Ashley Singleton
Blog option one:
The author of this
article uses a simple discussion to trigger something within the reader. This
author uses an everyday problem of the rattling noise in her car to express the
“rattles” that we all face. The author compares her car rattle to “a thorn in
your side that others can’t see or detect that you’re told to get over.” To me,
a rattle is a self-battle, in which case, Holden has many rattles. “He’s dead
now. He died of Leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946.”
This is one of Holden’s rattles. The death of his brother Allie and the pain
that comes along with it. Holden finds peace in the presence of Allies old
baseball mitt and the positive memories that come along with it. We all have
our own rattles, and some may be louder than others. We must learn to find our
baseball mitt, for our rattles may never be silenced.
Ashley,
ReplyDeleteThank you for writing. I enjoy the last line of your blog post here, as it allows me to strongly consider a new idea regarding Catcher in the Rye. Could you elaborate further on the last line that discusses finding our own baseball mitt in life? How do you think the baseball mitt correlates with the idea of the rattle? To add on to this, how does the red hat in the novel tie into this conversation as well? Thank you for writing!
Thank you for your comment. As we have learned in the novel the baseball mitt that was once Allies is a very special symbol to Holden. I believe the presence of the baseball mitt gives Holden some peace and provides him with positive flashbacks of his brother. When stating that we all need to find our baseball mitt I am attempting to tell the reader to find what calms there rattle just as the baseball mitt does to Holden The red hat that we have seen glimpses of during our readings I believe calms Holden. We notice on page 37 Holden puts on the hat before attempting to do Stradlater's paper. This allows me to infer that it calms Holden and connects him with his softer more sensitive side. Holden does have many rattles however Holden can tame them through the presence of the baseball mitt as well as the red hat.
DeleteI appreciated your response because it made me think about my rattles in my own life and what I am doing to "silence" them. It made me consider "I wrote about my brother Allie's baseball mitt. It was a very descriptive subject." I think this shows another side of Holden's rattle that you were talking about. I think this shows Holden's personality and how he keeps things inside. What do you think this shows about his personality?
ReplyDeleteThe last sentence you wrote was very poetic. I like it. Also, the book is leading up to more with Allie's death and Holden introducing himself as being the only stupid one in the family. Holden is leading up to a theme of self-worth. He views his family as being worthier than him, which is leading up to most of his pain.
ReplyDeleteI was interested in your response because I liked how you said that everyone has their own rattles they are trying to battle and that some are bigger than others. I think when Holden describes his brother, it allows the reader to believe that Holden is more sentimental than he lets on, especially when he says that he still has his brothers baseball mitt. As you said, Holden has kept the baseball mitt as a reminder of his brother in order to remember the person his brother was. Do you think this sentimentality will continue to show up throughout the book?
ReplyDelete