Review: Brokeback Mountain

Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



View all my reviews

Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx-Notes & Highlights

When I say that I love this story I really mean it. It means so much to me! I even wrote countless essays based on this movie! I will provide a link to a folder of them below. 

You can easily tell how passionately I love the story by how I write in the essays. There are so many issues with society in this story that there was a lot to talk about in the essays.

Although it is extremely tragic, I love this love story so much! I absolutely loved the performances from the main leads.

My Brokeback Mountain Essays (except for the last file, it’s based on another movie, just ignore that one in the folder):

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dX_9LcI4dMKZQCOfn58qIDquYZL2p5Ky?usp=sharing

All my Kindle highlights were in blue because the main colors in the movie were blue. The movie poster has Ennis and Jack both wearing blue jean jackets, so it makes sense to me.

I really wanna order the physical book, so I can add it to my collection and write down the rest of the page numbers.

God! I was such a mess over that movie lol tears everywhere!! Hahaha

Playlists: ⤵️

My Brokeback Mountain Covers:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYL0fUO8zjtZ-xOKxGGF_tEwm15YvyyQ8

My Favorite Brokeback Mountain YouTube Mixes:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYL0fUO8zjtbsc845JwFFG19qfGI_6CJG

Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYL0fUO8zjtbNVZNphxBEzgf49YKW7cw7

Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3fu1p0UWHtjIvVl2nSWV39?si=c148206216f948da

My Favorite Instrumental Tracks from the Movie Soundtrack:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2gl3fp9L9b0YOD3Qja7Iig?si=844472ee4201461a

Brokeback Mountain Theme ‘The Wings’ Remixes Spotify Album (I love this album!):

https://open.spotify.com/album/6XnqbZ7CF6Ml8claSb9bkl?si=tvtuNaBdRMGdlvYtmQpa9w

---

“...yet he is suffused with a sense of pleasure because Jack Twist was in his dream. 

The stale coffee is boiling up but he catches it before it goes over the side, pours it into a stained cup and blows on the black liquid, lets a panel of the dream slide forward. If he does not force his attention on it, it might stoke the day, rewarm that old, cold time on the mountain when they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong.”

“Shot a coyote just first light,” he told Jack the next evening, sloshing his face with hot water, lathering up soap and hoping his razor had some cut left in it, while Jack peeled potatoes. “Big son of a bitch. Balls on him size a apples.”

There’s this mix on YouTube that uses this line from the movie and I love it! Check it out here:

“Jack said his father had been a pretty well known bullrider years back but kept his secrets to himself, never gave Jack a word of advice, never came once to see Jack ride, though he had put him on the woolies when he was a little kid.”

Jack said this line in the movie right before this scene starts:

“They were respectful of each other’s opinions, each glad to have a companion where none had been expected. Ennis, riding against the wind back to the sheep in the treacherous, drunken light, thought he’d never had such a good time, felt he could paw the white out of the moon.”

“Ennis knew the salty words to “Strawberry Roan.” Jack tried a Carl Perkins song, bawling “what I say-ay-ay,” but he favored a sad hymn, “Water-Walking Jesus,” learned from his mother who believed in the Pentecost,”

“Strawberry Roan”:

“...a Carl Perkins song”:

“Water-Walking Jesus”: https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/d2763fcb-c879-4b85-b361-e914b8130980

“‘Jesus Christ, quit hammerin and get over here. Bedroll’s big enough,’ said Jack in an irritable sleep-clogged voice. It was big enough, warm enough, and in a little while they deepened their intimacy considerably. Ennis ran fullthrottle on all roads whether fence mending or money spending, and he wanted none of it when Jack seized his left hand and brought it to his erect cock. Ennis jerked his hand away as though he’d touched fire, got to his knees, unbuckled his belt, shoved his pants down, hauled Jack onto all fours and, with the help of the clear slick and a little spit, entered him, nothing he’d done before but no instruction manual needed. They went at it in silence except for a few sharp intakes of breath and Jack’s choked ‘gun’s goin off,’ then out, down, and asleep.

