The Catcher in the Rye—Salinger
The Catcher in the Rye is an Apprenticeship novel.
It is the story of Holden Caulfield, a troubled teenager. It is a personal narrative and Holden’s language is crude and curt. He uses fairly informal language. The language lacks decorum but gets to the reader more easily due to its conversational nature.
It is a possibility that Salinger had portrayed his youth in Holden. There are several similarities between their lives. Holden does not elaborate on his childhood but goes back to the winter of the previous year when he flunked out of school, failing four of his five subjects. He had been to many boarding schools but had graduated from none. Although we see him struggling, he actually is very bright. He can perceive other characters very well and he doesn’t like most of them, calling them “phonies”. He dislikes people who pretend to impress other people. Even though he lies frequently and claims to be a very convincing liar, he never does so o impress people. In fact, he shies away from company by insulting the people he doesn’t like.
He seems to have feelings only for a few people—his parents, his younger brother Allie who died from leukemia, his younger sister, Phoebe, his older brother D.B and his neighbor, Jane. He is frustrated about his roommate, Stradlater who dates Jane. He is a principled young man and is intelligent. He goes through the agonies of an adolescent but we see his generous side when he helps two nuns. He hates the world around him; his intense frustration does not allow him to mix in the society. He complains about school and his classmates. He hides his inability to communicate candidly by blaming others of being “phony”.
After he leaves school, he spends some time aimlessly, going to nightclubs and hotels. He is impatient and lonely throughout this time. He cannot adapt to the society around him. He does not gain the maturity that is expected of him. However, he can communicate easily with his younger sister who, although he claims her to be much more intelligent than him, is also undecided like him.
He dreams to be a catcher in the rye, catching children playing in the field of rye from falling off a cliff. He is emotionally disturbed. However, on a day out with his sister, he realizes that children should be allowed to do whatever they want so that they can learn of danger and adapt to the surrounding environment in their own way.
While reading this I came across the poem, “Comin’ Thro’ the Ryes” by Robert Burns. It is written in a different style of English. Holden’s inspiration to become a catcher in the rye comes from this poem.
The novel depicts Holden’s internal struggles which cause him to isolate himself. His self-esteem does not allow him to stoop and believe that his problems are due to his own faults.
In the present we find Holden at a clinic receiving psychiatric therapy because of his mental problems. However, he speaks of hope. He would be attending a new school and he misses all the people he mentioned in the narrative.
The Lord Of the flies—William Golding
The story of some boys stranded on a deserted island, away from human civilization. After a plane crash, the boys find themselves to be the only survivors on the island. On the island the boys built up a civilization, electing a leader and starting a fire to attract passing ships.
The protagonist is Ralph, a matured and cool-headed boy who becomes the leader. However, he has difficulty in controlling the boys and faces a lot of opposition, especially from a boy named Jack, who was a candidate for the leader as well. Ralph’s character gains profundity as he tries to discipline the haywire kids. He tries to bring order from chaos. He symbolizes the idealist, who believes in the fairness of the world but is in for a rude awakening.
Jack, on the other hand, is power hungry. He uses force when needed and is ruthless. He kills many of the boys and orders a hunt for Ralph. He grows barbaric and breaks all the civilization established on the island. In the end, the boys are saved by a British Naval officer who carries them away to civilized society. However, here we come to a debate--what is civilization? Is the naval officer, who will take part in the war and kill his fellow human beings, any better than the barbaric Jack? He will also destroy civilization as we know it.
Read The Idea of Justice by Nobel laureate, Amartya Sen.
In the beginning, the author presents a wonderful quote: “An event has happened, upon which it is difficult to speak and impossible to be silent.” Edmund Burke said this on the impeachment of Warren Hastings in 1789.
The author claims that reason should be brought into play to decide about justice and injustice. He focuses mainly on two theories—one is the transcendental theory where absolute justice is possible to decide and the other is the comparative theory where justice is decided based on the idea that the other options are unjust. He also classifies justice into Argument focused justice and realization focused (concentrates on behavior of people) justice.
He toys with the idea of “perfect justice”, which under all circumstances is the right thing to do however, sometimes justice cannot be dished out so easily. He also discusses on the theory of “justice as fairness”. He states that people may think that they know exactly what is just but different people may find different situations just. It depends on their reasoning and moral belief. In the eyes of different people justice stands different. Some may think that justice will be brought about by one action while others will find that action unjust.
He argues for comparative justice because he feels that perfect justice is quite a redundant theory when we are facing actual choices in real life. Also the standard of perfection is debatable. No one can agree on one fixed definition of justice.
It is amazing to note that “different people will state that there is one straightforward just resolution that is easily detected but they would each argue for totally different resolutions as being obviously right.”
He says, like Adam Smith, while thinking up a moral action we have to place ourselves as “impartial spectators”, so that our bias loses ground. He believes that the world looks different depending on the position the person is standing on it.
He quotes many notable philosophers and economists although he disagrees with many. In the last chapter, ‘Reasons, Sentiment and Enlightenment’, he talks about Hume and Smith, who feel that our reasoning is strongly influenced by our sentiments. Smith argues strongly that our emotions and psychological response are very important in governing our activities, especially our spontaneous or instantaneous reactions.
Read Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.
A realistic novel where we see a few cases of adultery and the aftermath of them. First, Stiva Oblonsky cheats his wife, Dolly, who wants to leave him with their children. However, Stiva’s sister, Anna Karenina reconciles the couple.
Dolly’s younger sister, Kitty, is wooed by two suitors, Vronsky and Levin, Stiva’s friend. At first she seems to show partalty to Vronsky but he disappoints her. He meets and falls in love with Anna Karenina, wife of St. Petersburg official, Karenin. After some time, Anna openly admits about her affair with Vronsky to her husband.
On the other hand, Kitty feels her love for Levin and they get engaged and eventually marry. Anna becomes pregnant and her generous husband decides not to divorce her. She goes to Italy with Vronsky, wandering around aimlessly. They return, only to be spurned by the society in Anna’s case. Here we come to the social injustice. Anna, charged with adultery, is talked of by the society as a disgrace whereas Vronsky, participator in the same crime, is free to go about as if nothing happened. Stiva also escapes the social wrath even though he commits adultery. Anna cannot show her face in society and grows jealous of Vronsky. She becomes paranoid and claims that Vronsky does not love her anymore. Her pent up frustrations make her delirious and one day, when she went to the station to meet Vronsky, she throws herself in front of a train and dies.
Kitty bears Levin a son. At first Levin was frustrated by the lessening freedom of married life and felt mixed confusion towards his son. But after saving Kitty and his son from a thunderstorm, he realizes that he truly loves them. He accepts his life and starts to care for his family.
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