Throughout nearly everyones’ life, particularly during adolescence, there comes a time when one longs to discover their identity and purpose. This search for meaning and identity is a universal issue that crosses the boarders of class and social status, culture, race, and gender. Whether we are aware of it or not, everyone is connected by this will to understand their relevance in life. In a popular, classic novel, The Catcher In The Rye, by J.D. Salinger, this urge to discover identity is portrayed through the struggles of fictional character, Holden Caulfield. Salinger writes about Holden’s life following his expulsion from a prestigious prepatory school, Pencey Academy.
After a brief, yet captivating introduction, the plot unfolds during one frigid Saturday before Holden is forced to leave this upscale boarding school that has become his home. After a visit with a disappointed history teacher, Mr. Spencer, Holden becomes embarrassed and ashamed of his less than savory behavior. He becomes overwhelmed with the feeling of self-loathing. The disappointment his teacher and mentor, Mr. Spencer expresses causes shines a light on Holden’s shortcomings and failures that he brought upon himself.
Later that night, Holden is overcome by a strong desire to leave the academy. This desire is essentially triggered by his unhygienic neighbor and hot-shot roommate, Stradlater. Holden refuses to stay his last couple nights in the same dormitory as Stradlater. As a result, Holden decides to leave the academy early and stay at the Edmont Hotel in New York City, in an effort to avoid facing his family and revealing his failures as a student. Within the next two days, he becomes involved in wreckless and thoughtless behavior. He meets with less than savory people from his past. The journey that follows and the compromising situations he places himself in, soon leads him home to reunite with his younger sister, Phoebe.
During this journey of self discovery, I found Holden’s psychological state fascinating. yet incredibly depressing. Salinger’s portrayal of the teenage psyche creates a timeless versatility
that many teenagers today can relate to. This book has an element of emotional ups and downs. Holden encounters phases of depression, nervous breakdowns, irrational and erotic behavior, in addition to compulsive and out of control spending.
Salinger’s novel enables modern day teenagers to relate their personal issues to those of Holden. For example, Holden believes he is an extremely perceptive individual, which in reality he is anything but perceptive. He fails to realize his judgmental traits and lapse in perception by constantly finding flaws in others, but never recognizing his own shortcomings. Holden’s juvenile and naive behavior is characteristic of many young people today. Often it is easier for one to place judgment on others and neglect identifying and correcting their own flaws.
Clearly, Salinger has a strong understanding of the universal issue that often face many teenagers. He thoughtfully demonstrates these issues through the demise of Holden’s life. The novel is a timeless classic that has the ability to teach young people life’s values. Salinger’s message is sent to the reader through many interesting metaphors. While, his main points may be difficult to identify, they are important and of great value to those who are struggle with issues of identity, self-worth, and meaning in life.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Blog About Death of a Salesman
Throughout Arthur Miller’s novel, Death of a Salesman, are many profound subtexts. For this week’s blog entry, I am going to take an analytical approach on a few of these subtexts that I came across during the plot's progression. I am also going to take some partial focus on Willy’s psychological function that seemed to have some correlation with these subtexts.
When first reading the play, the author starts to describe the setting of the Lomans’ house. When this house was first bought, we can infer the surrounding area was all open space, containing potential to be anything, such as Willy’s dreams when he was younger. Notice how the author describes the house to be presently hemmed in by apartment buildings on all sides, where sunlight probably doesn’t touch often. Now that the house is besieged by apartment buildings, coincidentally, so are Willy’s dreams. Although there are a few silver linings and rays of sunlight, with the passing of time, the play’s gloomy outcome proves it to be a little too late for Willy to start over and so to speak, break through those apartment buildings. Even the movie depicts the house itself to look as though it aged too drastically to make any room for improvement. Also notice, how later on, when we find Willy talking to his wife Linda about how they should to the country, towards more open space. In other words, he subconsciously wanted to move on to find more potential.
While on the subject of Willy’s dreams, I’ve found that he is probably a better dreamer then a salesman. He doesn’t exactly dream of selling big, either. At least not directly. Willy thinks that being “well-liked” has some positive correlation to success because he demonstrates a constant trend to shoot after a good reputation then actual success in his business through fidelity. But, do you ever find out what Willy exactly sells, or even the name of The Woman? No, because Willy finds these details irrelevant. Willy uses the woman as a tool to feel “well-liked” because she regards herself as a means for Willy to get buyers more efficiently.
