CH.17 quote

"The whole thing was sort of funny, in a way, if you thought about it, and all of the sudden I did something I shouldn't have. I laughed." -Holden

 To me this quote says that Holden did something he shouldn't have done. He laughed at something that Sally did not thing was one bit funny. I think it shows Holden's lack of taking things seriously. It seems to me like Holden can take anything regarding his family seriously but when it goes outside of his family its all fake so he doesn't care. At least Holden realized that laughing was wrong. I think that this can be used through out the rest of the book because it shows that Holden can not take things seriously if he doesn't feel that the other person is real. Holden thinks pretty much everyone is phony, and if they are phony then why should he care what he says to them? Phonies are a joke to Holden so at the beginning he might treat them seriously, and I think he treats them seriously at the beginning hopping to find a true real person behind the phoniness. 

Week 3 Holden and Russell

'Better is one's own duty imperfectly carried out than

following perfectly the law of another.

Better is death in the fulfillment of one's own law,

for to follow another's law is perilous.'

-The Bhagavad-Gita

          I think that this relates to Holden a lot. One of the reasons being that Holden isn't really sure what he is doing, its seems like he is making moves on the fly. Him making moves on the fly and not being so sure of himself but still being true connects with the part of the quote that says "Better is one's own duty imperfectly carried out than following perfectly the law of another."  the last part of the quote connects to Holden because Holden wants to be true, not phony, and be true to himself. 

          I once read a book by Russell Simmons titled Do You!. The book was about how Russell became such a success and how he maintains to be successful. Russell's biggest phrase was do you. He was big on being yourself and not being phony because when other people find out your phony they won't like you anymore. His example was Vanilla Ice. Vanilla claimed he was from the ghetto and other lies and then the public found out it was all fake and he only became a one hit wonder and disappeared. I think Holden is doing him and being himself. There is nothing better than being true to yourself for you only have one life and why waste it being someone your not. Russell and Holden have a lot in common they both don't like phonies and they both make their own decisions based upon their own individual mind, not others.

Is Holden a good person?

Everyone in this world has good and bad qualities. Some people may have more good than bad or more bad than good. It all depends on the person. To me Holden has some good and bad. I personally believe he has more good than bad. He might not always make the right decisions but that doesn't make him a bad person. Holden seems to care about his little sister and wants to call her,that makes me think he's a good person. He is also outgoing and I think that can be a good quality to have but at sometimes it could be views as bad. One bad quality I think he has is that he has no plans or st least it seems that way. We haven't heard what he wants to do with his life. He just let's the world move him along. I believe he is a good guy that has good intentions but sometimes makes bad decisions. For example, when he decided to leave his school before winter break. You can tell he has common sense because he was careful about who he called. He kept thinking what they would do if he called them.

Chapter 5 Grief

After reading chapter five I was a little shocked and I sort of felt bad for Holden. If my little sister would pass away I cant even begin to think about how much my life would change.I think that Allie's death is partly responsible for some of Holden's actions. Holden seems to me like he can be a bit cocky sometimes, like when he forgot the team's equipment and laughed about it. Allie's death might play a role in why he gets angry like with Ackley.

Allie is obviously on Holden's mind because he wrote a paper about his baseball mitt, how it had poems written on it and was special.

My Thoughts on Holden

Holden seems to be like a typical teenager today. He sounds like he has a lot of potential but does not use it. He even said he doesn't apply himself in school which makes me think he's just holding back. I like that Holden is relatable to me and other kids today. Teenagers like to rebel and when they screw something up they try and act like nothing happened. I think I empathize with Holden because if I'm working on something I'm not interested in I'm not going to as good of a job as I would if I was interested. It seems as if Holden is really smart but since he isn't interested he doesn't care and doesn't do his best.

Dream Big

Arnold thinks that he has no chance to become anything in his life so he kind of gives up on having his own dream. When he got his moms old workbook he thought he was doomed sense his mom didn't get the chance to amount to anything so he thought he would end up the same. I think that Arnold doesn't think dreams have that much power. I think its because his hopes and dreams have been crushed by his surroundings and he thinks that he has not a chance to have anything special. I think its good to have a dream, it gives you something to strive for but if you are always around people that do not amount to anything and are taught that you don't about to anything you won't. I think he would respond to dream big as a joke, he is in the rez and nothing can happen in there. You need other people that believe in you to become successful you can't do it on your own. If no one believes you will struggle and just give up because nobody has had a positive attitude towards your dream. We give up on our dreams because sometimes the people around us doubt us and your dream can be so big that people don't even take it serious.

American Teenager

In my opinion an American teenager likes to hang with friends, listen to music, and express themselves in their clothes. A lot of teens today are always on Facebook or other social networking sites like Twitter. They are on their phones texting, updating their status, or checking their email. technology is their thing and they are always on the the newest gadget.