The Catcher in the Rye Blog 1

In the first part of The Catcher in the Rye the main character, Holden Caulfield, narrates the story and starts out talking about how he got kicked out of Pencey Prep. He explains how he has kicked out of many different schools because he doesn't care about his education. He makes it sound like it's the school that is awful and not his lack of trying: "They don't do any damn more molding at Pencey than they do at any other school. And I didn't know anybody there that was splendid and clear thinking and all." Holden seems very negative about everything and he doesn't care about anything, either. Holden talks about visiting his history teacher Mr. Spencer and how he had to listen to Mr. Spencer talk about why he was failing Holden: "I flunked you in history because you knew absolutely nothing." And while Mr. Spencer keeps repeating why Holden failed, Holden is perfectly polite and agrees with everything he says, while in his head he is getting pissed off and wants to leave already. I thought this part was pretty funny because Holden decided to be nice and visit his sick teacher for the last time and his teacher makes him miserable by criticizing him the whole time.

Holden also talks about a kid named Ackley who always bothers Holden and supposedly hates everyone: "He hated Stradlater's guts and he never came in the room if Stradlater was around. He hated everybody's guts, damn near." It's pretty funny that Holden basically tells Ackley to go away, but he never gets the hint. Holden can't seem to get away even when he make a big effort to. Then Holden's roommate Stradlater comes in and asks Holden if he can borrow his coat and asks if Holden can write a paper for him. It's pretty ironic that Stradlater asks the kid that is failing almost all of his classes to write a paper for him. It's even more ironic that Holden agrees to do it. So Holden decides to write the descriptive paper about his brother Allie's baseball glove, which had poems written all over it. His brother died of leukemia and this seems to me like the only thing so far that Holden talks about without resentment and talks about his brother with compassion: "He was terrifically intelligent. His teachers were always writing letters to my mother, telling her what a pleasure it was having a boy like Allie in their class." It seems like Holden really cared about his brother and was devastated when he died because he broke all the windows with his hand: "I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it."

After reading so far I think this is a pretty funny book and I'm not even sure that was the author's intention. Just the irony and the swearing is just funny. I know this was a pretty controversial book back in the day and I can see why: there is a swear word on almost every page. Compared to books today, however, this is nothing. I also notice that when Holden is talking about something, he rambles on about something else entirely different or explains why something happened and has to constantly return back to what he was originally talking about. I can't wait to see what happens next in Holden's interesting life.

1984 Blog 3

In the next part of 1984 the Party announces that after all this time hating Eurasia, it turns out that Eastasia was actually the enemy: "At just this moment it had been announced that Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally." (Page 196). Within minutes of the speaker announcing this news, the crowd goes crazy and begins to hate Eastasia. Winston knows that the fact that they had hated Eurasia will be erased from history: "Although no directive was ever issued, it was known that the chiefs of the Department intended that within one week no reference to the war with Eurasia, or the alliance with Eastasia, should remain in existence anywhere." (Page 199). Winston knows he will have a lot of work to do with this change in alliance. I think it's strange that all of a sudden the people can just lose their hate for Eurasia and gain so much hate for Eastasia in a matter of minutes just because the Party tells them to.

Winston goes to the room he shares with Julia and starts to read a book by Emmanuel Goldstein called "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism". It is about the social classes in Oceania and that there is no life without war. Goldstein says in his book that no matter what there will always be wars between the three nations: "In one combination or another, these three superstates are permanently at war, and have been so for twenty-five years." (Page 202). It's depressing that there will always be a war going on and there is absolutely no solution so the only answer is hate for the enemy country and every once in a while the alliances switch up and they become allies with the country they once despised. This cycle would get old after a while and the people are obviously so brainwashed that they can't break free from it all.

When Winston and Julia wake up they are startled by a bunch of men that have broken into their room. It turns out that they had been spied on the whole time! The men attack Winston and Julia and take Julia away. Mr. Charrington enters the room and it's revealed that he is in fact a member of the Thought Police. I always thought it was kind of strange that Mr. Charrington let Winston stay in the room that was supposedly safe and free from any telescreens without anything in return.

