Uni High is a school in Urbana, Illinois. You probably haven't heard about it. Maybe you've seen the fundraisers and probably have seen the giant thermometer, anyway. It shows up in a bunch of magazines, called a "public elite" school by Newsweek because of our high scores on some tests. It's apparently notable for for producing Nobel laureates and a Pulitzer prize winner, but I don't know them. Maybe three guys, if that many. They probably already came to Uni that way.
I really like the way Holden describes things, because it comes off as really sincere. Whenever he remembers something, he always adds on the new information like a close friend telling a story. At the same time, the character himself always seems very real because of the way he acts and the mistakes he makes. While what he's going through may not exactly be relatable for me, the way it's presented puts me a lot deeper into the story.
Before reading the book, just from the title I never thought it would be interesting. I mean, what does "The Catcher in the Rye" even mean? It didn't really seem super intriguing or anything. The title is probably down there in terms of interesting-ness with The Scarlet Letter, and if I've learned anything from that I shouldn't have high expectations. I literally would judge books by their covers and this book was just not colorful enough. At this point, though, having read a good amount of it I'm having a hard time stopping at the assigned points just because I need to find out what's happening next, which I rarely feel while doing these english reading assignments.
Holden's perspective is really refreshing and open and a nice change of pace from Stephen's in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. At the same time though, they really undergo a lot of the same problems but their approaches are different because of their respective backgrounds. For example, their encounters with women/prostitutes. Holden is able to Holden his desires (getit) while Stephen succumbs and it slowly eats away at his mental state. We never get an actual reason as to why Holden didn't end up doing the deed besides that he felt sad after hanging up her dress or just felt bad for her in general.
Anyway, I'm enjoying the book. I really am. I'm curious to see what the rest of it has to offer.
Wow, you did a really good job of capturing his style in that first passage. Reading it gave new perspective on this narrative format because the content was familiar (uni). IT was able to isolate some of the techniques very well. This includes the interesting bouncing around of points and unique viewpoint and constant skepticism. This also makes me appreciate how me might not always give us the whole picture (this description of uni is not ideal for introducing the shool).
ReplyDeleteBy reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man first, I believe Holden is put into a better light. The way he cares for his family, how he is able to suppress his sexual desires (even thought he initially didn't have them), and other situations throughout the book. It just makes Holden seem like a more respectable protagonist than Stephen.
ReplyDeleteNailed that first section, and yeah, I too like his descriptions of things. Going through the book, at each point his descriptions allow the reader to pull up a solid image of what he is describing. For me, it was Allie's baseball glove. Starting out with the overarching idea, in this case baseball, and then adding details from there really helps out. His train of thought in the book matched one that somebody could have in real life and helped bring out his character.
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