My final book by J.D. Salinger is the classic, The Catcher and the Rye. This novel is definitely sets a precedent for a reason. This novel is fun to read, and is undeniably Salinger-esque.
The story follows the young Holden Caulfield, just kicked out of another high class East Coast boarding school. Again, the theme of struggling youth is the focus in this book. Holden is not a genius, but he views himself differently from the "phonies" around him. Holden complains of being misunderstood, and often grapples with his emotions, constantly feeling in a contradictory state leading to self-loathing. He comes across many awkward situations, as do many young people, but struggles immensely with dealing with his emotions. He often contemplates suicide.
"What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would have done it, too, if I'd been sure my body'd cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn't want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory." (p.104)
Besides the obvious theme of struggling youth, I always find Salinger's writing style extremely unique for it's time. Salinger uses creative devices such as lists, letters, and diary entries, to keep his stories interesting and more realistic. In The Catcher and the Rye, Salinger often uses a technique in which he writes what the character literally would say, spelling thrown aside. For example, Holden often has a "helluva time" when no "sonuvabitch" is around. This gives the reader a much better picture of the point Salinger is trying to make. This technique is great in creating vivid imagery, and a sense of realism.
I've thought a lot about my thesis, and I don't have one sentence that sums up it's entirety, but I know what I'd like to include in it. I need to mesh together the importance of Salinger's writing style and technique, the theme of struggling youth, and parallels between Salinger's life and his characters. Perhaps I could focus on one, and bring up the others later in my paper to make things less complicated for myself. Some possible (but of course shaky) thesis statements could be as follows:
J.D. Salinger's novels consistently show the struggle of youth in society, and in doing so he tells the importance of innocence and identity.
J.D. Salinger's reclusive lifestyle parallels the lives of many of his own characters, and in telling his own story through fictional beings, he shows the reader the necessity of human interaction.
These are rough, but I'm sure I've got more up my sleeve that are much better.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
post #6
I have been an awful procrastinator about keeping up with my blogs. It's an extremely terrible and unforgivable habit at times, and I know it's no longer acceptable! I've been extremely thorough in my thoughts and ideas about my paper, and I have kept up with my reading, but being that I am behind on my blogs and I'm sorry to say this will mess up the process a bit. I have finished all three of my books at this point, but I wrote extensive blogs on the first, but my next two books will only have one post each. I realize this is inconsistent, but in no way was my thought process as messy and out of order as my blog.
Anyways, After finishing Franny and Zooey, I read Nine Stories, which was very interesting and thought provoking in many ways. While reading Salinger's second book of short stories, I found that Salinger is consistent in his use of certain reoccurring characters and themes.
Salinger is fond of using the same characters repeatedly. "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" chronicles the story of Seymour's suicide, Seymour was a character mentioned several times in Franny and Zooey, his suicide impacted the protagonists greatly, but he was only mentioned.
Also, in "Down at the Dinghy", in Nine Stories, BooBoo, another member of the glass family, becomes the main character instead of a footnote. Salinger seems to be very fond of certain characters, or even different characters with very similar personalities and ideas. He often makes children very witty, men very unsure of themselves and intellectual, and women very careless and vain. This is a theme that follows all three of his novels, and it makes me wonder about Salinger himself. I think there may be several parallels to Salinger's own life and the lives of his characters.
Also, from reading Nine Stories, I've noticed the reoccurring theme of struggling intellectual youth. The story "Teddy", simply follows the life of a boy genius and the incompetent adults around him. Take the following conversation between the child star and an adult: "'But I could get out of the finite dimensions fairly often when I was four." Teddy said, as an afterthought. Nicholson nodded. 'You did?' he said. 'You could?'" (p.189)
Children are ever present in Salinger's novels. In many of his stories they are seen as superior to the adults, and often are looked to for inspiration. For example in "For Esme with Love and Squalor", a witty young girl inspires a melancholy soldier to write. Youth is an important reoccurring theme in Salinger's novels, and I believe it would be a good topic of discussion in my thesis. I also want to explore a bit more about Salinger's life to find parallels between him and his characters, as I feel this would also be a good point of contribution to my thesis.
Anyways, After finishing Franny and Zooey, I read Nine Stories, which was very interesting and thought provoking in many ways. While reading Salinger's second book of short stories, I found that Salinger is consistent in his use of certain reoccurring characters and themes.
Salinger is fond of using the same characters repeatedly. "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" chronicles the story of Seymour's suicide, Seymour was a character mentioned several times in Franny and Zooey, his suicide impacted the protagonists greatly, but he was only mentioned.
Also, in "Down at the Dinghy", in Nine Stories, BooBoo, another member of the glass family, becomes the main character instead of a footnote. Salinger seems to be very fond of certain characters, or even different characters with very similar personalities and ideas. He often makes children very witty, men very unsure of themselves and intellectual, and women very careless and vain. This is a theme that follows all three of his novels, and it makes me wonder about Salinger himself. I think there may be several parallels to Salinger's own life and the lives of his characters.
