Thursday

 We are going to review chapters 1-17.

Catcher in the Rye is a story about a young teenage named Holden Caulfield.  Holden has a conflict with himself – he feels that everyone around him is a phony.  He seems to hate everyone and everything.  The only thoughts of innocence and childhood bring him joy.  Perhaps he struggles to accept the hypocrisy of the adult world.  Holden is the narrator and anti-hero.  The novel is a coming of age story or a bildungsroman novel.  You will need to look at the following themes, symbols and conflicts while reading:

 

MAJOR THEMES:                                                         SYMBOLS:

 

Loss of Innocence                                                            Alle’s Baseball Glove

 

Rebellion From Society                                        Holden’s Red Hunting Cap

 

Mental Instability                                                            The Duck Pond

 

Death                                                                            The Carrousel

 

Hypocrisy                                                                      Holden Caulfield’s name

 

Sexual Confusion                                                            Kings in the back row

 

                                                                                    Prep School Life

 

Major Conflict: Person vs. Self.  Holden has a hard time dealing with the people around him believing that they are all phonies and either pretending to be something that they are not, or selling themselves for some reason.  Everyone is untruthful. 

 

OBJECTIVES:

 

At the end of the unit students will be able to

 

1)    Define character development, irony, metaphor, personification, subplot, atmosphere, tone, allusion, symbol, bildungsroman. Antihero.  

 

2)    List all the characters that appear in the novel and describe their physical appearance, motivations, social class.

 

3)    List various allusions and foreshadows and discuss what they mean in relation to plot.

 

4)    List the various types of conflict that occur throughout the novel and discuss who the conflicts are between.

 

5)    Keep a journal that outlines the novel – and the plot

 

6)    List three themes and in a paragraph or more discuss how these themes work in the novel.

 

7)    In an essay of a page or more discuss how Bradbury uses particular images or characters as symbols and discuss how these symbols reflect larger themes or ideas in the novel.

 

8)    Outline the character development (inward change) of various characters (to be mentioned later).

 

9)    List and outline the central plot.

 

10) In a paragraph or more discuss how the title and the images of innocence or childhood

 

11) Pick out two or three examples of similes and/or metaphors and in a paragraph discuss how they are used.

 

12) Given a quotation identify the speaker.

 

13) Write an essay on Catcher in the Rye.

  Catcher in the Rye: Study Guide

 

Be able to explain the following themes and give examples of three scenes that fit each theme:

 

Loss of Innocence

 

Rebellion From Society

 

Mental Instability

 

Death

 

Hypocrisy

 

Sexual Confusion

Be able to explain the following symbols – what they represent and why they are important:

 

Allie’s Baseball Glove

 

Holden’s Red Hunting Cap

 

The Duck Pond

 

The Carrousel

 

Holden Caulfield’s name

 

Kings in the back row

 

Prep School Life

 

The title

 

List and explain five allusions.

 

Explain the major conflict.

 

List the point of view.

 

Discuss how Holden is an unreliable narrator.

 

Discuss how Holden in an anti-hero.

 

Discuss how Catcher in the Rye is a Bildungsroman novel.

 

Pick out and explain three ironies.

 

Discuss Holden’s character development.

 

Outline the plot.

 

Briefly discuss Holden’s relationship with girls (Jane, Sally, Sunny, Bernice, Marty, Larverne, Faith Cavendish, Mrs. Morrow)

 

Discuss the importance of the following characters:

Achey

 

Stradlater

 

Horwitz

 

Ernie

 

D.B.

 

Phoebe

 

Allie

 

Maurice

 

Carl Luce

 

Lillian Simmons

 

Mr. Antolini

 

Mr. Spencer

 

List some schools that Holden got kicked out or (or left).

 

Given a quotation be able to identify the speaker

 

Compare Holden Caulfield to Scout Finch.

