the Catcher in the Rye lessons

      The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger is a novel about Holden Caulfield, a 17 year old who once again was kicked out of his high school because of his horrible grades. Having a fight with a roommate and then hating the environment he leaves Pencey two days earlier right then. He stays in a hotel for those two days and meets with old friend and meets new people. He then plans on running away and he tells his loved sister about it. He then convinces himself to stay thought how bad things were. by this Salinger is also teaching to not give up on ourselves not just for your own good but by the others around us.

      At the beginning to the end of the book Holden was feeling "depressed" and lonely because he practically didn't have close friends but accountancies. He didn't really find an interest in life and everything was turning out the way he planned it. He was planning to discover new things.

      When he told his younger sister about his plans to run away and she asked him if she can join. He obviously didn't let her come. She got pretty upset but they got to talk things out with each other. He practically decided to not leave because of her, He didn't give up because his sister needed him.

      He ended up going to a different high school in september and was getting "help". Although things weren't that great he still had another chance to fix things. The same way Holden didn't give up on himself mainly for his sister, the author shows us we shouldn't give up on ourselves especially if it affects someone we love.

Character Analysis From "the Catcher in the Rye"

      In the Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, the main character, Holden Caulfield is a 17 year old who once again got kicked out of the school he was going to, due to his horrible grades. He has a very strong anger against practically everything. He's a very stubborn person and just looks for the easy way out of things. 

     When speaking to Mr.Spencer, his history teacher, he tried to understand him and help him: "Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one has to play according to the rules...What's the matter with you boy?". Just because he didn't really like the environment they where in (medicine-smelling room, Mr. Spencer in a chair in a robe, and weak) he completely once again avoided the conversation. "I didn't feel like going through the whole thing with him. He wouldn't  have understood it anyway... but i just couldn't hang there any longer, the way we were on the opposite sides of the pole, and the way he kept missing the bed whenever he chucked something at it, and his sad old bathrobe with his chest showing, and that grippy smell of Vicks Nose Drops all over the place."

      Caulfield is also always looking for the easy way out of things. Caulfield would once again just go to another school, he didn't really make a big deal of him getting kicked out of Pencey, his recent school. The school he went to was " Surrounded by phonies" so he just quit. When spencer asked him if he cared for his future he said yes but "Not too much". Spencer then answered "You will when it's too late." When he wanted to leave he simply said he'll be okay and left. 

      Over all, Holden was incredibly stubborn because of his continuos mistakes and the way he dodges conflicts with out facing them. Throughout the book i can connect to him in some parts by the way we're treated by other and our similar opinions.

Response to Maus by Art Spiegelman.

       The graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman is about a jewish survivor from Hitlers Europe, Vladek Spiegelman and his son, Art, a cartoonist as they discuss Vladeks and his wife, Anjas survival from World War One. In the boo, they way that the Nazis treated Jews was completely  unethical.

       Soldiers as said by Vldaeks father "Made us sing prayers while they laughed and beat us... and before letting us go, they cut off our beards." This is cruelty, they where practically laughing at their religion and forcing them to go against their culture (the long beards).

       The children where abused. They where separated from their families. As stated in the book most of the kids where around 2 or 3 years old. In the book, when this was happening and the children screamed, the soldiers swinged them from the legs against the wall until they could no longer scream.

       They separated families, from unable to work and the "useful" Jews. They first separated the elderly promising they will keep them in safe homes but instead gassed them in concentration camps. They then separated families with too many kids or Jews without work cards. Most Jews where put in concentration camps anyways and killed. 

       All in all, everything that was done to the Jewish was really harsh and cruel. I was filled with anger when I read how miserable people where and the way they were horribly treated. 

The theme of Betrayal in "Maus"

      The Graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman is about a Jewish survivor from Hitler's Europe, Vladek Spiegelman, and his son Art,  a cartoonist, as they discuss Vladek and his wife, Anjas survival of World War Two. In the book the theme of betrayal plays a very big role in Maus and usually brought up because of survival.

       Jews were either working with Nazis or hidden from Nazis in order to survive. In order to do this some had to betray or or be betrayed. For example when Vladek , Anja, and Anja's Family where hiding in the attic an informer found them. He was a Jew himself. They where planning on killing him but instead they took pity on him because he convinced them that he was on of them. They even gave him food when letting him go, and he still decided to give them away to the Nazis. This shows that in order to survive, and stay on the Nazis good side, had to betray Vladek and his family.

