Pg 173- "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around-nobody big, I mean-except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff- I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all."
When asked what he would like to be some day, that was Holden's response. I found it very interesting. I interpret the response in that he wants to save little kids lives all the time in the future. He wants to help protect little kids from "jumping off the cliff". I believe that jumping off the cliff means headed in the wrong direction in life. Holden knows that he is going no where in the future, and I believe that he wants to make sure other kids don't follow in his footsteps. Do I see this happening? NEVER. Holden can't even control his own life, and so I don't believe he would be able to help others. He is no catcher in the rye.
I really like you're interpretation of his "dream job" it never occurred to my mind that way. But I think you're wrong about the fact that he could never help kids and keep them from following in his footsteps. A lot of people with crappy, messed-up, lazy, reckless backgrounds and childhoods grow up to be completely respectable adults and many of them choose to help children that make the same mistakes. Alcoholics who help others get clean through AA for example, or slackers who go to college and become doctors. It may not always happen often but it does happen. I don’t think it is totally impossible for Holden to be one of these people at all, in fact I think realizing that he wants to help people is half the battle.
ReplyDeleteYeah when I read this I had to re-read it because it didn't make sense to me at first. One how can this be a job... like Kunkle was saying in class why would there be a play ground near a cliff with no fence haha... and two what would make him say this. When we got to the end of the book we took note how he never says he hates any little kid that he encounters, so could this just be a reflection towards Allie too?? I liked your take on this a lot, it makes sense. Because I think that in the end he realizes how messed up he made his life and now he wants to change that, and get back some of that innocence...
ReplyDeleteBrett why do you have a picture of Favre?
I think that your interpertation of this "job" is really good. I agree that it probably means that he wants to catch kids from following his footsteps. When I read this I thought that he knows that he has made mistakes in his life and has messed up, and he wants to make sure others don't do the same. I also agree that it doesn't look so good for Holden to actually make this happen. Maybe when he goes home at the end of the book he gets help and turns his life around.
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