Question 2b
“If a body catch a body coming through the rye.” The lyrics that the little boy sang were incorrect, but there’s so much content within the text. The song Comin’ thro the Rye, is portrayed around a girl, Jenny dragging her petticoat in the rye. I get a feeling that she is carrying her struggles and trying to set herself free. But the boy’s lyrics show that another person will catch another when they fall. It implies emotional support when someone is at the lowest point of in their life. It represents protection and comfort. Holden struggles so much with himself and the world. He feels suffocated with a world full of phony people. He hates disappointment and it hurts him even more when he disappoints the people he cares about. As soon, as he enters the city, he creates a list of people he can possibly talk to. He slowly crosses people off the list, and realizes that there’s no one. Then, he checks into a hotel all by himself and witness the evil part of the world where people spit cocktails at each other, and prostitution. It shows in the book that Holden has a soft spot for children. He doesn’t want them to witness the world as he does, and he wants to preserve their carefree childhood by being “the catcher in the rye.” He wants to shield them from the world’s hard, cold truths. To him kids are the most refreshing human beings. They will never be his definition of phony. They’re so oblivious to reality and have never been exposed to sex and mone
I strongly agree with your ideas about this topic. The original song is about a girl who is dragging her burdens, but the boy sang the lyrics of the song incorrectly. However, the boy singing the lyrics “If a body catch a body coming through the rye” gave Holden the idea of becoming the “catcher in the rye.” This can be seen later in the novel, when Holden tells Phoebe about his dreams for his future. The young singing boy inspired Holden to want to become a catcher in the rye. I think that the rye represents the child world, and the end of the cliff represents the entrance to the adult world. He obviously wants to preserve the child-like innocence of the children. I also liked how you referred to the list of people Holden made as he entered the city. It really emphasized how lonely Holden was, and how he had nobody to turn to.
답글삭제I agree that there was deep meaning in the short poem the young boy sang. I think that Holden didn’t feel as depressed because he saw that the innocence of the children was still there. Although the outside world was corrupted with materialism and sex, he saw the child staying innocent. This also showed how Holden loved the children for their purity. I also agree on how he wanted to be the catcher in the rye. Holden didn’t want children to experience the world he had already been exposed to. Your idea about Jenny dragging her petticoat in the rye was new to me. I also think that she was “trying to set herself free.” Maybe Holden wanted to let go of his past that had changed him, and wanted to start a new life. He wanted to go and start a new life in the farm, where he could stay away from all the troubles. However, like you said, he felt suffocated from all the phony people and couldn’t escape. (171 words)
답글삭제I disagree with what you said about the emotional support with Holden being the catcher in the rye. While you think that Holden catching the children shows people giving others emotional support when they’re about to hit the bottom by running off the edge. I think that Holden being the catcher in the rye is Holden keeping the kids on the cliff of innocence, and if they run of the cliff, which should happen at one point or another, they should be able to. However, Holden wants to shield the children from the outside world and sex, so he keeps them on the cliff of innocence.
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