Letters to Holden.

Hey Holden,

I connected with ya bud, even if it was in the most intangible way. I didn’t have a dead brother, nor did i attend a boarding school – although mine does have some big douches and “phonies”, but with all that i never once made the insane action to travel to New York for three days of pure smoking, drinking, and trying to pick up whatever kind of bitches you could. But with all that said i cant help but feel sympathy for you. I want to try to help you understand that life is not about finding the faults in people; it is about looking beyond it and surfacing the good. It is the same as helping those nuns, you showed them generosity and they exchanged their kindness towards you. That in itself is the building of integrity that makes life all worth it in the end.

Just a few tips and honest points to help you out in the future. You are a phoney. We all are to be honest. The truth can be subjective sometimes and that is what it means to be an individual. Also stop asking the taxi drivers about the ducks. They don’t know and nor do they care. Also don’t go out and try to get all these whores. For one its expensive, and two you could catch something which would make matters way worse. Theres nothing i can really say to you about Allie, nothing that will make things better anyways. I have never been in that boat to lose someone close like that, but maybe talking to anyone, about anything might help even the slightest. And for Jane, just don’t let her know you described her as being “muckle-mouthed”, for some reason, ya know being a girl and all i don’t think she would take it as a compliment.

But in reality, you are not that different to other people. Everyone knows what it is like to be sad, to be happy, to be angry, and especially to be lost. It’s how we relate to one another. We all wonder the same spectrum of human emotion and experience, and that is just something that you have to realize. Just focus on yourself and you could be a catcher in a number of ways.

 

So there ya go. Good luck with it all friend.

Sincerely,

Jennifer

The world is developing and changing these days. When you ride a public bus or a subway, you can see most people are using electronics but only a few people are still reading books. While some people using technologies for entertainments, some other people are reading books in digital form. Because of this I don’t think books are dying but changing their medium. People still want to get knowledge however they find digital technology is better than books for getting the information that they want. In our society, unlike in the novel, people use technology as books and because of this, if people burn books today, it will not matter.

Technologies in our society create various ways to get knowledge and information while the technologies in the book just distract people from thinking and the knowledge of books. The role of technologies in the novel is only for entertaining and enjoying people with their time. “ In her ears the little seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind.” (Ray Bradbury 10.) This quote shows the function of technology in the world in the novel. They use technologies to interrupt silence, thinking and the idea of knowledge from people. However, in our world, technologies supply entertainments to people but also a lot of information and knowledge so even people who reading books decreased, people still reading through technologies. Therefore, book burning doesn’t influence to our society anymore when they have much more knowledge and information in technologies.

           Technologies create more opportunities to find knowledge. In today’s world, we can even read books from watching television. For example, when authors came out and explain and talk about the books can help people to understand and message of the books without even trying to find or research the book anywhere. Also websites with the book by many authors and movies from the original of books are all very convenience sources to indirectly get information and knowledge from books. “That’s my family.” Mildred called Parlor wall as her family when sick Montag asked her to turn off the parlor wall, she never turned it off for him because of her happiness and entertainment. This quote shows how entertainment of technology is addictive and it even gives bad affect to communication between people and caring of families. The comparison between television of our world between parlor wall in the novel show us different using and symbol of technology and how those affect to people and their society.

           Development of technology make people don’t read books but they still keep trying to get knowledge and information through the technologies. Therefore burning books doesn’t affect anything to our society while we have good technology to use and share all the better information and knowledge.

 

Lina Kim

Life’s Not One Big Crapshoot

Dear Holden,

You’re probably wondering what the hell this letter is, showing up at your door out of nowhere. But before you throw this sheet of paper in the trash, I’d really like you to read. I feel bad for you, Holden, and I’d like to help.

Listen, life is not about finding the flaws in people. You are so distracted by these flaws that you are left with the impression that other people (when they sometimes are annoying and frustrating and get in the way) are bad—phony. Holden if you never manage to get over this outlook, you will never live a happy life. Life is about looking beyond the bad and seeing the good. Don’t worry—its not too late. I remember you helping the nuns, you showed them kindness and they returned kindness to you. There is hope! You’re 16. This is only the beginning. Please think about this— you’ll be surprised how it all comes back to you full circle.

I also want you to know that it is okay to having feelings— reveal emotions. We are all human beings. We all feel mad, excited, sad, and happy, at times in our lives. By bottling up these built up emotions you are just pushing the people who you care about further and further away from you. Believe it or not—this is main reason of your pain and suffering. I don’t know what to say about Allie. I honestly don’t know what it feels like to lose somebody so close to me. I don’t think anything that I say will make it better— other than talk. Talk to anybody. I do know that its normal to feel that way that you do, so don’t hide it.

One more thing— try not to be so hard on yourself. As the cliché goes, stand up for yourself. Don’t let guys like Stradlater push you around. When Stradlater asks you to do things like write his descriptive paper for him—don’t do it! Guys like that are taking advantage of guys like you. I think you are so desperate for some sort of connection with people, you do things like this. If you look in the right places, natural connections with happen, and they’ll be a whole lot better than that.

I know you think life if just one big crapshoot. Look a little further and I think you’ll be surprised with what you find.

