Cafall wrote:
Galaxy Man wrote:
In fact nothing happens.
The book
starts with Holden getting expelled from another school and punching his roommate for taking his old crush out on a date, then getting beat up by a pimp when he awkwardly propositions a hooker to just sit and chat, after which he meets with a wide variety of acquaintances before returning home to face his family with another of his failures
That's hardly nothing
Yet each of these things take up about half a second.
Holden isn't even expelled yet, he just LEAVES. Why? Because he's a whiny bitch. His roommate punches him, which takes half a sentence, and then what does he do? He whines. Not only do either of these things end up not being at all important and are never mentioned again, the only reason they happen in the first place is for him to whine about them.
Then the pimp hits him again, which takes half a sentence AGAIN, and then boop more whiny crying bitch.
So yeah he does get hit in the face twice, but even that is hardly important at all except welp now he just cries about how shit's unfair and everything is everyone's fault except his! Then he gets over it and oh hey would you look at how little it actually mattered!
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Galaxy Man wrote:
Geology isn't sitting around in a garden, staring at rocks.
Geology is studying the way the ground works. Staring at rocks is... staring at rocks. A geologist would stare at the rocks and wonder how they were created, and then go off and figure it out.
Much like how Holden spends a good deal of time watching and studying the people and world around him? It's his uneducated and inexperienced view of everything, but that's the whole point
>watching
>studying
Yeah no. That's
really stretching it. He doesn't study anyone, to study would imply some sort of understanding or basic thought. Holden sees someone and he complains about them. Anyone, doing anything normal, he just complains. There's not a part in the book where his inner monologue isn't just whine whine whine, bitch bitch bitch.
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Holden does not change. He does not alter. Holden is exactly the same the entire book. He's a whiner, he's a hypocrite, and he's generally a little bitch about everything. He stays this way. He doesn't change, he doesn't realize anything, the book ends with him learning nothing at all.
So no, there is no character development.
Why is this a bad thing? There has to be an overarching moral for the protagonist to learn, or it's a bad book? It's a short story describing his
current state and character,
mostly about his inability (or immature refusal) to get his shit together and grow up
One would assume a character who is more than a flat piece of paper with a smiley face written on it would undergo some sort of moral change over staying alone in a city for two days. You know, basic,
third grade creative writing stuff.
Of course, Holden
isn't more than a flat piece of paper, but with a frown.
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I would also like to say that it IS actually a point with many people that Holden is a whiny, hypocritical person. I would ALSO like to point out, that since the 1970s, it's "themes of teenage confusion" has been more than obsolete, they've been crushed into the ground and buried, flowers and trees have long since grown there.
Are you really saying teen angst is dead?
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I'm saying that comparing teens from the 1920s and the modern age is a futile matter. Teenagers are not the same. We cannot comprehend anything Holden does as being anything but stupid and or whiny, because by today's standards he's stupid and whiny.
I do know this, for a very simple reason. When I was, eventually, forced to read this book last year, I did so with my English class. When it was finished, we all had to write about how Holden compared to us.
My english teacher himself actually talked to the class, when all of the papers turned in (not just some, I do mean all) only talked about how we could not compare to Holden. One went so far as to say Holden was abnormally unlike
anyone she had ever met. When asked if any of us would be friends with Holden, nobody said anything.
My mother and father both disliked this book as well. Why?
Because they could not relate.It is a simple fact, and as I recently thought of and pointed out, it is an OBJECTIVE fact, that this book has lost the main purpose the writer intended to give it. It can no longer commune with the average teen. Unless, of course, this teen happens to have all of Holden's traits. In this unfortunate case he would have no friends and everyone would hate him.
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