I personally feel that sharing an outline in general, is a good idea, but not in this situation. We are supposed to write a very important essay, with OUR OWN IDEAS, and own skills. We shouldn't be doing this with the thoughts and time someone else has invested into his or her outline. I completely understand that Mr. Doubt wants us to see other outlines and the ideas someone else had, but I would ask for some respect in this situation. For example, I sit next to Ika, who hasn't done any of this work yet, and now I should pass him my outline, although he hasn't even invested one single second into thinking about what his essay could be about. This is unfair. I do not want to share my outline in this situation. No, I am not dying to use my outline in order to write my essay, but I would prefer to have it, and use its assistance, rather than having to do it all out of my head.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Chapter 17
In this chapter we can clearly see how lonely and frustrated Holden is. He complains about “phony” people, but acts like one himself. Indirectly, he describes his life and how sad it actually his. Although he has to wait ages for his friend, he forgives her straight away just because of her looks. He relies on her because otherwise, he would be very lonely. He doesn’t have the possibility to meet anyone else, although it is his home town. As the time passes, she acts stranger and stranger; she is flirting with other guys, however, he still stays with her, and takes her to the ice-skating rink. After long conversations, asking her to leave with him into the wild, and marry him; she rejects, consequently, he insults her, and as a result leaves by himself. He stays lonely.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Motifs - Museum
The museum of natural history is a motif representing what environment Holden would like to live in. It is a simple world that never changes, which isn't confronted with problems such as death, and phoniness. Holden isn't very comfortable with his surrounding environment, he would like people to be more real; they act on a daily bases, he cant stand this, and clearly differentiates from them.
(pg.109) "The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be there just finishing catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the dears would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and their pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket. Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you. "
This quote clearly shows how much Holden likes the Museum and why. He has already been there when he was a small child, with his school. He likes the way nothing ever changes. It stays identical, no matter how often you go. No one is faking or acting differently than they usually do. No one can act phony, everyone is calm. He would really like to live in a place like this.
(pg.109) "The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be there just finishing catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the dears would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and their pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket. Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you. "
This quote clearly shows how much Holden likes the Museum and why. He has already been there when he was a small child, with his school. He likes the way nothing ever changes. It stays identical, no matter how often you go. No one is faking or acting differently than they usually do. No one can act phony, everyone is calm. He would really like to live in a place like this.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Skaz
The story "skaz", written by David Lodge, is referring to the writing style “skaz”. The origin and meaning of the word skaz, comes from the Russian language. Suggesting "jazz" and "scat", as in "scat-singing", to the English ear is what it is described as in the story. This text analyzes “The Cather in the Rye”, it is written in first-person narration, in which the character is “I”, which makes the reader feel part of the story. The type of vocabulary and syntax are also described in this story; colloquial speech is used, which should make something seem as if it is more real. Although no one would really speak like that in real life, the reader always interprets it as real. Ernst Hemingway said: “all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn”. Holden Caulfield is a perfect example of this, with a small difference that he is more educated and sophisticated, and the son of a wealthy New Yorker. Besides that, the characters are very similar, both are youthful escapers from a world of adult hypocrisy, venality, and love to use their own favorite word, phoniness.
After a lot of analyzing of both books, Lodge starts to discuss Holden’s narrative style. His style makes it sound like speech rather than writing. It seems as if it was teenage speech because a lot of repetition and slang is used. Words such as “jerk”, “bored as hell”, “phoney”, “big deal”, “killed me” and “old” are used on a very regular, repetitive bases. He exaggerates a lot, with a device called hyperbole, a very good example of this: “You’d have thought they haven’t seen each other in twenty years”. In addition, the syntax used is very simple, and basic. He also uses short sentences, which make it seem as if his writing isn’t very developed. Not to forget, his speech includes a lot of grammatical errors.
Although it is very easy to analyze the mistakes that Salinger makes in his writing, on purpose, it isn’t easy to understand why the reader is so interested in reading this. It isn’t perfectly developed nor is it a great example of grammatical performance or anything like this. The reader is just addicted to this kind of writing. As jazz musicians would say, it swings, and that’s why we are interested in it.
After a lot of analyzing of both books, Lodge starts to discuss Holden’s narrative style. His style makes it sound like speech rather than writing. It seems as if it was teenage speech because a lot of repetition and slang is used. Words such as “jerk”, “bored as hell”, “phoney”, “big deal”, “killed me” and “old” are used on a very regular, repetitive bases. He exaggerates a lot, with a device called hyperbole, a very good example of this: “You’d have thought they haven’t seen each other in twenty years”. In addition, the syntax used is very simple, and basic. He also uses short sentences, which make it seem as if his writing isn’t very developed. Not to forget, his speech includes a lot of grammatical errors.
Although it is very easy to analyze the mistakes that Salinger makes in his writing, on purpose, it isn’t easy to understand why the reader is so interested in reading this. It isn’t perfectly developed nor is it a great example of grammatical performance or anything like this. The reader is just addicted to this kind of writing. As jazz musicians would say, it swings, and that’s why we are interested in it.
Chapter 7 and 8 Summary
Chapter 7: In this chapter Holden talks to Ackley for a while, and tries to sleep in Ackley's room. He cant sleep because he constantly has to think about what Stradlater and Jane are doing. He gets so annoyed by not being able to fall asleep, and Ackley's phoniness, that he decides to leave for New York already a few days earlier than planned. He plans to stay there undercover for a few days until his parents got his report card. He leaves through the hallway and says “Sleep tight, ya morons!”, and then leaves Pencey forever.
Chapter 8: Holden walks to the train station and catches a train to New York. On it, he meets the mother of a fellow student called Ernst Morrow. He tells lies about how good and famous he is, and that he would have been the new class president if he wouldn't be so shy and tell everyone to not vote him. He says this because he thinks that this will make a mother proud. When she asks him for his name and why he is leaving so early from Pencey, he says that his name is Rudolph Schmidt, and that he is leaving to New York to get a brain tumor operation.
Chapter 8: Holden walks to the train station and catches a train to New York. On it, he meets the mother of a fellow student called Ernst Morrow. He tells lies about how good and famous he is, and that he would have been the new class president if he wouldn't be so shy and tell everyone to not vote him. He says this because he thinks that this will make a mother proud. When she asks him for his name and why he is leaving so early from Pencey, he says that his name is Rudolph Schmidt, and that he is leaving to New York to get a brain tumor operation.
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