While reading Catcher in the Rye, we're going to be thinking about coming-of-age (the bildungsroman genre) and what that means for us in two interrelated ways: how we move from innocence to experience, and how we begin to construct a public self out of our private self. One may argue that Holden has difficulty expressing his the shape of his private self in social situations: his inner logic becomes distorted when expressed publicly.
As a first step down this road, try writing (in the comment section below) about something you became aware of as you became mature, which you felt very differently about when you were younger. This could be a reality in the world that you are now aware of and having feelings about, or a part of your experience in life for which your feelings have changed considerably over the years. Try your best to be as clear as you can about how your private self handled this new awareness.
As I got older and matured I realized a lot of things began to change. As the world began to mature around me, I began to see past the shields of childhood. I began to see all the horrors in the world and what they can do to people. As a child something like war and crime was simply wrong. Who ever took part in it was simply stupid. I didn’t even know about the horrors of drugs. Now that I’m older I start to see the motives that surrounds these acts. I started to understand all the factors behind them. I see the grudges people have. I now consider financial, social and economical factors that come into play. I still don’t approve of war and crime but I have a better understanding of why some do it. I know why people go to the extremes to protect something and why some are forced into decisions they don’t want to make. When we were young and innocent we all understood that these things were wrong, but now as we grow up, we have to remind ourselves of these teachings before we act. Because now we are in the middle of it.
ReplyDeleteAs I grew up and matured, I started to realize how much has been changing from when I was younger. Those childish things my friends and I used to do became boring and stupid. Being young and watching what your older siblings were doing, I didn’t really understand what they were doing. Seeing them always going out with their friends it didn’t make sense to me. Being the youngest child in my family I always was the baby in the family. I was always curious as to why my older brother and sister didn’t want to spend more time with their family. As I’m in the stages of high school, I realized that you want to go out more and more with your friends after school and on the weekends. When I was younger I always wanted to do fun things with my family whether it was go out to eat or go to a movie. Because of this act teenagers do, parents can get easily upset with their children and wish they would spend more time with their family. I never fully understood why my older siblings didn’t spend more time with my family until now as I’m experiencing this maturing stage in my life. Although I may go out a lot with my friends I still try to keep a very strong relationship with my parents and even my older siblings because I could sense that loneliness my parents must’ve felt not being around their children all the time as they grew up. Even though they didn’t know they were doing it, my older siblings taught me a valuable lesson that I will carry on with me for the rest of my life.
ReplyDeleteAs you come of age, you begin to realize many things that, until now, have hidden themselves in the shadows of your brain. One thing that I have noticed is how differently people act when they are around certain people. For example, if one is with their friends, they act goofy and free and sometimes can be a little one-upish. However, if one is around an important figure, such as a teacher or coach, it is as if they are a whole new person. They suddenly shape themselves to be the perfect young person. While at auditions, this change manifests itself many times throughout the audition period. At a previous audition, I was sitting in the waiting room with about two- hundred other young people. As I watched, I observed how most of the people were acting; like snobby little brats. However, when the judges called a group of ten of us into the audition room, I saw a sudden change in their personalities. They were suddenly polite young adults who are very educated and selfless. This is exactly what I mean by how people act differently depending on who they are with, and unfortunately I have grown to notice this in most people.
ReplyDeleteAs you get older you begin to realize what the real world is like and how to deal with the everyday struggles from going to work or dealing with a crappy hand that you were dealt as a child. I have learned from a very young age that not everything in the world can be nice and work out how you want it to, I know this through my vast experience in DCF or child protective services. My mother has taught me that sometimes your parents just cant take care of you and that even though your adopted that the family that your are with now will always be there for you and will always love you no matter what. At first as a little boy you think okay mom like your my only mom so i don't know what your talking about, but when i turned 12 i began to realize that i do have two families and that even though i'm a kid i have to be very grown-up about it and understand that it's not my fault and that somethings are out of my hands. I think that as you get older you brain can just understand or enhance the meaning of something as you get older instead of trying to understand it when your younger.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger, I never really valued being different from other people. I wanted to conform, be the same. I really cared what everyone else though about me. As I’ve gotten older and had more experiences in the world I have come to realize that those people that do conform are really, really boring. It isn’t fun to be a stereotype or a clone. You blend into the background and miss out on many opportunities in life. I have noticed this more when I started looking at colleges. This spring I went to a couple of college fairs and when talking to the administration officers and observing those around me, I realized that being unique is a big attraction to many colleges. I had to be different and interesting so that colleges would remember me. I could relax and just be myself. Many people my age have not realized this yet. Some never will. But the sooner you do, you can really open yourself up to new opportunities and enjoy life.