NEW VOCABULARY

1)    Ostracize

 

2)    Nonchalant

 

3)    Grippe

 

4)    Blasé

 

5)    Incognito

 

6)    Pedagogical

 

7)    Bourgeois

 

8)    Convent

 

9)    Halitosis

 

10) Stenographer

 

11) Boisterous

 

 

Journals:

Example of Reading Log (from Jenny Hansen's blog)

Summery: Bernard rushes to the Solidarity Service, and is late.  He goes into a room with twelve chairs.  Three of them were empty.  He goes to the nearest one, and then gets angry at himself because he got into the chair next to Morgana Rothschild, who had a unibrow.  The other two people came in a little later and they started the service.  They starting playing music and the president started passing soma ice cream around for everyone to have.  Then they started singing a hymn to Ford.  They sang eight stanzas, and then the president started passing the loving cup around for everyone to drink from.  Then they sang the last four stanzas.  After they were finished singing a voice came from the ceiling and said, "The feet of the Greater Being are on the stairs."  Then everyone in the room started saying, "I hear him!  He is coming."  They started dancing around as they sang a song called "Orgy-Porgy."  Bernard sang and danced along, but he didn't hear anything and felt miserable.  They sang it over and over until the dancers had stopped and the service was ended.  After the service, Morgana asked Bernard if he had a wonderful time at the service.  Bernard lied and said, "Yes."

Importance: This section shows again that Bernard is an outsider to the society.  He doesn't like soma, his physical appearance isn't what it should be for his class, and he doesn't get anything out of the service, where all of the other people in the room were super happy after it.  He felt miserable and separated.  This also shows another way the government is controlling the people.  They are taking religion completely out of society except for this weird version.  This is because the government doesn't want people coming together in close relationships.  They have taken all close relationships out of the equations.  They have gotten rid of families, marriage, and religion.  Basically, everything that would bring people together.  Also this section shows how childish everyone in this world is because there is no responsibility.

Literary Devices

• Allusion - When Bernard is heading to the ceremony he passes Big Henry, the clock.  This alludes to Big Ben, the clock in London.  The name is changed for this book because it is referring to Henry Ford, who is very important to the people in this book.
• Allusion - The whole ceremony that Bernard goes to is an allusion to communion.  When Bernard gets into the room for the ceremony there are twelve chairs for people there to sit in.  This is an allusion to the twelve disciples.  When they pass the soma ice cream around, it symbolizes the bread at the Last Supper.  This is the same for the loving cup that is passed around.  It symbolizes the wine at the Last Supper.  This allusion reinforces the idea that this is a religious ceremony.
• Morgana Rothschild - This is an allusion to Fata Morgana or Morgan Le Fay.  This was a girl who was against King Arthur and made life difficult for him.  I think this might give a picture of what her character is like.  She also has a unibrow when Alphas are supposed to be perfect.  This shows that there is some limit control from the government.
• Clara Deterding - This is an allusion to Clara Ford and Henri Deterding, who was the founder of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company.  In doing that he purchased Azerbaijan oil fields from a family whose family name was Rothschild.  Later in his life he began to support the German Nazi Party.  This goes along with the general trend of allusions in this book.  Most of the allusions alludes to big world powers that ruled by fear, but ultimately failed in the end.  
• Sarojini Engels - This is an allusion to Friedrich Engels and Sarojini.  Friedrich Engels is alluded to because he help write the Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx, which is what Bernard Marx alludes to.  This may be a foreshadow to what happens later in the book.  This also follows the general trend of allusion.  Sarojini Naidu was a freedom fighter for India.  I am not sure what this means in relation to the book.
• Jim Bokanovsky - I think this alludes to Maurice Bokanovsky, the same thing that the Bokanovsky Process alludes to.  He was wanted the government to be more efficient.  
• Herbert Bakunin - This name alludes to Mikhail Bakunin and George Herbert.  Mikhail Bakunin was a Russian that one of the founders of social anarchism.  Anarchism is the belief in abolishing all government and be self governed.  At first glance, you might think this is the type of system they have in the book, but after reading me you find out that the government is still there, but it is just controlling everything to they don't have to do anything to keep people in line.  George Herbert was a Welsh Priest.  He wrote many hymns.  This again reinforces the idea of religion in this section.
• Allusion - The last song that they sing is called "Orgy-Porgy."  It says, "Orgy-porgy, Ford and fun, kiss the girls and make them One.  Boys at one with the girls at peace; Orgy-porgy gives release."  This is an allusion to the children' song "Georgie Porgie."  This song says, "Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie, kissed the girls and made them cry; when the boys came out to play, Georgie Porgie ran away."  This shows that everyone in this book acts like children because there is no responsibility.

Unknown Vocabulary

• Galvanic - adj.  relating or involving electric currents.
• Liturgical - adj.  relating to public worship.
• Foetal - adj.  variation in spelling from the word "fetal."
• Benevolently - adv.  well meaning and kindly.