Catcher In The Rye Essays (1448 words) - Literature, Fiction

Catcher In The Rye In the novel, Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, has very definite views on sexuality, aggression, and death. He is ambivalent towards sex, loathsome of aggression, and fearsome of death. It's this triangle of sin that demonstrates the conflict occurring within Holden's inner monologue. In the novel, Generation X, the main character, Andy, is grappling with many of the same problems that Holden faced forty years earlier. Even though the more modern society is different than forty years ago, the same general issues still haunt Andy today, with many parallels to Holden's coming-of-age issues. With such a dead-end vision of the trap of adulthood and marriage, it isn't very surprising that Holden is scared of being initiated into the most involving form of relationship--sex. In a society where human relationships are affected by marketplace values, like status and appearance, which commodify people, rather than accepting them. Holden is seeking a deeper, more real relationship with someone, probably anyone, who understands him, and will accept him. Holden doesn't like to see people hurting. He explains when he says that he would like to be "a catcher in the rye", someone who protects children from the pitfalls of hypocrisy and lies, that Holden seems to think infect the adult world. As a result, Holden is very careful not to use other characters as a means for his own ends. In many ways he is unable to deflect the unexpressed pressures that every teen male feels, to have sex. He is offered the "teenage dream" of sex in a non-responsible situation when Maurice, the elevator operator in his hotel offers to set him up with a hooker. Holden jumps at the chance, but when confronted with the reality of the situation feels horrible, and ends up not touching the hooker. Pure sex, like many other societal myths, is a romantic place that Holden wants to believe exists, but understands through his cynicism, that is never has, or ever will exist. But his mistrust goes deeper. For Holden, it seemed like sex would somehow integrate him into the world at large, which he despises. Holden does not want to accept any change in his life. He sees sex as a way that society is using to lure him into being like the people that he hates. At Pencey, his boarding school, he equates sex with perversion. He refers to his studly roommate, Stradlater as a "very sexy bastard" because of his interest in all things related to sex. And then when Holden is obsessing over the idea of Stradlater, and his friend Jane having sex, he tries to think of her as innocent and naive, when he says "when we played checkers, she always kept her kings in the back row." Since he cares about Jane, he can't understand why she would want to involve herself with a guy like Stradlater in the first place. Thoughts about sex, seem to lead Holden into thoughts about death. After the fight with Stradlater over Jane, Ackley, the novel's most hated character, asks why they fought and Holden tells the readers that "I didn't answer him...I almost wished I was dead." And later on, when he is alone in his hotel room , after the hooker leaver he begins to think about his younger brother's death. To Holden he also sees sex as the same as aggression. As in his reaction to his fight with Stradlater, he treats aggression in the same way as he does sex. After losing the fight he says, "I'd only been in about two fights in my life, and I lost both of them. I'm not too tough. I'm a pacifist, if you want to know the truth." Although his swing at Stradlater, seem to go against his non-aggressive personality, it is the name of Jane, someone who Holden considers as the model of perfection and innocence. This all comes back to the comment about Jane keeping her kings in the back row. This is interesting because it shows her unwillingness to be aggressive or sexual, which are two of Holden's values, despite the fact she is now involved with Stradlater, who represents (at least to Holden) sex and aggression. The connection between sex, death, and aggression all come together near the end of the novel when Holden visits his younger sister phoebe, at her elementary school. Holden sees a sign that someone has put up that says, "Fuck You." This phrase is so important to the novel because it represents, a very aggressive

Spotting Parts of Speech With a Reading Lesson

Spotting Parts of Speech With a Reading Lesson Reading can be used to help students practice their recognition skills of the eight parts of speech in English, as well as different types of important structure such as titles, headings, bolding, and italics. Another important skill that students should develop while reading is the ability to spot synonyms and antonyms. This beginning to lower-intermediate lesson provides a short reading selection from which students should extract examples of parts of speech and writing structures as well as finding synonyms and antonyms. Aim: Learning to recognize specific parts of speech, increasing vocabulary through the use of synonyms and antonymsActivity: Short reading selection from which students extract examplesLevel: Beginner to lower-intermediate Outline Check understanding of parts of speech, as well as structural elements as a class. Use an exercise book, or other reading materials as available.Ask students use the short reading selection to spot the various parts of speech, as well as synonyms and antonyms suggested.Correct in class.Expand the exercise by asking students to provide more synonyms and antonyms. Spot the Words and Phrases Fill in the worksheet below spotting the requested word, phrase or larger structure. Heres a quick review to help you complete the task: Noun - objects, things, and peopleVerbs - what objects, things and people DOAdjective - words that describe objects, things, and peopleAdverb - words that describe how, where or when something is donePrepositions - words that show relationships between thingsSynonyms - words that mean the sameAntonyms - words that mean the oppositeTitle - name of a book, article or story My Friend Mark by Kenneth Beare Mark’s Childhood My friend Mark was born in a small town in the north of Canada called Dooly. Mark grew up a happy and interested boy. He was a good student in school who studied carefully for all his exams and got very good grades. When it came time to go to university, Mark decided to move to the United States in order to attend the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. Mark at University Mark enjoyed his time at university. In fact, he enjoyed his time immensely, but he didn’t really spend the time studying for his courses. He preferred to travel around Oregon, to visit all the sites. He even climbed Mt. Hood twice! Mark became very strong, but his grades suffered because he was lazy. During his third year at university, Mark changed his major to agricultural studies. This turned out to be a very good choice, and Mark slowly began to get good grades again. In the end, Mark graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in agricultural sciences. Mark Gets Married Two years after Mark graduated, he met a wonderful, hardworking woman named Angela. Angela and Mark fell in love immediately. After three years of dating, Mark and Angela married in a beautiful church on the coast of Oregon. They’ve been married for two years and now have three lovely children. All in all, life has been very good to Mark. He’s a happy man and I’m happy for him. Please find examples of: the author’s namea titlea sentencea paragraphthree nounsfour verbstwo adjectivestwo adverbsthree prepositionsan exclamationa synonym for â€Å"too relaxed†an antonym for â€Å"to leave school†an adjective which is a synonym for â€Å"powerful†an adverb which is an antonym of â€Å"slowly†a verb which is a synonym for â€Å"go to school†a noun which is a synonym for â€Å"test†a verb which is an antonym for â€Å"go down†a noun which is a synonym for â€Å"diploma†an antonym for the adjective â€Å"awful†an antonym for the adjective â€Å"sad†a synonym for the verb â€Å"to go out with a girlfriend or boyfriend†