ReplyDeleteMany people experience big changes in their lives as they become older and mature. As I got older, I gained more responsibilities. With these, there is little to no room for error, or the consequence could be displeasing. Instead of my parents making plans for me to hang out with a friend, as done in elementary school. I myself now make plans. I have to notify them of days and times, and if I fail to do so, I can get in trouble for lack of communication. Responsibilities such as this can benefit the one who has them, if they are mature enough to understand it. There can be no more excuses, such as having lack of understanding, because you now know right from wrong. Getting grounded or losing your freedoms can be results of misusing new responsibilities.
ReplyDeleteYou also have to learn to take care of yourself, as no one will be doing it for you. If your mom didn't make breakfast, do it yourself. You gain independence through adolescence, and you have to learn to take care of your physical and mental state.
At first, this new lifestyle seemed overwhelming to me. But I eventually realized that it will only get easier if I adapt to it, as life won't be the one adapting to you. So to successfully reach maturity, one has to realize, accept, and go through with their role in both society, and their lives.
Upon becoming older and mature, several things about myself, others, and life itself became aware to me. I realized that nothing in life is going to be handed to me. If I want to achieve a goal, I have to put in hard work and preparation to reach it. Sitting around waiting is not going to do anybody any good. Some people are generous and helpful, while others are selfish, but when it comes down to it, it is every man and woman for themselves. I have dealt with this by building a strong work ethic and focusing on good time management. As I have gotten older, I have also realized that building strong relationships with other people are crucial to succeeding at anything, because everything is easier when you have friends, people that will help you, or people to just give you motivation to keep going. When I was younger, I liked to be with my family and brother a lot, and would rather stay home or do something with them rather than go out. As I have gotten older, I now want to go out with my friends in my free time, because you basically have to fight through a hectic, busy, tiring school week just to get to a couple days off on the weekend, so you want to make the best of it. I always make sure that I still spend quality time with my family as much as possible, whether it is going out to eat, or watch a specific television show every week, because in the end, family is going to be the one their for you. Being older leads to a transition to becoming more independent. You have to start doing things on your own, and you can either choose to prosper, or to fade away with the rest of the pack.
ReplyDeleteAs we grow older from the day we were born, we learn and notice a lot as the world changes around us. Everyday something new happiness and we remember it all. We see the difficulties that life has for us and the tragedies it causes but an amazing world is also revealed to us. The joy and love that life has in store for us is out in the open and it becomes clear to us why we are alive on this planet. As we grow older we are open to new feelings like love and regret and we see just how much we've changes since our childhood. Another thing we see is just how much our bodies change and it takes much more effort to things since we were younger but we learn to cope with the problems and move on with our life's. Our minds change as we grow from a young, curious and reckless child to an older and wiser adult. Even if we do in fact get older we get wiser and stronger and look at the world in a whole new way never seen before.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I have realized throughout my years is everything is hard to achieve. There is no such thing as “the easy way”. Everyone must work to get anything they want; nothing will ever be just laid out on a silver platter in your living room. I used to be under the impression that anyone could do anything at any time they wanted. As I have aged and matured, I have come to realize how far from the truth I was. I used to see mansions, incredible boats, amazing offices, and more and turn to my parents and say, “Daddy, Mommy, why don’t you get one of those?” I would get the usual answer of “because we don’t do what they do.” This would only lead me on to the thought “well why you guys don’t go do it”. I know realize that these people have these things because of decisions they made at our age. These people set themselves up for a chain of events to make them successful. They studied hard and got to the colleges of their choice. From then on they worked even harder, realizing that their drive will turn them into successful people and their best days were ahead. Of all things I have observed over my life, this strikes me as by far the most important.
