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.