In addition, because of his presently somber situation, his “episodes” function as an escape from his current distress. However, his flashbacks don’t truly illustrate the past because he seems to edit his past and look for his mistakes regarding his relationship with Biff and trying to figure out how exactly Biff ruined his future. As for Biff, his father never gives him the discipline that every parent should give their child. While he continues to contradict himself about Biff’s laziness (meanwhile he asks Linda why he is “always being contradicted”), he showers Biff with praise about his natural talent for football. I would guess that the reason psychologically for that is, that Willy probably just didn’t want to hurt Biff’s ego because of how insecure he is himself, and just wanted his son to like him. Willy also seemed to thrive and function off of Biff’s high school success and popularity through affiliation.
Currently, we find Willy now trying to reiterate his dreams through his son, contradicting Biff’s real ambitions and natural inclinations. Biff wants to be nothing like his father, and would be happier outside of the city working in a ranch out in the west. Even so, you find that Willy’s wistful fantasy of living in Alaska shows he chose the wrong profession anyway. He also compared the professional and private aspects of his life with those people of false prosperity. Ben’s success was merely a blind stroke of luck while he completely missed the fact that Singleman was still working until the age of 84 and died on the job. His funeral was also accompanied by the people who just happened to be there while he died.
In summary, Willy just falls to notice anything. He is too old to start over. He can’t possibly become an overnight success, and neither can his son. Meanwhile, his other son’s success, Happy, is barely taken note of. Instead of looking at his family’s reputation, he should of looked at the bigger picture, that being, what the future held for the family. Instead of worrying about everyone else, he should of diverted that amount of attention towards his family. Willy failed to see the love Linda and his son’s held for him. He failed to be able to draw he line between himself as a salesman and himself as a husband/father.
When first reading the play, the author starts to describe the setting of the Lomans’ house. When this house was first bought, we can infer the surrounding area was all open space, containing potential to be anything, such as Willy’s dreams when he was younger. Notice how the author describes the house to be presently hemmed in by apartment buildings on all sides, where sunlight probably doesn’t touch often. Now that the house is besieged by apartment buildings, coincidentally, so are Willy’s dreams. Although there are a few silver linings and rays of sunlight, with the passing of time, the play’s gloomy outcome proves it to be a little too late for Willy to start over and so to speak, break through those apartment buildings. Even the movie depicts the house itself to look as though it aged too drastically to make any room for improvement. Also notice, how later on, when we find Willy talking to his wife Linda about how they should to the country, towards more open space. In other words, he subconsciously wanted to move on to find more potential.
While on the subject of Willy’s dreams, I’ve found that he is probably a better dreamer then a salesman. He doesn’t exactly dream of selling big, either. At least not directly. Willy thinks that being “well-liked” has some positive correlation to success because he demonstrates a constant trend to shoot after a good reputation then actual success in his business through fidelity. But, do you ever find out what Willy exactly sells, or even the name of The Woman? No, because Willy finds these details irrelevant. Willy uses the woman as a tool to feel “well-liked” because she regards herself as a means for Willy to get buyers more efficiently.
In addition, because of his presently somber situation, his “episodes” function as an escape from his current distress. However, his flashbacks don’t truly illustrate the past because he seems to edit his past and look for his mistakes regarding his relationship with Biff and trying to figure out how exactly Biff ruined his future. As for Biff, his father never gives him the discipline that every parent should give their child. While he continues to contradict himself about Biff’s laziness (meanwhile he asks Linda why he is “always being contradicted”), he showers Biff with praise about his natural talent for football. I would guess that the reason psychologically for that is, that Willy probably just didn’t want to hurt Biff’s ego because of how insecure he is himself, and just wanted his son to like him. Willy also seemed to thrive and function off of Biff’s high school success and popularity through affiliation.
Currently, we find Willy now trying to reiterate his dreams through his son, contradicting Biff’s real ambitions and natural inclinations. Biff wants to be nothing like his father, and would be happier outside of the city working in a ranch out in the west. Even so, you find that Willy’s wistful fantasy of living in Alaska shows he chose the wrong profession anyway. He also compared the professional and private aspects of his life with those people of false prosperity. Ben’s success was merely a blind stroke of luck while he completely missed the fact that Singleman was still working until the age of 84 and died on the job. His funeral was also accompanied by the people who just happened to be there while he died.
In summary, Willy just falls to notice anything. He is too old to start over. He can’t possibly become an overnight success, and neither can his son. Meanwhile, his other son’s success, Happy, is barely taken note of. Instead of looking at his family’s reputation, he should of looked at the bigger picture, that being, what the future held for the family. Instead of worrying about everyone else, he should of diverted that amount of attention towards his family. Willy failed to see the love Linda and his son’s held for him. He failed to be able to draw he line between himself as a salesman and himself as a husband/father.
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