Ennis woke in red dawn with his pants around his knees, a top-grade headache, and Jack butted against him; without saying anything about it both knew how it would go for the rest of the summer, sheep be damned. 

As it did go. They never talked about the sex, let it happen, at first only in the tent at night, then in the full daylight with the hot sun striking down, and at evening in the fire glow, quick, rough, laughing and snorting, no lack of noises, but saying not a goddamn word except once Ennis said, ‘I’m not no queer,’ and Jack jumped in with ‘Me neither. A one-shot thing. Nobody’s business but ours.’...waiting until they'd buttoned up their jeans" (Proulx 14-15 Brokeback Mountain).

Of course, I have to attach the love scene here:

And the aftermath:

“Late in the afternoon, thunder growling, that same old green pickup rolled in and he saw Jack get out of the truck, beat-up Resistol tilted back. A hot jolt scalded Ennis and he was out on the landing pulling the door closed behind him. Jack took the stairs two and two. They seized each other by the shoulders, hugged mightily, squeezing the breath out of each other, saying, son of a bitch, then, and easily as the right key turns the lock tumblers, their mouths cam together, and hard, Jack's big teeth bringing blood, his hat falling to the floor, stubble rasping, wet saliva welling, and the door opening and Alma looking out for a few seconds at Ennis's straining shoulders and shutting the door again and still they clinched, pressing chest and groin and thigh and leg together, treading on each other's toes until they pulled apart to breathe and Ennis, not big on endearments, said what he said to his horses and daughters, little darlin. 

... 

His chest was heaving. He could smell Jack--the intensely familiar odor of cigarettes, musky sweat and a faint sweetness like grass, and with it the rushing cold of the mountain. 

... 

His shaking hand grazed Ennis's hand, electrical current snapped between them. 

... 

From the vibration of the floorboard on which they both stood Ennis could feel how hard Jack was shaking. 

... 

They went off in Jack's truck, bought a bottle of whiskey and within twenty minutes were in the Motel Siesta jouncing a bed. A few handfuls of hail rattled against the window followed by rain and slippery wind banging the unsecured door of the next room then and through the night.

The room stank of semen and smoke and sweat and whiskey, of old carpet and sour hay, saddle leather, shit and cheap soap. Ennis lay spread-eagled, spent and wet, breathing deep still half tumescent, Jack blowing forceful cigarette clouds like whale spouts, and Jack said, ‘Christ, it got a be all that time a yours ahorseback makes it so goddamn good. We got to talk about this. Swear to god I didn’t know we was goin a get into this again--yeah, I did. Why I’m here. I fuckin knew it. Redlined all the way, couldn’t get here fast enough’” (Proulx 21-24 Brokeback Mountain).

“Jack said he was doing all right but he missed Ennis bad enough sometimes to make him whip babies. 

The horses nickered in the darkness beyond the fire’s circle of light. Ennis put his arm around Jack, pulled him close … Jack slid his cold hand between Ennis’s legs … undoing buttons … and they rolled down into the dirt. One thing never changed: the brilliant charge of their infrequent couplings was darkened by the sense of time flying, never enough time, never enough” (Proulx 38-39 Brokeback Mountain).

“November. What in hell happened a August? Tell you what, we said August, nine, ten days. Christ, Ennis! Whyn’t you tell me this before? You had a fuckin week to say some little word about it. And why’s it we’re always in the friggin cold weather? We ought a do somethin. We ought a go south. We ought a go to Mexico one day.” 

“Mexico? Jack, you know me. All the travelin I ever done is goin around the coffeepot lookin for the handle. And I’ll be runnin the baler all August, that’s what’s the matter with August. Lighten up, Jack. We can hunt in November, kill a nice elk. Try if I can get Don Wroe’s cabin again. We had a good time that year.” “You know, friend, this is a goddamn bitch of a unsatisfactory situation. You used a come away easy. It’s like seein the pope now.” 