Best,

Katherine Moffatt

In today’s ultra-modern world, I often find myself wondering “Do books even matter anymore?” For me, having a novel to read is like a necessity. It is one of the things that I really enjoy as a pass time. I have often been in a situation where someone is trying to persuade me to get twitter, Instagram or one of the more popular social-networking sites. This, however, is something that doesn’t matter to me at all. I’m not interested in the latest technological craze or keeping up to speed with the world using social media. I think that there is so much we can learn from books. the amount of knowledge they contain is endless. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, when Clarisse asks Montag “Do you ever read any of the books you burn?” (Bradbury 5) Montag explains to her that it is, in fact against the law to read books. If this was the case in our society today, I think that our world would be a radically different place. Because,when I walk in to a library, I find myself staring at the shelves, mesmerised by the sheer volume of books. It makes me realise that there is so much we can learn from books, and so much that we do not yet know.

Given our present state of society right now, I don’t really have reason to believe that book burning would talk on the significance that it once had. If we don’t know the answer to something–anything at all, we can simply type it into an online search engine and presto! The answer is there in front of us. We can find all of the information we need without hardly lifting a finger. Book burning is significant, however, if only for the fact of what it implies. The practise if book burning dates back to the Nazi’s occupation of Germany. So, it is an important aspect of our society, but only really in a historical context.  

–Sarah Kean 

Source

Bradbury Ray (1950). Fahrenheit 451. Simon and Schuster. Print.

Relax

Dear Holden,

Call me a phony, or a character from a best selling film, but here’s my best advice to you; relax. Wherever you go, you’ll find individuals of all personality types. You’ll discover that we are all humans. The is undoubtedly a large space between the people who you consider good, and the phonies. You just have to realize that we are all trying to find our place, just as you are. So just don’t take it all so seriously. Just open your mind a little and you’ll come to the realization that we’re not all that different.

Your connection to the past and your reluctance to enter adulthood is the result of your brother Allie’s death. This has caused you a great deal of cynicism regarding the world outside the realm of childhood. But you can’t stay frozen in your current state like the exhibits in the museum, you need to learn to accept adulthood and everything that comes with it.

It can be really simple, all you really need to do is listen. Listen intently to the people around you and you can learn a lot about others and about yourself. For example, if you payed more attention to Ackley, you would realize that you two are not that entirely different. So just relax. Not everyone is out to get you, or to change who you are. Everyone else is lost as well. Just look at everything with an opened mind, and you’ll be surprised what you can learn about yourself.

Your friend, Kp

The novel “Catcher in the Rye” has undergone much speculation and debate regarding whether it should be banned or not. The novel focuses on a sixteen year old boy going through typical teenage struggles, insecurities, and questions. Holden’s inner and outer monologues contain certain vulgar language and ideas that seem to be the cause of the argument for banning the novel. But this monologue never explicitly describes anything sexual; there are just mentions of sexual acts like “necking” (page 78), and an invitation for a prostitute to come to his room where nothing happens.

But these sexual references aren’t why the book is so widely popular, this book is extremely relatable to teenagers because Holden is going through everything that a typical teenager goes through; he has insecurities, feels likes he doesn’t quite fit in, and he questions his sexuality. Holden’s struggle is something that is relatable to most people who read the book, and his snarky attitude is what pulls the reader in. His personality is what draws in the reader and keeps them there; he acts as if he doesn’t care in an attempt to cover how insecure he actually is. This is one of his most relatable attributes. But people who read and enjoy this novel don’t enjoy it because “damn” is said about a hundred times; they enjoy it for going through the feelings that everyone struggles through, and for the realization that other people have the same insecurities as them.

The novel shouldn’t be banned from schools based on a few brief mentions of sexual acts, or some mild language; the book should be embraced because of its relatable themes and ideas. This novel is the only novel that I have ever actually enjoyed as a novel study in school, I would have enjoyed it had I picked it up and read it on my own. This novel has so many thoughts, and themes that teenagers can relate to that banning it would be saying that these relatable ideas aren’t actually relatable; they are unrealistic. When in reality Holden Caulfield is the epitome of high school insecurity and uncertainty masked by the “phoniness” that he, and most people, despise, and to remove such a relatable character would be detrimental to the high school literary curriculum.   

 – Sarah

Books are including knowledge and the knowledge makes people think. When people start to thinking and accept the lessons from the writers of the books, they can be change to one of the people who have same ideas as the writers. That shows how reading books makes people change and knowledgeable.

 

In the article, Austin Cline shows how burning books during the Second World War and it is connect to the Holocaust. Nazi burned the books of Jews, communists, socialists and other books which advocate ideas of German nation. “To be fair, it’s unlikely that a message could ever really be eliminated, but people who burn books probably won’t believe that.” This quote shows that people who burn books might be know that there is no way to actually stop people to think and their mind but they just rationalize themselves that their job can help the world so they can feel powerful to themselves. In the book ‘Fahrenheit 451’, the firemen just burning books in their world because the world don’t want people to think and learn so they made reading books as illegal. The most of people in the book thinks knowledge and thinking ruin the happiness of the world. We can see they burned books to make the world what they want. Both the article and the book show burning books as a way of showing the suppressed power of world. 

 

Lina Kim