Reaction to Catcher in the Rye

I must say that I was very pleased with this book, although I am majorly biased to a good piece of suspenseful writing. I think that Salinger's real tribute in that book was not in fact the book itself, but the uncanny ability he has to submerge into another character. It's almost as if to write the darn story, he lived it out scrupulously writing down every notable detail along the way. When reading, I felt (and I feel like many other people felt like this too) I knew Holden Caulfield personally. Red hunting hat, handsomely face, and sullen, lying profile and all.

I have to admit that it was still a decent novel, with some well-written and interesting quirks, but I just simply want to state that, that is not what made to novel remarkably. I'll remember back fondly at reading the book, and as a matter of fact I count on re-reading it one day again, but not for the story. Instead I'll read it for general effect, and puzzlement that I get from the main character--Holden Caulfield.

Holden Schmolden

It is important to understand, to me, that being a teen should never be completely generalized. the transitional period between being a child and an adult was only created recently enough. I think that the amount of attention that's been brought to light on this period has also caused a subsequent blow up in importance on the age. As a teenager myself I cannot relate completely to these characters like Holden Caulfield or Jim Stark because they share a philosophy on life that is entirely different to mine. Yes I am a teenager as well, and I do share some of the same thoughts as them, but it is simply blasphemous to tell me that because of my age I am like them. Some adults act more like what we assume teenagers to act like, then teenagers themselves.
Nonetheless, in terms of portraying a well rounded and intriguing kind of character I must say that the movies as well as J.D Salinger have both done a good job, but I simply do not think that anyone would be able to depict modern 'teenagehood' because that term should not exist.

Morphin' Orphans

In the movie 'the Orphanage' by Juan Antonio Bayona, childhood is depicted as being somewhere between the pure and innocent standard and the underestimatedly knowledgeable categories. Either they are trying to play with each other, or they are trying reveal deep hidden secrets that the adults are blind to. And maybe that's the magic with children, is that they've not yet experienced so much in life that they are free to see everything while not necessarily noticing everything. This was a key principle that I felt was emulated in the four stories we had read. In the story 'Bottle Caps' by Stuart Dybek, he tries to show that kids see more than meets the eye, by using the bottle caps as little bug graves. In 'Every Little Huricane' by Sherman Alexie, the kid escapes the fierce reality on his Native American reserve by dreaming and imagining everything around him in the form of storms. In  "The Sutton Pie Safe" by Pickney Benedict, the kid does realize everything that's happening around him and shows his distaste by refusing the snake skin belt that his father offered him. These books all show the children as being in a position to see everything in their stories, but they also all show different ways that the children interpret what they see, like in the movie. I think that it is a very accurate representation of what childhood is like, although it does lead me to wonder what the effect would come off as if they were able to completely understand what they notice.

I lie

New Jersey, 2000, sometime along my 7th year of birth, i did the unthinkable. I lied. It was most likely not my first lie, nor would it be my last. The act of it was as unremarkable as watching paint dry, but like drying paint it was the after-effect that was really important.
It had been a hot day in August, right before my birthday on the 24th. The ice cream truck made reagular stops in my block, because of our ideal placement next to the elementary school. On average it would come by 3 times a day. My parents would always give me money for when the ice-cream truck came by, but I only got one ice-cream a day. That day I had already had my first one, but it had gone by too quickly. I was still wanting for more.
A friend of mine had not finished his, but it was chocolate and I don't like chocolate ice-cream. We thought and thought of ways for me to make money to get some more ice-cream later. Mowing lawns was out of the question at our age, we were too small. We tried selling drawings to passerbies for a buck a peice, but we had no luck there either. (I mean who wants to pay that for a 7 year old's drawing anyway) So with my friend's ice cream sitting in his freezer waiting for the next time, we decided that I could go up to my parents tell them that I had taken the wrong one, and ask them for more money.
It worked.
That was my first memorable moment of lying, and in effect growing up. To me with age comes the loss of honesty, and lying. We need to lie to get alond with our lives in a more efficient and productive fashion. At 7 I had realized how not telling the truth can, and most of the time will get you what you want.

Identity

My name is Sisco Hollard,
Descendant from the Lollards,
The coolest kid in town,
The only one that's brown,
Wisconsin's where I'm at,
Food and beer until you're fat,
But I don't drink that's just for fools,
Instead I spend my time at school.
-Word.