Catcher in the Rye {1}

 

The Catcher in the Rye starts with the voice of one main character, Holden Caulfield. His introduction tells us that he had a crappy childhood with parents that sounded like they weren’t too fond of him, or at least didn’t care enough to pay attention to him. “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, what my lousy childhood was like and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me.” (pg. 1) Honestly, he doesn’t sound all that enthusiastic to be in the book so far and he only sounds remotely happy when speaking about his brother D.B.

The plot continues with Holden informing us that he attended one of those rich preppy schools named, Pencey Prep. He went to some of the football games and such but I don’t think he was one of the kids that actually enjoyed them. Holden wasn’t too thrilled that you weren’t allowed to bring girls with you either. “There were never many girls at all at the football games. Only seniors were allowed to bring girls with them. It was a terrible school, no matter how you looked at it.” (pg. 3) Unfortunately, he is kicked out of this school because he was failing four classes. Frankly, I don’t think he even cared much about this. As he is leaving he receives a letter from his history teacher telling him that he wants to have a chat with him.
Once he gets to Mr. Thurmer’s (history teacher) house, the two men get to talking about Holden’s grades. His teacher is very disappointed in the fact that Holden seems to not try what so ever with his grades. It just so happens that a recent test turned into his class has had extremely poor results and I think this teacher is so mad that he actually begins to joke about the matter. “Your essay, shall we say ends there, he said this in a very sarcastic voice. You wouldn’t think such an old guy would be sarcastic at all.” (pg. 12)
Holden continues on about his true feelings for this teacher of his. He thinks that he is stuck up and says the stupidest most offensive things possible. “After I shut the door and started back to the living room, he yelled something at me, but I couldn’t exactly hear him. I’m pretty sure he yelled “good luck!” at me. I hope not. I hope to hell not. I’d never yell “good luck!” at anybody. It sounds terrible, when you think about it.” (pg. 16)

Holden lets us know that he is proud of being a good liar, and if you’re proud of something like that it seems to me then that you must practice that skill a lot. His character in general resembles a person who wants to just get by in life and would rather take the short cut to finish something than work hard at it. Unfortunately that lifestyle won’t really lead you anywhere so let’s hope this guy can get his head on straight.

1984 {blog three}

The next part of 1984 is indeed very interesting. We continue to expand our knowledge about the Party and Winston himself. Winston now has a “girlfriend” whose name is Julia. He is a lot older than her and because of the risk of the two of them being caught they cannot be seen talking together at first. The first time that Winston and Julia meet is in the middle of nowhere, where Julia suspects that there are no government spies and no hidden telescreens. The two of them have sex in the forest and Winston tells her that he is happy that she is a whore and has sex all the time. “Listen. The more men you’ve had, the more I love you. Do you understand that?” I think that Winston doesn’t see it so much as that this girl is obviously experienced, but the fact that there are other men out there just like him wanting nothing more in the world to rebel against the Party. Throughout the next couple months, Winston and Julia only exchange glances when they pass each other on the sidewalks because it is still too dangerous for them to be “passionate” in public.

Winston soon gets fed up that he cannot spend time with Julia so he rents a room above Mr. Carrington’s shop. The two of them meet whenever possible to do what they do best. Julia and Winston talk about the growing power of the Party. I believe that the citizens in general are given no choice but to believe in the crap that government feeds them, however it seems that the only way to defeat the Party would be to have all the conscious minded citizens stand up in what they believed in. It’s obvious that Winston and Julia aren’t the only two people who think that their country is screwed up.

Continuing on with what I last said, Winston is confronted by a man named O’Brian. We soon find out that O’Brian is also against the actions of the party and he isn’t the only one. He informs Winston that there are thousands more just like them, who are all waiting to strike. Winston and Julia are initiated into the brotherhood of rebellion and now have no option of turning back.

We learn more about how gullible the citizens of Oceania really are. The country switches allies and enemies in the war so therefore they obviously had to go back and once again rewrite history. But the change was made during the middle of a speech, so half of the information was based on the truth and the other half was what was made up, and even then these citizens are still so ignorant that they cannot pick up that something is wrong.

In chapter IX, Winston begins reading the book given to him by O’Brian. He discovers the true meanings of the Parties slogans, “WAR IS PEACE and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”.  It  is scary to think that any government at any given time can conjure up information to make their followers believe that they are all that matters in life, which in turn gives them an endless supply of power.

1984 {blog two}

              The next section of the book that I have read concerns Winston’s beliefs on how he thinks the government can be over run. From chapter six, he tells us that he hired a prostitute to well you know… Anyway he believes that these women are the lowest form of life that the society has to deal with. Essentially they follow none of the rules that the rest of the society has to abide by and the actual number of “proles” as they call them is astonishing. Winston thinks that if the Party were to be overrun, it would have to be done by these people. “If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, eighty-five per cent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated.” (pg. 77)
            We know that Winston’s job for the Party is to pretty much rewrite history to make it seem as though the government has made Oceania a wonderful place to live, free of enemies, crime, poverty, and hunger. But we have learned of it to be the exact opposite, with the electricity almost never working, people going hungry in the streets and their houses are crumbling right before their eyes. Everything that is told to the citizens sounds legitimate because everyone thinks that if the records show this as the truth than all be! It must be right! However, Winston knows that history is a lie. Heck, he is one of the people rewriting it and actually conscientious about what he is doing. Even though he has to perform this task without questioning it, he believes that everything that he has done is just giving the party more power. “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” (pg.37)
               Going along with this last quote, Winston begins to read a child’s history book.  He is astonished at how the Party can manipulate the human mind just by telling people that something is the way it is because they say so. “In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy.”  (pg. 82) In my opinion, I think that Winston is not scared of the Party itself, but the unquestioned power it maintains. The power it has over all the citizens who just are going along for the ride. These people don’t question this power and this is one of the sole reasons that the Party has been so successful in controlling the population. And that is why Winston is terrified about the Party! Because there is nothing he can do to regain sanity in the world, at least not by himself and he doesn’t want to get caught trying. But it seems as though he isn’t the only one who is aware of this… and that gives him hope.