“Jack, I got a work. Them earlier days I used a quit the jobs. You got a wife with money, a good job. You forget how it is bein broke all the time. You ever hear a child support? I been payin out for years and got more to go. Let me tell you, I can’t quit this one. And I can’t get the time off. It was tough gettin this time--some a them late heifers is still calvin. You don’t leave then. You don’t. Stoutamire is a hell-raiser and he raised hell about me takin the week. I don’t blame him. He probly ain’t got a night’s sleep since I left. The trade-off was August. You got a better idea?”

“I did once.” The tone was bitter and accusatory. 

Ennis said nothing, straightened up slowly, rubbed at his forehead; a horse stamped inside the trailer. He walked to his truck, put his hand on the trailer, said something that only the horses could hear, turned and walked back at a deliberate pace. 

“You been a Mexico, Jack?” Mexico was the place. He’d heard. He was cutting fence now, trespassing in the shoot-em zone. “Hell yes, I been. Where’s the fuckin problem?” Braced for it all these years and here it came, late and unexpected. 

“I got a say this to you one time, Jack, and I ain’t foolin. What I don’t know,” said Ennis, “all them things I don’t know could get you killed if I should come to know them.” 

“Try this one,” said Jack, “and I’ll say it just one time. Tell you what, we could a had a good life together, a fuckin real good life. You wouldn’t do it, Ennis, so what we got now is Brokeback Mountain. Everthing built on that. It’s all we got, boy, fuckin all, so I hope you know that if you don’t never know the rest. Count the damn few times we been together in twenty years. Measure the fuckin short leash you keep me on, then ask me about Mexico and then tell me you’ll kill me for needin it and not hardly never gettin it. You got no fuckin idea how bad it gets. I’m not you. I can’t make it on a couple a high-altitude fucks once or twice a year. You’re too much for me, Ennis, you son of a whoreson bitch. I wish I knew how to quit you.” 

Like vast clouds of steam from thermal springs in winter the years of things unsaid and now unsayable--admissions, declarations, shames, guilts, fears--rose around them. Ennis stood as if heart-shot, face grey and deep-lined, grimacing, eyes screwed shut, fists clenched, legs caving, hit the ground on his knees. 

“Jesus,” said Jack. “Ennis?” But before he was out of the truck, trying to guess if it was heart attack or the overflow of an incendiary rage, Ennis was back on his feet and somehow, as a coat hanger is straightened to open a locked car and then bent again to its original shape, they torqued things almost to where they had been, for what they’d said was no news. Nothing ended, nothing begun, nothing resolved.

What Jack remembered and craved in a way he could neither help nor understand was the time that distant summer on Brokeback when Ennis had come up behind him and pulled him close, the silent embrace satisfying some shared and sexless hunger.

They had stood that way for a long time in front of the fire, its burning tossing ruddy chunks of light, the shadow of their bodies a single column against the rock. The minutes ticked by from the round watch in Ennis’s pocket, from the sticks in the fire settling into coals. Stars bit through the wavy heat layers above the fire. Ennis’s breath came slow and quiet, he hummed, rocked a little in the sparklight and Jack leaned against the steady heartbeat, the vibrations of the humming like faint electricity and, standing, he fell into sleep that was not sleep but something else drowsy and tranced until Ennis, dredging up a rusty but still useable phrase from the childhood time before his mother died, said, “Time to hit the hay, cowboy. I got a go. Come on, you’re sleepin on your feet like a horse,” and gave Jack a shake, a push, and went off in the darkness. Jack heard his spurs tremble as he mounted, the words “see you tomorrow,” and the horse’s shuddering snort, grind of hoof on stone” (Proulx 43-44 Brokeback Mountain).

“Jack used a say, ‘Ennis del Mar,’ he used a say, ‘I’m goin a bring him up here one a these days and we’ll lick this damn ranch into shape.’ He had some half-baked idea the two a you was goin a move up here, build a log cabin and help me run this ranch and bring it up.”

