English II ~ In Class Writing Catcher in the Rye Blog

John Wu

1. Holden is a boy struggling with his sudden movement away from innocence and being thrown in this environment where he realizes all the horrible phoniness of the world in everyone including himself, except the young children not aware of it yet. He struggles with his sexual feelings, and basically being unable to understand where he is and should go in his life. As such he really values the innocence and wishes to preserve it as best as he could effectively become the “catcher in the rye”, However later in the story he begins to realize that this is something impossible to do as he is surrounded by all the “fuck yous” he can't erase. In the end he ends up with a psychiatrist for treatment.
2. As mentioned before for this symbolism I will be focusing on the fuck you’s he’s surrounded by nearing the end of the book. At this point in the story Holden has finally entered the school to deliver a final message to his younger sister, Phoebe. However Within the school, a symbol itself of a sacred area for the children to enjoy their innocence before it is taken away from them, he see’s “fuck you” written on the wall. Knowing children, or at least children nowadays, that’s probably something written by a child. However since the “fuck you” represents an impurity,  something that doesn’t belong in innocence he believes that as a representation of a teenage life or adult life coming in to take their innocence.  The fact that it could have been written by a child much more than an adult symbolizes that there will always be a time where they reach this point of maturing where they lose their innocence however it is not as clear cut to be cut off at age and differs between person and person. However, the second thing is that Holden struggles to erase it at first thinking of his own reputation and stuff, he even claims himself to be unable to have the guts to stop this person from doing this showing how hard it is to actually stop all these “impurities” from reaching the “innocence” and the fact that there will always be a time in which it happens, Shortly after he erases it there is a new fuck you carved in showing that some of these can be removed and stuff to preserve innocence but generally the idea that he can't help preserve the innocence someone who has already lost his innocence and that there are just some “impurities” that are unremovable. Finally he is surrounded by these fuck yous realizing that his dream of being the catcher is impossible since there's just too much “impurities”.
3. This basically highlights everything that Holden has seemed to experience through mainly the deaths of his most caring brothers. Or at least the ones he can connect with the most. In the story this sets up his behavior of avoiding others and being unable to build connections resulting in isolation however in the story he’s been expressing this mindset in that the only people he’s told stuff to and the one he’s most open to dies and just leaves him, he even feels it's unfair if he’s in heaven that he should be on earth instead. So his philosophy was that if you don't open yourself up to others you’ll never get hurt and I believe this just showcases his now understanding of that and how it could be wrong.
4. Quote: “Every time I'd get to the end of a block I'd make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I'd say to him, "Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Please, Allie." And then when I'd reach the other side of the street without disappearing, I'd thank him. Then it would start all over again as soon as I got to the next corner. But I kept going and all. I was sort of afraid to stop, I think--I don't remember, to tell you the truth. I know I didn't stop till I was way up in the Sixties, past the zoo and all.” (106)

Response:

I feel like this moment is symbolic or some sort of foreshadowing of a possible character change in holden in that after meeting with antolini and phoebe and other people constantly pushing him to confront his future life, He’s finally wanting to move forward despite being really scared. He’s realizing what could happen if he keeps doing nothing which is that he’ll be nothing, he won't be worth anything, or do anything, or be anything. So as he’s moving forward he’s afraid of making a wrong move or stopping and being unable to move, but his brother Allie representing  his companions he’s confronted helps him move forward.