Also, from reading Nine Stories, I've noticed the reoccurring theme of struggling intellectual youth. The story "Teddy", simply follows the life of a boy genius and the incompetent adults around him. Take the following conversation between the child star and an adult: "'But I could get out of the finite dimensions fairly often when I was four." Teddy said, as an afterthought. Nicholson nodded. 'You did?' he said. 'You could?'" (p.189)
Children are ever present in Salinger's novels. In many of his stories they are seen as superior to the adults, and often are looked to for inspiration. For example in "For Esme with Love and Squalor", a witty young girl inspires a melancholy soldier to write. Youth is an important reoccurring theme in Salinger's novels, and I believe it would be a good topic of discussion in my thesis. I also want to explore a bit more about Salinger's life to find parallels between him and his characters, as I feel this would also be a good point of contribution to my thesis.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
WA 8
Cassie Stumer
4/14/08
Block E
Writing Assignment 8
For my thesis paper on J.D. Salinger, I want to try to explore the different reoccurring themes in the three novels I read. I also want to delve into some information regarding Salinger himself. I feel there will be many interesting parallels between Salinger himself, and the actions of his characters. Lastly, I would like to address Salinger’s unique and almost esoteric writing style, which I feel is critical in understanding his works.
There are many different reoccurring themes Salinger explores throughout his novels. One idea Salinger grapples with, is the concept of the struggling youth. In almost all of his works, Salinger’s protagonists are young people coping with the flaws of society. In Franny and Zooey, The two main characters are constantly struck down and bewildered by less than understanding or competent adults as they try to understand topics like religion, ego, and society. Salinger seems to touch upon the idea that the youth are usually in the right more than once. He often shows the parental figures as shady, uncaring, superficial, and thoughtless. This is a theme I will have to explore further to go in depth about, but I feel it is an important theme in Salinger’s works.
Salinger himself is also a topic of interest to me, and I plan to go in depth about much of his life in my thesis paper. J.D Salinger is famously reclusive and little is known about his life. I plan to learn more about Salinger’s fascinating life by reading Paul Alexander’s Salinger, a biography that Salinger himself is said to be uneasy about. I’m also interested in reading Joyce Maynard’s biography, which spills many details about Salinger’s very private life. Joyce Maynard’s biography on Salinger was “arguably revengeful”, and many people saw the biography as an attempt for Maynard to boost her own fame as a writer after a failed relationship with Salinger himself. I feel that learning more about Salinger will allow me to understand his characters more, and there are sure to be parallels between Salinger’s life and the actions of many of his similarly reclusive characters. I’m positive the parallel between Holden Caulfield and Salinger will be undeniable.
Lastly, I want to mention Salinger’s unique writing style in my thesis paper. Salinger uses letters, diary entries, and other interesting techniques that set his writing apart from other classic works. I also found it interesting that Salinger would often re-use the same characters in different stories and novels. For example, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”, from Nine Stories, is a beautiful short story that goes into detail about Seymour, Franny and Zooey’s late brother. It is mentioned in Franny and Zooey that Seymour killed himself in a hotel room. “Bananafish” is the story of that incident. Even though the two stories can be read separately and understood, the mixture of characters throughout is very personalized, and a unique characteristic in Salinger’s writing.
Moreover, I have much work to do on my thesis paper, but I feel I have the main ideas of my paper outlined well enough to begin.
4/14/08
Block E
Writing Assignment 8
For my thesis paper on J.D. Salinger, I want to try to explore the different reoccurring themes in the three novels I read. I also want to delve into some information regarding Salinger himself. I feel there will be many interesting parallels between Salinger himself, and the actions of his characters. Lastly, I would like to address Salinger’s unique and almost esoteric writing style, which I feel is critical in understanding his works.
There are many different reoccurring themes Salinger explores throughout his novels. One idea Salinger grapples with, is the concept of the struggling youth. In almost all of his works, Salinger’s protagonists are young people coping with the flaws of society. In Franny and Zooey, The two main characters are constantly struck down and bewildered by less than understanding or competent adults as they try to understand topics like religion, ego, and society. Salinger seems to touch upon the idea that the youth are usually in the right more than once. He often shows the parental figures as shady, uncaring, superficial, and thoughtless. This is a theme I will have to explore further to go in depth about, but I feel it is an important theme in Salinger’s works.
Salinger himself is also a topic of interest to me, and I plan to go in depth about much of his life in my thesis paper. J.D Salinger is famously reclusive and little is known about his life. I plan to learn more about Salinger’s fascinating life by reading Paul Alexander’s Salinger, a biography that Salinger himself is said to be uneasy about. I’m also interested in reading Joyce Maynard’s biography, which spills many details about Salinger’s very private life. Joyce Maynard’s biography on Salinger was “arguably revengeful”, and many people saw the biography as an attempt for Maynard to boost her own fame as a writer after a failed relationship with Salinger himself. I feel that learning more about Salinger will allow me to understand his characters more, and there are sure to be parallels between Salinger’s life and the actions of many of his similarly reclusive characters. I’m positive the parallel between Holden Caulfield and Salinger will be undeniable.
Lastly, I want to mention Salinger’s unique writing style in my thesis paper. Salinger uses letters, diary entries, and other interesting techniques that set his writing apart from other classic works. I also found it interesting that Salinger would often re-use the same characters in different stories and novels. For example, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”, from Nine Stories, is a beautiful short story that goes into detail about Seymour, Franny and Zooey’s late brother. It is mentioned in Franny and Zooey that Seymour killed himself in a hotel room. “Bananafish” is the story of that incident. Even though the two stories can be read separately and understood, the mixture of characters throughout is very personalized, and a unique characteristic in Salinger’s writing.
Moreover, I have much work to do on my thesis paper, but I feel I have the main ideas of my paper outlined well enough to begin.
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