true for people who want to teach? For these people, wouldn't it be more wise to judge their worth on what they say, and how many people hear? What does the idea of teaching have to do with sales? There are those who use their teaching for gain, but there are others who would be content to teach, and only teach. I don't think the definition of our dream of success are the same, and I don't believe Charlie is necessarily right when he says people are only worth what they can sell.
In this view, our hopes, dreams, and visions can only be limited by our imagination and motivation. I think that is where Willy went wrong. He pigeonholed himself into the notion that Dave Singleman was the essence of perfection, and the only way to reach success was to follow his footsteps. Willy never once asked himself what good Dave Singleman was doing for anybody but himself, and how many true friends Mr. Singleman truly had. Was Mr. Singleman actually happy with his life? I found the author's choice of a name for this character very interesting- single man. To me, this may be alluding to the fact that the man Willy saw as perfection was alone in the world, and Willy was already ahead of the game by having a family. Unfortunately, Willy threw that advantage away by cheating on his wife, a choice that helped his life to crash down around him. Its important to note that Willy cheated when he was at the top of his career. Did he think he earned the luxury of another woman because he was well known? I think its plausible to believe he thought he earned the right to do what he did, because he was on the road to being a successful man. If that was his belief, then it is ironic that such an idea led to his downfall, as his family fell apart and his son Biff, whom he had raised to be a famous ball-player who would one day sign that big contract, disowned him.
I think meeting Mr. Singleman, whom Willy revered as an idol, was the worst thing that ever happened to Willy. He began to think that he deserved the life Singleman enjoyed, regardless of the changing times. He treated himself to pleasure he shouldn't have, and gave himself a false sense of pride. I see this is the reason he couldn't accept the job offered to him on multiple occasions, and possibly the reason he took the easy way out. Maybe dying "the death of a salesman" means to die with as much pride intact as possible.

I would like responses to focus mainly on the last ideas presented in the 2 paragraphs.

The Blogging Experience

I have to admit, at first I was a bit skeptical of the whole blogging idea. However, after the first few assignments, this method of homework won me over.
For the most part, I already did my English homework on the computer anyway. Blogging as a class just made my life easier, as I can just submit the homework when I finish, not having to worry about losing it or making sure the paper doesn't get crumpled or wet in my book bag. I enjoy the fact that I can submit my work whenever i feel, giving me a chance to go back and edit my post if I find it necessary. If I'm not done my report, I can just save the draft and come back to it at a later time, and whatever websites I was on can just be bookmarked for later. I usually hand my work in at the deadline, giving myself as much time as I need to finish whats been assigned. Being able to post my work online just gives me a little more time, allowing me to hand in work thats been more thought over and attended to.
I look forward to continuing to do my homework in a blog-type setting. It is completely new to me, but it opens up new ways to do and finish my homework, and I've found it to be very useful. So far the experience has been great, and I honestly can't think of a way to make it better. The way the whole blogging experience has been going is great for us as students, and if it isn't broke, why fix it?
I feel its a good thing we can comment on the work of whoever we want, giving us the opportunity to discover or classmates talents if we want. I usually comment on someone I know usually does a good job, as well as look at another student's work that I haven't looked at before. I think this process works well, and I've discovered some of my classmates are better writers than I previously believed.
All in all, this whole blogging experience has been new and refreshing, and I look forward to continuing it.

"That was always my experience—a poor boy in a rich town; a poor boy in a rich boy's school; a poor boy in a rich man's club at Princeton…I have never been able to forgive the rich for being rich, and it has colored my entire life and works."
–F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters

This quote shows that as an author, although Fitzgerald was writing fiction stories, he was still writing about himself. Just as Fitzgerald described himself, Nick Carraway was a man who was in a lower class than those around him.

Before the book takes place, Nick was a student at Yale who was poor considering the other students. Due to this fact, Nick kept to himself, not making many friends. He described himself as quiet throughout life, although the difference in social classes most likely gave him another reason to stay away from the others. They were privileged and knew nothing of the struggles of the poor, and Nick felt no connection to them.

After his graduation, Nick went to the war before coming back to America. He decided to move to New York and settled on the West Egg. Its no coincidence the majority of the residents on West Egg for middle to lower class, save for Gatsby. However, Nick still found himself keeping wealthy company in the likes of Jordan Baker, Tom and Daisy Buchanon, and Jay Gatsby. Throughout the book Nick comes off as uncomfortable, sensing he doesn't belong with this crowd. In the end, Nick decides to move back home, away from the lavishness of the friends he had made.

As Fitzgerald says, he was always a poor man in a rich man's world. As Fitzgerald also says, he could never forgive the rich for being rich. It is interesting to consider this quote when compared to The Great Gatsby, where Nick Carraway always found a way to be surrounded by the rich, and constantly sought a means to escape them.

As of the conclusion of chapter three, I realize that I had Nick figured out all wrong. For the better part of the first three chapters, I thought Nick to be a soft spoken man who kept to himself, and didn't really go to wild. By the end of the third chapter, he has shown a slight tendency to drink and go to parties, as well as make a few eccentric friends. Among these friends are the abusive, adulterer Tom, the cheating Myrtle, wildy famous Jordan Baker, and the mysterious Jay Gatsby.
I was initially surprised when Nick attended the party in the second chapter, but thought he had perhaps not known the wild event he was attending. After attending Gatsby's party, I see I was wrong in my assumption that he was a man who wouldn't enjoy somewhat of a wild life. Furthering my surprise is that he has become somewhat close friends to Jordan, a person whom i thought he might want to avoid, especially given her seemingly rude introduction at their first meeting. Even more, he expresses that he has developed feelings for Ms. Baker, although he seems to have a girlfriend back home.
Although Nick is showing signs of being some type of party animal who might be fame hungry, I think he might still have more in common with my first opinion of him then it currently seems.

