My Last Duchess

Holden did show some sort of affection it ended up disastrous for him. “I don’t feel very much like myself. I’ll pay you and all, but do you mind very much if we don’t do it?{...}He snapped his finger very hard on my pajamas. Then he smacked me. All I felt was this terrific punch in my stomach” (Salinger). Holden calls a prostitute to his hotel but not to have sex but to talk. He seeks companionship and calls her because he knows she's guaranteed to come. This ended negatively for Holden when…

In J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, almost everything Holden encounters he refers to as phony. He does not like anything fake, especially when people act like something they are really not. Holden is so confused about the phoniness that he fails to realize that he himself is just as guilty of being phony as everyone else around him. Holden desires someone to care about, but his constant lookout for phoniness in people makes it hard for him to make any sort of connection. In a world…

My book is called Bystander. It follows the life of a young boy named Eric who is new to Bellport, Long Island. As a seventh grader it is scary to move to a new school, especially if you do not know anybody going into it. Early in the book, he becomes “friends” with the school bully and his followers. This however was a big mistake. He gets himself into uncomfortable positions where he has to decide to stand up to Griffin (the bully) or stand behind him. My presentation took place on October…

Out of This Place by Emma Cameron lets the reader see the inside story of three teenagers, all whom deal with many different hardships, and how they find themselves and try to reach their dreams. Luke spends his days outside of school at the beach and working, wondering what else in life there is to do and live for. Casey longs to get away from home under the grasp of her overprotective father who will not let Casey experience life. The teens are ready to find a new life and find new a place…

It is often said that ignorance is bliss. No members of society live more blissful and ignorant lives than children. They live unaware of evil in the world and free from the judgement of others. During childhood, kids exist in almost a separate world, where they are able to be truly genuine people. Holden Caulfield of J.D Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye persistently fantasizes about the freedom of childhood. Holden thinks highly of children and praises how sincere they are. Holden also feels…

A Futile World; Existentialism and The Catcher in the Rye The United States has adopted and developed thousands of ways of thinking in its short amount of time as a country. Amongst this numerous ideologies is existentialism, a paradigm most present in the 1940s through 60s that took its strongest hold around World War II. The war brought a new thought to the people: one could be responsible for his or her own experience in life. With this thought people began exploring the idea of existence…

Although Ben starts off as an insecure teenager, after meeting Mrs.Carver, he gains confidence in who he is and realizes that there’s more to him than his scars. In the beginning of Scars by Sarah Beth Martin, it is clear that Ben’s lack of confidence affects the way he acts around people, even those he is familiar with. “Even those who saw him everyday stared”(1). Constantly being stared at because of his scars, causes Ben to feel insecure about the way that he looks and has led him to fixate…

J.D. Salinger writes conversationally in Catcher In The Rye, he often makes use of technically incorrect grammar and untraditional punctuation, such as dashes. In this work I attempted to mimic Holden's style but not his character necessarily. The allusion to The Royal Tennenbaums reflects Holden’s tendency to reference outside works, though Holden would never use a film as a positive comparison due to his hatred of hollywood. A symptom of Salinger’s stream of consciousness style is Holden’s…

In the short story "Greasy Lake" by T. Coraghessan Boyle, the narrator uses first person point of view to convey how "bad" he and his friends were when they were just out of high school. The author chooses this point of view to illustrate to readers that pretending to be someone that you aren't, could affect your judgment and leave you facing major consequences. The rebellious teenagers acted as to rebels that were dangerous, wearing leather jackets, drinking gin, reading provocative literature,…

«Catcher in the rye had a profound impact on me – the idea that we all have lots of dreams that are slowly being chipped away as we grow up.»- Judd Nelson. The Catcher in the Rye is a captivating and astonishing novel written by J.D. Salinger in 1951. In the first few chapters, readers know that Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, is writting this book from the mental institution about his three life-changing days spent in New York after he was expelled from an elite private high school, Pencey…