week 2 Catcher in the Rye

I am up to chapter 7 in the Catcher in the Rye now. I am really starting to like this book, mostly  because of the main character. He may be very negative and everything but he really looks at the way things are. He also sees people for what they are like his two friends, or acquaintances, if that’s what Holden would call them. They don’t seem to be his friends but Holden chooses to spend his time around them, all the while complaining on the way they are. For example, in explaining this kid named Ackely, he said that he had bad personal hygiene, always touched your stuff, wouldn’t go away, and Holden sort of explained how repulsive this guy was. Yet he chose to go to a movie with him and another guy he didn’t seem to fond of. In fact, he also complained about how they laugh to much at anything and wouldn’t want to sit by either of them in a movie but he did anyways.

                I like how Holden explained this guy named Stradlater. He said how he was one of those good looking guys who are all full of it and everything but he admitted that he was a very good looking guy and I could tell in this part of the book Holden showed a little jealousy. Stradlater actually goes on a date with this girl that Holden knows and I feel kind of bad for Holden because I can tell he kind of misses her with how he gets all excited when she gets brought up but he won’t go say hi to her. Later that night Stradlater got back and Holden said he was worried because the girl was supposed to be back at her school by 9:30 but it was later then that. This led to Holden grilling Stradlater on what happened to see if he had sex with her but once he asks if that’s what happened, he is denied an answer. This made Holden so made he tried punching the guy in the back of the head which led to a small fight and Holden getting a bloody nose.

                One other thing you can see in this book is that Holden has a little anger problem and in one part he talks about when his cousin died. “They were going to have me psychoanalyzed because I broke all the windows in the garage.. I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddamn windows with my fist. I even tried to break the windows on the station wagon we had that summer but my hands were already broken and everything by that time.” This reminiscence he gives is sad but it shows a little more of how he has an anger problem, he knew it was not a smart thing to do when he did it but he was so mad he couldn’t help himself. Maybe, throughout the book he will have this problem or maybe not. I guess I’ll see.