FunkyMonkey

Jeff and Wade

Reflection Questions Death/Kill/Die

__Prewriting:__

1. How does the symbol/motif come up in the novel, and how does it impact what is going on? What happens immediately preceding or immediately following a mention or discussion of this idea or thing?

The symbol/motif death/kill/die comes up fairly often throughout the story. When this symbol/motif impacts what you hear Holden talking or thinking about. After this symbol/motif shows he keeps to himself and feels lonely. He also gets upset when he thinks about how his brother died. pg.38-39 "I was only thirteen and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all because I broke all the windows in the garage. I don't blame them I really don't. I slept in the garage the night he died and I broke all the god dam windows with my fist."

2. What is the mood when this idea or thing is brought up? Would you associate this with times when Holden is content? frightened? frantic? confused? Is this mood consistent with every incidence of this motif?

This idea is normally brought up when he is feeling lonely or mad. Considering he is lonely most of the story it is pretty consistent. He gets mad pretty often too over stupid and serious things people do. pg.103-104 "But I'm crazy. I swear to God I am. About halfway to the bathroom, I sort of started pretending I had a bullet in my guts. Old Maurice had plugged me. Now I was on the way to the bathroom to get a good shot of bourbon or something to steady my nerves and help me really go into action."

3. Is Holden alone when this motif/symbol occurs? If not, with whom is he interacting? How would you characterize that interaction? Does this motif occur both when he is alone and when he is with other people? Is there a connection to be made?

Yes, he is always alone when this symbol/motif occurs. It happens mostly after somebody has left the room. This interaction always happens when he is alone. pg37-38 "After he left, I put on my pajamas and bathrobe and my old hunting hat, and started writing the composition.The thing was, I couldn't think of a room or a house or anything to describe the way Stradlater said he had to have. I'm not too crazy about describing rooms and houses anyway. So what I did, I wrote about my brother Allie's baseball mitt. It was a very descriptive subject. It really was. My brother had this left-handed fielder's mitt. He was left-handed.......He's dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You'd have liked him."

4. What does this motif/symbol tell you about Holden, in a “big picture” way - Does this suggest anything about his personality? His weaknesses or strengths? His sense of himself?

This symbol/motif shows Holden's negative outlook on life. This shows he has a low value of life, and he desperately wishes he lived in a non-realistic one. It shows he is weak and has low self-esteem. pg. 86 "I certainly began to feel like a prize horse's ass, though, sitting there all by myself."

5.Tie it all together: Did any pattern emerge? Pick out other words or ideas used in conjunction with this motif. Look back on your investigation and come up with a single sentence that sums up what you’ve discovered.

Whenever he was lonely he would get these thoughts. Loneliness is the one big word that is used in conjunction with death/kill/die. Holden is somebody that dwells on the past, and can see nothing positive in the future. pg.204 "I think if I ever die, and they stick me in a cemetery, and I have a tombstone and all, it'll say "Holden Caulfield" on it, and then what year I was born and what year I died, and then right under that it'll say "Fuck you". I'm positive, in fact.

**I.** **Introduction** a. Everyone feels lonely at some point in their life. b. Holden uses the death of his brother as a safety blank et because he looks to Allie for guidance. i. Holden is lonely when he is writing Stradlater's composition. pg.38 ii. Holden feels lonely after Sunny leaves his hotel room. pg. 98 iii. He wants to die when he is lonely towards the end of the story. pg. 155

**II.** **Body One-** Holden talks about his brother Allie’s death when he is lonely writing Stradlaters composition. Pg.38

a. He talks about how proud he is of Allie. Pg.38 i. “He was the most intelligent member in the family."

b. He thinks that a story about Allie is better than what Stradlater's essay should really be on. Pg. 41 i. “What the hell’s the difference if it’s about a baseball glove?”

c. He doesn’t even truly know why he used Allie in the composition. Pg. 41 i. “What the hellja do that for? He said. I didn’t even answer him.”