Herman Melville

Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819. His parents were financially unstable, in over their heads having three kids. In 1830 the family moved to Albany in a futile attempt to join the fur trading business. By the time the family moved to the area, fur trading had become much less prosperous.
Once he set out on his own, Melville suffered many setbacks. He failed as a cabin boy, a school teacher, and at whaling. He exploded as an author, however, writing popular novels such as Typee and Oomo. His whaling experiences led him to write one of the most famous English novels ever, Moby Dick.
Although experiencing much success as a writer, Melville never made enough money to live off of. When his riches began to disappear, he turned to poetry. He failed miserably in his early years, eventually leaving the medium all together for many years. After retiring from a position of customs inspector that he held for 19 years, he returned to poetry, where he become somewhat successful for his work.

“There is sobbing of the strong,
And a pall upon the land;
But the People in their weeping
Bare the iron hand:
Beware the People weeping
When they bare the iron hand.”

http://www.poetry-archive.com/m/the_martyr.html

This is a short excerpt from Melville’s The Martyr. He doesn’t follow a specific rhyme scheme throughout the poem, although he does rhyme on a somewhat consistent basis. He used a lot of repetition in this poem, as evidenced in this excerpt, and also uses contrast between a strong person and their weeping to stress the tragedy of the martyr’s death.


I picked the poem “The Apparition” at random, but enjoyed it nonetheless. It was somewhat short, but I thought it did a good job of entertaining. Melville is describing a sighting of a ghost, both what he physically sees as well as what he feels and the aura the apparition is giving off. Because of this glimpse of a ghost, he questions life and also life after death, and states a fear of success because of the failure or death that may follow.

http://www.poetry-archive.com/m/the_apparition.html



After reading through some of Melville’s work, I couldn’t really find any instance that flagged him as an American poet. Besides his vocabulary and possibly his choosing of topic, Melville didn’t really seem to separate himself from his international peers in terms of revealing exactly who is was.

Realsim in Writing

After reading some of Kate Chopin’s work, the difference between American Romanticism and American Realism is clear. Chopin spends much less time explaining the beauty of nature or the importance of respecting it, and looks deeper into the way people live their lives and their motives for doing so. She is much more invested in taking a look at Adrienne Farival’s opposing lifestyles and Mrs. Sommer’s newfound recklessness than taking time to smell the flowers. Ironically enough, that cliché of “smelling the flowers” is the only sign of progress from Romanticism to Realism that Chopin shows in her writing. In “Lilacs”, the story opens and closes with the blooming of lilacs playing a central part to the story. The smell of the flower is the driving force behind Farival visiting her convent, as it has come to be a tradition for her. Other than this instance, Chopin strayed from the principles of Romanticism and barely strayed from being a Realist writer.

In Chopin’s writing she explores the themes of people wanting to be someone they aren’t, and also of a world where people put themselves first to accomplish this sought after lifestyle. In “Lilacs”, Farival takes an annual trip to visit a convent of nuns, although she admits to not relying on the lord when she is away from the convent. Her life away from the convent is completely different, punctuated by a bad temper, impatience, and an indifference to religion. She also makes this trip a secret, knowing full well that Monsieur Henri is madly in love with her and spirals into depression whenever she leaves. In the case of “A Pair of Silk Stockings”, Mrs. Sommers indulges herself into an extravagant lifestyle for a day after finding some money. She is a poor woman who could have used that money for many other things, but decided to use her newfound money to treat herself in a way she had never experienced before. She did this despite knowing that there are much more useful ways she could use the money, such as spending it on her kids to make their lives more comfortable. I think Chopin is using her writing as a way to tell the world that people are becoming too self-centered, and she is trying to change that.

In writing, I think Chopin is trying to reach everyone, especially those comparable to her main characters. She is trying to show people the errors in the way the live their lives and wants to help them become what she would view as a better person. In that way she might be compared to a Romanticist, because she seemed to be urging people to be more considerate to their surroundings, although she focused mainly on the people that were being wronged by her main characters. Chopin is either writing for the women during her time period, those she perceived as being wronged by self-centered individuals, or both. The women of her time were still much oppressed and didn’t have many rights, so she would want to use her position of power to represent and uplift them. At the same time, as a Realist, she was expressing her views on the world and was trying to fix in the world what she saw was wrong.

Although the oppression of women that existed in her time is long over and would not have affected me, her stories still hit home to me due to the latter of possible audiences I had mentioned. We live in a very materialistic time where it seems people will do anything to get ahead, no matter who they hurt or what relationships they may sever. In that way, her stories are still very relevant and it is important that we all keep in mind her message that she portrayed through her stories. She seemed very bothered by the climate of society and I find it hard to believe she would be pleased at the turn it has taken in the 21st century.

“The play was over, the music ceased, the crowd filed out. It was like a dream ended. People scattered in all directions. Mrs. Sommers went to the corner and waited for the cable car.
A man with keen eyes, who sat opposite to her, seemed to like the study of her small, pale face. It puzzled him to decipher what he saw there. In truth, he saw nothing – unless he were wizard enough to detect a poignant wish, a powerful longing that the cable car would never stop anywhere, but go on and on with her forever.”
The ending of “A Pair of Silk Stockings” was a driving factor in me choosing Chopin for my analysis. The way Chopin shows Mrs. Sommers’ immediate doubt of her own judgement, and her self-pondering, drew me to her writing more than anything else did. It is also a great ending considering she was a Realist showing that people can realize their mistakes and change their ways if they get the chance.