Bruce Jay Friedman

“The Catcher in the Rye” is often celebrated as one of the most influential, yet controversial, books of all time. First published in 1951, Salinger’s depiction of Holden Caulfield reflected the reality faced by America’s youth in 1950s America, giving out-of-place misfits a character to identify with. Despite his following, Holden’s flaws are hard to deny. He freely expresses to the reader his judgements on those around him, often viewing the world with a cynical outlook. One of the only…

The third layer primarily deals with the construction of identity based on gender and sexual preference, and is closely related to Quentin Crisp, whose character is of enormous relevance to the art piece’s message despite the fact that he only appears explicitly in the music video. Having already made the acquaintance of Crisp in 1985 during the filming of The Bride, Sting and he met several times in New York over the course of the production of “… Nothing like the sun” (Erwe 2011). One really…

“That’s where you came in. To take words like “Asian” and “American” and race and nation and..and mess them up so badly that no one even knows what they mean anymore because that was Dad’s dream. A world where he can be Jimmy Stewart and a white guy can even be an Asian.” (Hwang 68-69). “Passing”, according to Harvard professor, Randall Kennedy, is the “deception that enables a person to adopt certain roles or identities from which he would be barred by prevailing social standards” (Kennedy 1).…

D. Holden’s Journey from Pennsylvania to New York: From Adolescence to Adulthood Holden stays three days in the New York City and meets different people and as an urban picaro he is challenged by a forcible environment of a metropolitan. This metropolitan has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial center of the world and stays for competition, capitalism, commerce and everything else that Holden hates. At the time he arrives to the city Holden is neither a…

Throughout the ages, we have seen that a symbol in literature can suggest more than its average run of the mill meaning. In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” she uses several different symbols for their realistic and symbolic meanings. On the realistic level, each symbol sets as a part and that has its own place in the story but represents a hidden thought or idea upon closer inspection. She uses symbolism for these items in the story to create a sense of foreshadowing and to create some…

Hussein Nishah once said, “Treat people the way you want to be treated. Talk to people the way you want to be talked to. Respect is Earned, Not Given.” When a person treats another person unfairly they, that person is not thinking about what would happen if they were in the opposite place. In the story “The Stolen Party” by Liliana Heker the main character Rosaura is treated unfairly, she is deceived by the person who she trusted at the party. In the poem “Borders” the main character Ana Maria…

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about American life is achieving the “American Dream”. The very thought of living a life of freedom in lifestyle choice, economic opportunity, and political engagement, drove many immigrants to this country. E.L Doctorow explores this phenomenon in his novel, Ragtime. Although he speaks almost explicitly about achieving the American dream, what he does not say is almost as important. The American Dream is not achievable for African Americans, or…

Greedy Individuals: Hermann and Ivan Ilyich One of the evils of society is greed. Greed becomes a famous theme in many works due to the fact that it gives readers a glimpse of reality, rather than fairytales and romances. However, authors such as Alexander Pushkin and Leo Tolstoy used the theme of greed to expose humans in their materialistic nature. According to Money and Mad Ambition: Economies of Russian Literature by Jillian Elizabeth Porter “traditionally conceived as a sharply negative…

Desiree’s Baby is a short story written by Kate Chopin. In the story there are a man named Armand that believed to be a white man. One day Monsieur Valmonde found a abandoned baby whom he raised. She was courted by the son of another wealthy family named Armand. They marry and have a child. When the people see the baby they have the sense that it is different and they realize that the baby’s skin is the color of one-quarter African. Armand immediately assumes that his wife is part black so she…

Character- Charlie from The Perks of being a Wallflower Charlie is one of my favorite characters because I find his personality to be relatable to my own. Charlie didn't have any friends until he met Sam and patrick. Charlie wanted friends so badly that he would do almost anything to get them, he wouldn't even raise his hand when he knew the answer to a question because he didn't want to be made fun of. When he made friends wih sam and Patrick he started to open up and come out of his shell.…