“At the north end of the closet a tiny jog in the wall made a slight hiding place and here, stiff with long suspension from a nail, hung a shirt. He lifted it off the nail. Jack’s old shirt from Brokeback days. The dried blood on the sleeve was his own blood, a gushing nosebleed on the last afternoon on the mountain when Jack, in their contortionistic grappling and wrestling, had slammed Ennis’s nose hard with his knee. He had staunched the blood which was everywhere, all over both of them, with his shirtsleeve, but the staunching hadn’t held because Ennis had suddenly swung from the deck and laid the ministering angel out in the wild columbine, wings folded. The shirt seemed heavy until he saw there was another shirt inside it, the sleeves carefully worked down inside Jack’s sleeves. It was his own plaid shirt, lost, he’d thought, long ago in some damn laundry, his dirty shirt, the pocket ripped, buttons missing, stolen by Jack and hidden here inside Jack’s own shirt, the pair like two skins, one inside the other, two in one. He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands.”

“Ennis, what are you lookin for rootin through them postcards?” said Linda Higgins, throwing a sopping brown coffee filter into the garbage can. 

“Scene a Brokeback Mountain.” 

“Over in Fremont County?” 

“No, north a here.” 

“I didn’t order none a them. Let me get the order list. They got it I can get you a hunderd. I got a order some more cards anyway.” 

“One’s enough,” said Ennis. 

When it came -- thirty cents -- he pinned it up in his trailer, brass-headed tack in each corner. Below it he drove a nail and on the nail he hung the wire hanger and the two old shirts suspended from it. He stepped back and looked at the ensemble through a few stinging tears. 

“Jack, I swear -- “ he said, though Jack had never asked him to swear anything and was himself not the swearing kind. 

Around that time Jack began to appear in his dreams, Jack as he had first seen him, curly-headed and smiling and bucktoothed, talking about getting up off his pockets and into the control zone, but the can of beans with the spoon handle jutting out and balanced on the log was there as well, in a cartoon shape and lurid colors that gave the dreams a flavor of comic obscenity. The spoon handle was the kind that could be used as a tire iron. And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release; the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets.

There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can’t fix it you’ve got to stand it.”

---

In the film Brokeback Mountain there are various examples that relate to the representation of men and the male body. The active/passive concept is portrayed through a few scenes in the film. An example of a passive role is in the scene where Jake Gyllenhaal's character, Jack, is by the campfire waiting for Heath Ledger's character, Ennis. We see that Ennis has a head injury and Jack tries to treat his wound for him, but Ennis quickly takes Jack's hand away and treats his own wound. In this instance, Jack would be given the passive role because his action of treating Ennis' wound would compare him to a nurse, which is a culturally viewed traditional woman's job. An example of an active role is when Ennis and Jack herd the sheep because they are represented as the traditional western cowboy. The active state of herding the sheep displays these two men as controlling, as in they control the sheep. Another example of a passive theme is when Jack is the submissive partner in the sexual act that Ennis and him share. Women are eternally the submissive partner and when Jack initiated the act he made himself "the woman in the relationship." Another example of an active theme is when Ennis and Jack fight before they leave Brokeback mountain because that is how they say goodbye to each other.

In the movie, the camera position, lighting, and body placement are important to the display of the male body and there are a few examples that illustrate this. For example, in a scene where Jack is peeling a potato the camera pans over to his face that is positioned to the left of the screen and Ennis is positioned to the right. Ennis is naked and is washing his genitals in the background, which is blurry and we only see the side of his body. In this instance, Ennis’ body is positioned in a way that his genitals and his entire body is clearly concealed by the blurry composition. Another example of the display of the male body is in a scene where Jack is in a similar position that Ennis was in. Jack is washing his clothes, wearing boots and nothing else, by the river in a squatting position and the camera pans up from his rear end to his head, then it cuts to a wide shot. This scene emphasizes on the idea that male nudity is almost always shown from behind and though the lighting is very bright we still do not see male frontal nudity. The only time we see some nudity that shows the genitals is when Jack and Ennis jump off a cliff naked into a lake.

