In Chapter 16 of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is looking for his sister, Phoebe in a local New York park. He finds a girl tightening her skateboard and so Holden asks if she knows Phoebe. She says that she might be at the "museum with the Indians". The only thing is, it's a Sunday. The muesum is closed on Sundays. Knowing that he won't be able to find his sister Holden decides to do what he has been doing for the past couple of chapters. Walk around with what seems like no purpose. He thinks about how The Museum of Natural History looked when he was a child. The thing that's interesting to me is that he goes on a rant about this place. He talks about all the things that it contained like, Columbus and the Spainards, indians, guards of the museum, and even eskimos. When I say rant, I mean a complete obesssion with the museum. He talks about this muesum for almost three pages straight with no indentions. No indentions meaning the whole thing is just one huge paragraph. Throughout the book it's been interesting to see and point out where Holden talks about what's going on in his world and then how he switches it to a topic that doesn't matter to the actual plot. He goes into such detail about each of his past experiences that don't really contribute to the story. I'm curious as to what y'all think about this. Why do you think Holden tends to go on these seemingly endless rants over somtimes very meaningless ideas? Do you think they possibly contribute to the story, if so why?
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Museum Obsession
By: Rhett Cardwell
In Chapter 16 of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is looking for his sister, Phoebe in a local New York park. He finds a girl tightening her skateboard and so Holden asks if she knows Phoebe. She says that she might be at the "museum with the Indians". The only thing is, it's a Sunday. The muesum is closed on Sundays. Knowing that he won't be able to find his sister Holden decides to do what he has been doing for the past couple of chapters. Walk around with what seems like no purpose. He thinks about how The Museum of Natural History looked when he was a child. The thing that's interesting to me is that he goes on a rant about this place. He talks about all the things that it contained like, Columbus and the Spainards, indians, guards of the museum, and even eskimos. When I say rant, I mean a complete obesssion with the museum. He talks about this muesum for almost three pages straight with no indentions. No indentions meaning the whole thing is just one huge paragraph. Throughout the book it's been interesting to see and point out where Holden talks about what's going on in his world and then how he switches it to a topic that doesn't matter to the actual plot. He goes into such detail about each of his past experiences that don't really contribute to the story. I'm curious as to what y'all think about this. Why do you think Holden tends to go on these seemingly endless rants over somtimes very meaningless ideas? Do you think they possibly contribute to the story, if so why?
New York City Muesum of Natural History!
In Chapter 16 of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is looking for his sister, Phoebe in a local New York park. He finds a girl tightening her skateboard and so Holden asks if she knows Phoebe. She says that she might be at the "museum with the Indians". The only thing is, it's a Sunday. The muesum is closed on Sundays. Knowing that he won't be able to find his sister Holden decides to do what he has been doing for the past couple of chapters. Walk around with what seems like no purpose. He thinks about how The Museum of Natural History looked when he was a child. The thing that's interesting to me is that he goes on a rant about this place. He talks about all the things that it contained like, Columbus and the Spainards, indians, guards of the museum, and even eskimos. When I say rant, I mean a complete obesssion with the museum. He talks about this muesum for almost three pages straight with no indentions. No indentions meaning the whole thing is just one huge paragraph. Throughout the book it's been interesting to see and point out where Holden talks about what's going on in his world and then how he switches it to a topic that doesn't matter to the actual plot. He goes into such detail about each of his past experiences that don't really contribute to the story. I'm curious as to what y'all think about this. Why do you think Holden tends to go on these seemingly endless rants over somtimes very meaningless ideas? Do you think they possibly contribute to the story, if so why?
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Good point Rhett, I sort of talked about this same idea in my blog post about Holden having some form of mental problem. I am not sure if these endless rants really contribute to the story but they do show something about the true Holden. Since he is always stating that the world is funny, it is ironic since he talks about the "fake" statues so much during this chapter. This speech about the museum also helps set the stage for later events in the story which may be another reason Salinger included this rant. Also, Holden does seem to get off topic quite a lot during the last few chapters which could be signs of anxiety or nervousness. Overall, even though J.D. doesn't directly tell the reader the exact reasons for including this off topic rants, there must be an underlying cause for Holden's abrupt diversions from the story.
ReplyDeleteGood catch Rhetters. I think his rants on pointless topics is what we talked about in class with memory association. I think this is just how Holden's brain functions. And if I remember right in class I thought I heard Ms.Fleming say thats how some people who are insane think. But, I might be making that up :/. I think they also contribute to the story because they kinda remind us that he is retelling us this story.
ReplyDeleteGreat job big Rhett.
I think this is a very good point! I personally believe that Holden's rants contribute to the story in two major ways: they portray his obsession with childhood/children and build Holden's voice. I think they help us see that he isn't as depressed as we may think, he is able to remember happy times or be brought joy from a little idea.
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