Winston finds himself in a cell where he is constantly being monitored. He hasn't eaten anything for a long time and wonders if they will even bother to feed him: "But he was also hungry, with a gnawing, unwholesome kind of hunger. It might be twenty-four hours since he had eaten, it might be thirty-six. He still did not know, probably never would know, whether it had been morning or evening when they arrested him. Since he was arrested he had not been fed." (Page 247). Winston couldn't even put his hand in his pocket: ""Smith!" yelled a voice from the telescreen. "6079 Smith W! Hands out of pockets in the cells!"" By the description of the cell it seems like the Party wants to torture their prisoners and make them sorry that they ever broke the law and try to go against them. They want to make it clear that they will find the rebels and make sure they are punished for their actions.

1984 Blog 2

Next in 1984 Winston goes into a bar in the prole district and starts to talk to a man about the past. He asks the man if times were different in the past: "Do you feel that you have more freedom now than you had in those days? Are you treated more like a human being?" (Page 100). The man doesn't give him a straight answer and Winston gets frustrated. Winston leaves and finds himself in front of the store in which he bought the diary. He goes inside and encounters the shopkeeper. Winston looks around a bit and decides to buy an old paperweight, which could have been suspicious: "Anything old, and for that matter anything beautiful, was always vaguely suspect." (Page 106). The shopkeeper takes Winston to a secret room, a room Winston notices doesn't have a telescreen. The shopkeeper says: "I never had one of those things. Too expensive. And I never seemed to feel the need of it, anyhow." (Page 107). The man, named Mr. Charrington, makes it seem like having a telescreen isn't required and he doesn't seem to care about not having one. Mr. Charrington recites a rhyme about churches: "Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement's, you owe me three farthings, say the bells of St. Martin's!" (Page 110). The rhyme makes Winston think of the past and what it could have been like and how different it probably was. Winston leaves the shop and notices the dark haired girl and thinks she is spying on him. He considers killing the girl: "He could keep her on track till they were in some quiet place, and then smash her skull in with a cobblestone." (Page 112). In my opinion Winston seems very paranoid. He was scared that the Party would catch him writing bad things in his diary and now he thinks that this girl is spying on him. I understand standing up to the Party and Big Brother is very risky, but if Winston wants to be rebellious he needs to man up and do it!

In Part 2 Winston goes to work and sees the girl with dark hair with an arm sling. The girl falls down and Winston helps her up. In the process the girl slips him a note. He takes the note and after a long while of debating he decides to read it. It turns out that the girl loves him, or so it says. Winston is surprised by this: "For several seconds he was too stunned even to throw the incriminating thing into the memory hole." (Page 118). I was very surprised at this turn of events. I definitely thought she was spying on him since she happened to be wherever he was and it doesn't really make sense to me that she would be in love with him, especially since they have never talked to each other before. A few days after receiving the note Winston sits at the girl's lunch table. They briefly spoke and decided to meet up in private. They met in Victory Square and agreed to meet again at a later date. I honestly think this whole situation is weird. Winston just wants the girl sexually and it's pretty gross since he's way older than her. I think Winston is a pervert and is constantly thinking about sex.

Winston and the girl finally meet up alone and basically have sex. Turns out that Julia has done it plenty of times and Winston loves her for it: "Listen. The more men you've had, the more I love you. Do you understand that?" (Page 137). This seems more like a political agenda and part of Winston's rebellion scheme to me. The two continue their affair and take up residence in the room above Mr. Charrington's shop. I'm pretty confused about what has happened so far. It doesn't make sense that Winston and Julia are an "item" now and Winston is in love with Julia because she is a whore and slept with so many members of the Party. It just shows that it's part of his hate for the Party and doesn't really have anything to do with his "love" for Julia.