 

       Something similar happened when Vladek paid a lady to hide him and Anja in her house. Although he was generous with her and paid her well, when she got the thought that the Germans were going to inspect her house, she kicked them them both out. This was dangerous, especially because, it was sudden and at night when it was most likely for them to be caught. Showing that for the lady to survive ( and not get in trouble with Germans an most likely get shot) she had to kick Vladeck and Anja out of her house.

       Even family had to be betrayed in order to survive. A cousin of Vladeck, Jacov, also worked for Nazis. When Vladeck asked him for help to keep him from jail, he responded "There's nothing I can do!"Betraying him because if the Nazis found out, Jacov would be in danger himself. Until Vladeck offered him gold, then he decided to help. 

      Not just Vladeck and Anja, but other Jews trying to get to safety betrayed who they stood for, their religion. To go out, Vladeck and Anja wore pig masks, or pretended to be Polish. They did this mainly to survive and not get caught as they walked on the streets.

      Betrayal in Maus was a very harsh theme but mainly done for survival. People won't do a favor unless it benefits them somehow.

non-fiction critical analysis

In the article “Turning up the heat” the author Patricia Smith explains with facts and quotes from scientists that if nations don’t act quickly, climate change can have drastically negative effects on the Earth and everything on it. Smith gathers information from the world’s largest scientist organization and claims that the “result could be severe food shortages as crops become harder to grow , rising sea levels make many major coastal cities unavailable and large – scale extinction of plants and animals.” She also explains how it can “slow down economic growth can bring us to violent conflicts over resources, large scale migrations and more people being displaced.” Later on the article she explains what global warming is which is practically green-house gasses which are made from burning oil and coal that lets sunlight inside the atmosphere and trap most heat inside of it, too much of this is being created and not enough heat is being released. She then gives examples of places affected for example: Norfolk Virginia, Chesapeake Bay region, New Jersey, the Philippines, etc. by hurricanes, coastal flooding’s, and more. In the article Smith mentions that some people don’t believe in global warming and think it’s all a lie, but actually there’s a lot of evidence to prove it’s true. This problem has already gone too far and we’ve already been warned a lot of times and for long enough, yet people are still trying to spread the word although probably most people know about this. Most people are avoiding this problem and practically being ignorant.

“The Matrix” is a science fiction movie from 1996. It’s about how humans are “enslaved” in a world called the matrix making them believe they live a normal life in the real world. Neo a computer hacker is freed by a group of people rebelling against this computerized controlled world. Freedom is a philosophical theme that “The Matrix” connects to. In “the Matrix” the main reason that Neo and the others are rebelling against the Matrix is because they believe they have no freedom. Morpheus the leader of the group explained to Neo that “… a man born inside who had the ability to change whatever he wanted, to remake the Matrix as he saw fit. It was he who freed the first of us, taught us the truth: As long as the Matrix exists the human race will never be free.” Demonstrating that he thought the matrix was a jail and no one was free. Also, agent Smith,who was fighting against Morpheus and Neo, even said himself “hate this place, this zoo, this prison, this reality, whatever you want to call it. I can't stand it any longer. It's the smell. If there is such a thing. I feel... saturated by it. I can taste your stink. And every time I do I feel I have somehow been infected by it, it's repulsive. I must get out of here. I must get free and in this mind is the key, my key.” He feels as if he is not free also. In “the matrix” a philosophical topic that connects to the movie is freedom because practically there’s a group of people rebelling against is because the believe they aren’t free.

Social Action inquiry question #1

What really dificult/ Complex things are happening in the text? In the book "The absoloutley true diary of a part time Indian" there are many complex things happening. This affects the main character in many ways. In this book many white people believe that people from the rez are immature, agresive and not as smart. The thought that Indians from the rez are different from White people causes people from the rez to actually believe it too. The thought gets stuck in there minds causing anger and kills all hope for Indians to be something better and acomplish new things. As in for onne of the teachers of the school still has hope and finds it in the main character but he's unsure if he should go ahead and go study in white peoples school wich takes education morte seriously because the rez will think of the main character as atraitor. Although he goes some white people are also surprised but later on accepets him, yet people of the rezervation still see him as traitor and dont want him anymore.