ReplyDeleteAs we grow older and mature during adolescence, we go through different phases of ourselves. We become to realize the type of person we are and who we want to be. One thing I’ve become aware of more now than I was when I was younger is death. When I was young, I didn’t understand the concept of death and why it brought everybody sadness. I was confused and unaware of what it meant. All I knew was that I never would see them again and I wondered why that was. I always wondered where they went, and why they wouldn’t want to see me again. I was upset that I would never see them again, so I would become angry, not sad. My mom would say “There are now watching over us.” I thought that was weird and creepy, not comforting. Now that I understand what death is and the tragedy behind it, I understand why I need to be quite at a funeral. To give condolences to the people who have lost someone and why I’d never see that person again. Death till this day is a concept I completely don’t understand, but now I know why we act a certain away when it is brought into our life.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was still young, i valued many ideas, beliefs, and objects a lot differently then how I value them now. When I was little, I really treasured many of the toys i had like certain card games or maybe a stuffed animal. I used to really love this bob the builder brick set and love legos, but now I do not pay any attention to these things anymore. I would rather have a phone, TV, and radio than any of those things. I also feel like when I was younger, that I did not think too much about responsibility, because my parents were responsible for me. Now, I am growing to the age where I am much more independent from my family and thus I am responsible for myself and the actions I take, not my parents or relatives. Nowadays I like to spend a lot more time out of the house and away from my family, but then I also need to be responsible for myself and make sure that I am always making the right choices because I do not have people there for me anymore. Also, when I was younger I cared very much of what other people thought of me. The way I looked, even what type of pencils I had and what people i surrounded myself with. These days, I don't really care what other people think of me because I know myself better and I know who I am and that is the person I want to be. This is what has changed from when I was younger to now.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger, I had a much different perspective than I have now. When I was young, I obviously was very innocent. Due to this age-attributed innocence, I recall thinking that the world was a perfect place. As I have transitioned to adolescence, I have become much more aware of my surroundings and have realized that the world isn’t really a perfect place. I progressed to an age where I could understand the horrible events that were being reported by the news every day. This shows how my innocence transitioned to worldly experience, where I became much more aware and comprehending of my surroundings. Also, my public self began to merge with my private self as I got older. When I was young I just did what everyone else was doing, I didn’t have as much personal input. As I got older, I began to realize that conformity is not a good policy to live by. I began to believe that it didn’t matter what people thought about me, as long as I was being myself. Today, I still strongly believe that this is the case. As I have gotten older, I have definitely progressed in terms of experience as well as the development of my public and private self.
ReplyDeleteAs I grew older my outlook on life changed drastically. When you're a kid you don’t really understand what life is about and why things happen but as you get older you learn many new things. As a kid you think you're unstoppable and don’t think bad things can happen but as you get old you experience more things and start to understand and notice things happening around you. For example as a kid if you noticed their was a mean kid, you just thought they were mean nothing else about it but if I looked at the situation now you realize why people act the way they do. Maybe that kid has a bad life, or maybe other people treat him badly so he does the same, you never know but as a kid I would have never look at it that way. Growing older you also understand a lot more about death. Death is something that I would have never really understood as a kid and kids don’t really know why it happens or what it actually is but growing older you start to understand how serious it is and how it happens. Kids also don’t have any worries as a kid I thought everything was always perfect and nothing bad could ever happen to me but now I realize that not all people are nice and their are bad people who do bad crimes and things but as a kid you just put your trust into everyone. As you mature I think the things that changes the most is how you see people and how you act. Obviously, as you grow up you are going to act more mature but you also change how you see people because you start to comprehend more possibilities than before, you end up acting different around people. You grow up by experiencing new things and as you experience them each one makes you wiser and turns you into the person you currently are today.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger I had a much more simplistic view on the people that I saw around me, and the decisions that those people made. When my parents told me something was wrong, something was wrong. I never questioned what they told me, or thought that there could be situations where what was generally considered “wrong” could be “right”. Often times I would see people doing things that my parents told me were wrong, and I wouldn’t understand why those people were doing those things. I thought that maybe their parents hadn’t had a chance to tell them yet, or they were just being rude to their parents. Many of the times that I saw these people I would inform them that what they were doing was wrong, or let them know what the consequences of what they were doing were. For example, my parents have always told me that smoking can kill you, so when I was younger I would tell people that I saw smoking that they were going to die. If someone was riding a bike without a helmet, I would think that they were definitely going to fall off their bike and smash their head open, because that’s what my parents told me was going to happen if I didn’t wear mine. As I grew older, I came to understand that some people were just stupid, and that I would never be like them because my parents haas taught me not to be. Soon after the point that I realized it wasn’t very polite to walk up to someone and tell them that they were going to die because they smoke, I became aware that some people who I thought I knew very well did the very things that I had criticized for so long. I would see a friend not wearing a seatbelt or an uncle smoking behind his house, and I would become very confused. The people who influenced me so much were doing what I knew was wrong. When I saw these people doing these things, I started to wonder if my parents had been wrong. Maybe they weren’t so right all of the time. I went through this stage for a couple of years, where I had to think about everything my parents had taught me and whether or not they were teaching me the right thing. I eventually came to understand that most of the things that my parents had taught me were right, but some people either thought that the benefits outweighed the risks of what they were doing, or understood that what they were doing was wrong, but were having a very difficult time stopping. I sometimes think back to the times when I would criticize other people’s actions to their face. At the time, my ignorance was protected my innocence, but occasionally wonder how people would respond if I asked the same question at the age I am right now. I think that most people would be pretty upset with me, except those who knew me and were really trying to quit. This demonstrates how as people get older, others assume that their view on the world becomes more complex, and they lose their innocence in the minds of others.