Brokeback Mountain contains examples of the masculine spectacle and of the collapse of masculinity. For the masculine spectacle, the phrase “how much of a man are you?” suits the way Ennis proves his masculinity. For example, in the scene where Ennis’ family goes to see the fourth of July fireworks Ennis fights with two drunks who disturb them. In this scene Ennis confirms his measurable masculinity by protecting his family from danger. If he were to let the drunks curse in front of his daughters he would be, in our culture’s eyes, not a man. By proving his masculinity he is a better father somehow. The collapse of masculinity is shown through the scene where Ennis cries in Jack’s arms after Jack says, “I wish I knew how to quit you.” Ennis’ crying shows how weak his masculinity is at that point and he tries to put his masculinity back in check when he pushes Jack away as he tries to comfort him, but ultimately Ennis falls to his knees and continues to cry.

Word Count: 625

Professor Peter Lehman
FMS 100
04 December 2017
Final Examination

Review: The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



View all my reviews

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger-Notes & Highlights

The main reason I chose to reread The Catcher in the Rye is because of when it was mentioned in the movie called “The Good Girl” (2002) with Jake Gyllenhal and Jennifer Aniston. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55u2eXwbkM4

I really love that movie and I thought the book really related to the main male character in the story. I read it once before in high school, which is the best time to read it, I think. I even wrote a small essay on the book, which I will share here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-ezagM1amOE2adsCDH6sjhQPpOYzNuDNKKfxx9OKnmQ/edit?usp=sharing

Then I started researching any film adaptations and found a few I watched right after finishing reading the book. I reread the whole book in one day with the help of this audiobook: https://soundcloud.com/stephen-heintz-218879435/sets/the-catcher-in-the-rye-audiobook

The narrator was amazing, though I didn’t like the high pitched voice he gave Holden, but it grew on me overtime. I watched “Rebel in the Eye” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWRhXMMb7CY

and “Coming Through the Rye” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBpnXJ49RBs

right after finishing the book. All in one full day lol

I plan to read all of Salinger’s work in the future.

All my highlights were in orange in my iPad Kindle app because the book cover is orange. I still need to underline them in my physical copy, but I have to wait about a year or two because we don’t have a house. I think I would reread it when I get my hands on it. I would also have to check if my quotes are in the correct format as the physical copy. If they are not, I would have to fix this blog post. Who knows? I might add more quotes when I reread it again.

I made a playlist of all the songs that were mentioned in the novel.

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger Spotify Playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4djnIbjBeGxCRplgDzjBoa?si=qg0BhNCiQZKwru9_5eax_A

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger YouTube Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYL0fUO8zjtb11CphNTKpWm-K9EfbsrrU

Books and Authors Mentioned in The Catcher in the Rye:

Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

Ring Lardner (author)

Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham

Eustacia Vye, in The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

Charles Dickens. He’s both their favorite author and all. He’s carrying this copy of Oliver Twist

A Farewell to Arms (book)

Movies Mentioned in The Catcher in the Rye:

French movie, The Baker’s Wife, with Raimu in it

The 39 Steps, though, with Robert Donat

Senia got me this for Christmas, I think. I love it!

Saturday, January 4, 2020 at 11:20 AM

Tuesday, July 27, 2021 at 8:32 AM

Lexile: 790

---

“Out of Africa, by Isak Dinesen. I thought it was going to stink, but it didn’t. It was a very good book. I’m quite illiterate, but I read a lot. My favorite author is my brother D.B., and my next favorite is Ring Lardner. My brother gave me a book by Ring Lardner for my birthday, just before I went to Pencey.

...

The Return of the Native

...

Of Human Bondage, by Somerset Maugham,

…

Thomas Hardy up. I like that Eustacia Vye.

…

He came over and stood right in my light. ‘Hey,’ I said. ‘I’ve read this same sentence about twenty times since you came in.’