**III. Body Two** **Holden feels lonely after Sunny leaves his hotel room. (pg. 98)** a. Boy, I felt miserable. I felt so depressed, you can’t imagine. What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. (Salinger 98) i. Whenever Holden is sad, upset, or lonely he talks out loud to his deceased brother, Allie.

b. I sat in the chair for a while and smoked a couple of cigarettes. (Salinger 98) i. Something’s like cigarettes are antidepressants that help you take your mind off things, and relax.

c. The trouble was, I just didn’t want to do it. I felt more depressed than sexy, if you want to know the truth. (Salinger 96) i. When Sunny is in his room and ready to get down to business, Holden is to depressed to do so. He makes up a lie saying that he recently had a surgery on his clavichord so that he can get out of it.

**IV.** **Body Three** Holden talks about his own death when he is feeling lonely toward the end of the story. pg. 154

a. Holden talks about how the same people that went to Allie’s funeral would be at his. Pg. 155 i. “They all came when Allie died…”

b. Holden talks about how he doesn’t care about what they do about his body. He considers it worthless. Pg. 155 i. “I hope to hell when I do die somebody has enough to just dump me in the river or something.”

c. He talks about how he hates that once you’re in the cemetery. Pg. 156 i. “All the visitors would get in their cars…..everybody except Allie.”

a. Holden uses the death of his brother as a safety blanket because he looks to Allie for guidance. i. Holden is lonely when he is writing Stradlater's composition. pg.38 1. In the composition he talks about how proud he is of Allie, he also thinks that a story about Allie is better than what Stradlater’s essay should be on. ii. Holden feels lonely after Sunny leaves his hotel room. pg. 98 1. He claims that he felt miserable and really depressed, and than he started talking to Allie. iii. He wants to die when he is lonely towards the end of the story. pg. 155 1. Towards the end of the story he talks about his own death. Holden also states that he doesn’t care what they do with his body, he considers it worthless. iv. The only way that Holden was able to cope with loneliness was thinking about his brother.
 * V. Conclusion**

Everyone feels lonely at one point or another in their life. When ever Holden, the main character in //The Catcher in the Rye//, is lonely he looks to his deceased brother, Allie, for guidance. One good example is that when he is writing Stradlater's composition. Another good example of when he is lonely is when Sunny leaves his hotel room. Lastly, towards the end of the story, he talks about his own death.

When Holden talks about Allie's baseball mitt in the composition he was writing for Stradlater, Holden's roommate at Pencey, he thinks that the composition about Allie's mitt is a lot better, and much more descriptive than a house or building. Stradlater, doesn't like that Holden wrote about Allie's baseball mitt, when he told him to write about a building. While writing this letter Holden was lonely, but thought about Allie positively. "He was the most intelligent member in the family." (Salinger 38) Jane Gallagher is a girl that was from Holden's hometown. Holden must have felt really close to her, because she was one of the few people that saw Allie's baseball mitt with the poems in green pen written all over it.

Since Holden looked really lonely when he was walking up to his hotel room, the elevator operator offered to have a hooker get sent to his room for ten dollars. He agreed. When, Sunny, the hooker goes up to the room, she wants to get it over and done with so that she can leave. "The trouble was, I just didn’t want to do it. I felt more depressed than sexy, if you want to know the truth." (Salinger 98) Holden on the other hand didn't feel comfortable having sex, so he made up this lie that he just recently had surgery on his clavichord. "Boy, I felt miserable. I felt so depressed, you can’t imagine. What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie." (Salinger 98) Holden was so down after having Sunny leave that he started talking to Allie.

When Holden is feeling lonely towards the end of the story he starts talking about his own death. "They all came when Allie died..." (Salinger 155) He is talking about how all of the family and friends came around when Allie passed away, so he feels that they will all be there for him too. Holden states, "All the visitors would get in their cars... everybody except for Allie." (Salinger 156) This shows that he is upset that his brother will not be there morning his death, when he does die. This makes him feel upset because Allie will not be there while everybody else will. You can tell that Holden has no fear of dying, and feels that if he dies it will not matter when he says when he says, "I hope to hell that I do die somebody has enough to just dump me in the river or something," (Salinger 155)

In conclusion, whenever Holden is lonely he looks to his deceased brother, Allie, for guidance. Every time he thinks about Allie is when he feels lonely. He is lonely when writing the composition for Stradlater, he is lonely when Sunny leaves his hotel room and he talks out loud to Allie, and he is also lonely when he thinks about death. The only way that Holden was able to cope with loneliness was thinking about Allie.