ReplyDeleteAs I began to grow up many of my views on ideas became more and more different. As I began to mature I became more aware of all the evil that's in this world. When I was little I looked at things as either right or wrong and nothing more. Now I can see and realize what corrupts people to do horrible things. I started to realize what the reasons were behind the crimes people would do. A lot of the reasons are because of the use of drugs. When I was a child it was as if I was hidden and protected from the dangers of the real world. Now I am out there vulnerable to these dangers. Everyone has to realize that when we were young we knew what was right and what was wrong. Now we forget what we once knew and we have to try to remind ourselves what is right and what is wrong again.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger I equated good and bad with heaven and hell. I didn't know much about Christianity but I did go to Sunday school so I knew what they were. I was so sure that if I ever did anything wrong that I would spend eternity in hell after I died. One example is when I was really young I pocketed this cheap key chain I had found at a store that my mom refused to buy me. When I was taught about heaven and hell I thought back on this and I was sure that when I died I was going to hell. I was terrified, can you imagine being a little kid who's only lived about 8 years and thinking that you will be stuck in this awful place forever? As I became older I realized that most people have done a lot worse than that so I'm probably off the hook for the time being. As I became even older I would start to contemplate whether heaven and hell even existed. My view now is that I shouldn't be doing whats right or wrong in order to determine something that may not even exist, I should just do what's right because it's right and go from there.
ReplyDeleteAs I got older things became more noticeable to me not because i just learned these things but because I have experiences with situations that hen i was younger didn't really get but made assumptions. When you're younger you learn things from what you see around you and from what people tell you. As you get older you begin to realize new things because you aren't basing your opinions off of what someone tells you, but you are basing it more so off what you experience first hand. When I was little I grew up with a bunch of guys, no girls, so I was never big on showing my emotion. Now that I'm older I'm beginning to realize on my own how to show my emotions and when too. The person you are I believe is based entirely off what you were around when you were little because when you're little your only sense of whats right and wrong comes from your parents or siblings till you figure it out on your own from your own experiences. Holden is someone who's stuck in two personalities, one being the one that only he knows, and the other being how he presents himself to others. He shows that throughout the whole book, hiding how true emotions from other. Like me Holden has to learn to express his emotions the right way.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger I always saw older people with all these freedom’s and not having to go to school so I got jealous. From a young age I always wanted to grow up. When you are younger all you see is people not having to go to school, driving cars, and always having money so that what appeals to you but you miss the great parts of being a kid. When you are a kid you get to be totally dependant on your parents, go to school which is easy at that age, and not worry about money because many kids are spoiled and get most of what they want. What kids don’t realize is there is no stress as a kid compared to the lots of stress as an adult. As a kid I thought I would be famous and rich but now I realize that is very unlikely. Now that i’m kind of grown up I realize the real world seems scary and has lots of responsibilities. If it were up to me I would stay this age forever or even go to a younger age. When you are an adult you need to work hard, pay bills, pay car payments, and worry about your family. As a kid you have no responsibilities and school is a much better replacement for work. Also bad things have different punishments. As a kid when you get grounded you think it’s the worst thing but the adult equivalent is going to jail which seams much worse. As a kid you want to grow up and as an adult you want to go back to being a kid.
ReplyDeleteGetting older brings a base of knowledge and somewhat the understanding of life, but as well brings more questions and a complex view of your presence. Whats the meaning behind it all, what am I here for? When you're a kid you don't think about the concepts of life. Your parents guide you through every little step. You replace the simplicity of adolescents with the complexity of growing up. Being a teenager I tend to think I can easily differentiate what's right and wrong. I tend to think I'm in control and on top of everything when I'm not completely. With that said I've come to the conclusion that not knowing everything and understanding that I haven't fully grasped the concept of life is okay. Growing up and being in these teenage years gives a time for messing up and a time for picking yourself up and persevering to overcome challenging obstacles.
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