…

He kept standing there. He was exactly the kind of a guy that wouldn’t get out of your light when you asked him to. He’d do it, finally, but it took him a lot longer if you asked him to. ‘What the hellya reading?’ he said. 

‘Goddam book.’ 

He shoved my book back with his hand so that he could see the name of it. ‘Any good?’ he said. ‘This sentence I’m reading is terrific.’ I can be quite sarcastic when I’m in the mood. He didn’t get it, though” (Chapter 3).

Lol I thought it was so funny when Holden kept going on about his one precious sentence! That’s one line I remember reading first.

“...whistling ‘Song of India’

…

‘Slaughter on Tenth Avenue.’

…

‘Hey,’ Stradlater said. ‘Wanna do me a big favor?’ 

‘What?’ I said. Not too enthusiastic. He was always asking you to do him a big favor. You take a very handsome guy, or a guy that thinks he’s a real hot-shot, and they’re always asking you to do them a big favor. Just because they’re crazy about themself, they think you’re crazy about them, too, and that you’re just dying to do them a favor. It’s sort of funny, in a way.

...

I didn’t answer him right away. Suspense is good for some bastards like Stradlater” (Chapter 4).

Why does Holden always have to go to quick conclusions about one guy and assume every other guy like that is the same? Is that the definition of racism? I’m not sure, but I like how Salinger writes.

The audiobook narrator sounds like Jake Gyllenhal. I think he would be a perfect option to play Holden!

“One thing about packing depressed me a little. I had to pack these brand-new ice skates my mother had practically just sent me a couple of days before. That depressed me. I could see my mother going in Spaulding’s and asking the salesman a million dopy questions-and here I was getting the ax again. It made me feel pretty sad. She bought me the wrong kind of skates-I wanted racing skates and she bought hockey-but it made me sad anyway. Almost every time somebody gives me a present, it ends up making me sad” (Chapter 7).

“The only reason I didn’t do it was because I wasn’t in the mood. If you’re not in the mood, you can’t do that stuff right” (Chapter 9).

“D.B. and I took her to see this French movie, The Baker’s Wife, with Raimu in it. It killed her. Her favorite is The 39 Steps, though, with Robert Donat. 

…

I’m very fond of dancing, sometimes, and that was one of the times.

…

Buddy Singer and his stinking band was playing “Just One of Those Things”

…

‘Seattle, Washington,’ she said. She was doing me a big favor to tell me. 

‘You’re a very good conversationalist,’ I told her. ‘You know that?’ 

‘What?’” (Chapter 10).

“I’m very fond of dancing, sometimes, and that was one of the times.” That’s another favorite line of mine. The last line is funny because the girl isn’t very conversational at all lol

“Then she left. The Navy guy and I told each other we were glad to’ve met each other. Which always kills me. I’m always saying ‘Glad to’ve met you’ to somebody I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though” (Chapter 12).

That’s so true though, Holden! It really is!

“After I put my bags in one of those strong boxes at the station, I went into this little sandwich bar and had breakfast. I had quite a large breakfast, for me-orange juice, bacon and eggs, toast and coffee. Usually I just drink some orange juice. I’m a very light eater. I really am. That’s why I’m so damn skinny. I was supposed to be on this diet where you eat a lot of starches and crap, to gain weight and all, but I didn’t ever do it. When I’m out somewhere, I generally just eat a Swiss cheese sandwich and a malted milk. It isn’t much, but you get quite a lot of vitamins in the malted milk. H. V. Caulfield. Holden Vitamin Caulfield. 

...

Eustacia Vye, in The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy” (Chapter 15).

I thought that was funny when Holden called himself “Holden Vitamin Caulfield.” I also wanted a malted milkshake after reading that part lol

Original Blog Post: Saturday, May 1, 2021

May 2, 2021 Blog Update: It was Sunday and we went to Five Guys to get a hamburger and a milkshake. I got a malted milk milkshake with vanilla and a hamburger with one patty, A1 sauce, and grilled onions. It was so delicious! It was like a steak in between two buns. But the other main thing I wanted was the malted milkshake of course because he mentioned that he would eat them all the time.

“‘Little Shirley Beans’ 

…

He was singing that song, ‘If a body catch a body coming through the rye.’

…

I mean you’d be different in some way-I can’t explain what I mean. And even if I could, I’m not sure I’d feel like it” (Chapter 16).

“‘Tin Roof Blues,’ 

…

Then I sort of started lighting matches. I do that quite a lot when I’m in a certain mood. I sort of let them burn down till I can’t hold them any more, then I drop them in the ashtray. It’s a nervous habit” (Chapter 17).

That’s funny because the character named Astor in the book called “The Edge of Falling” by Rebecca Serle did that too and this book was mentioned in that book. I can see some inspirations of Salinger in there lol

“Charles Dickens. He’s both their favorite author and all. He’s carrying this copy of Oliver Twist

…

A Farewell to Arms

…

Ring Lardner,

…

I was crazy about The Great Gatsby. Old Gatsby. Old sport. That killed me” (Chapter 18).

I love that book too, Holden! I first read it in high school and thought it was really interesting.

“‘You know that song “If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye”? I’d like-’ 

‘It’s “If a body meet a body coming through the rye”!’ old Phoebe said. ‘It’s a poem. By Robert Burns.’ 

‘I know it’s a poem by Robert Burns.’

She was right, though. It is ‘If a body meet a body coming through the rye.’ I didn’t know it then, though. 

‘I thought it was “If a body catch a body,”’ I said. ‘Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around-nobody big, I mean-except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff-I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be. I know it’s crazy’” (Chapter 22).

“Mr. Antolini lit another cigarette. He smoked like a fiend. Then he said, ‘Frankly, I don’t know what the hell to say to you, Holden.’ 

‘I know. I’m very hard to talk to. I realize that.’ 

‘I have a feeling that you’re riding for some kind of a terrible, terrible fall. But I don’t honestly know what kind … Are you listening to me?’ 

‘Yes.’ 

You could tell he was trying to concentrate and all.

‘It may be the kind where, at the age of thirty, you sit in some bar hating everybody who comes in looking as if he might have played football in college. Then again, you may pick up just enough education to hate people who say, “It’s a secret between he and I.” Or you may end up in some business office, throwing paper clips at the nearest stenographer. I just don’t know. But do you know what I’m driving at, at all?’” (Chapter 24).

“I know. I’m very hard to talk to. I realize that.” The narrator sounded so sad when he said this line. It made me feel sorry for Holden.

“‘Oh, Marie!’

…

‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.’

…

She ran and bought her ticket and got back on the goddam carrousel just in time. Then she walked all the way around it till she got her own horse back. Then she got on it. She waved to me and I waved back. Boy, it began to rain like a bastard. In buckets, I swear to God. All the parents and mothers and everybody went over and stood right under the roof of the carrousel, so they wouldn’t get soaked to the skin or anything, but I stuck around on the bench for quite a while. I got pretty soaking wet, especially my neck and my pants. My hunting hat really gave me quite a lot of protection, in a way; but I got soaked anyway. I didn’t care, though. I felt so damn happy all of sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. I was damn near bawling, I felt so damn happy, if you want to know the truth. I don’t know why. It was just that she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around and around, in her blue coat and all. God, I wish you could’ve been there” (Chapter 25).

I like when he says he wishes I was there.

I also found this monologue about The Catcher in the Rye.

Random Thought That Came To Me That Pertains To This Book:

I have noticed that people who think differently than the general public always get portrayed in a bad way. For example, Holden Caulfield in "The Catcher in the Rye" was put into a mental hospital at the end. In the movie "Good Girl" Jake Gyllenhaal's character loves that book and he dies at the end. What does that say about people who think this way? It says that if you think differently in any way only bad things will come to you because you have to conform.

---

The Strokes & The Catcher in the Rye 

(Taken from personal blog [Sunday, April 26, 2020 at 3:53 p.m.])

The Strokes reminds me of The Catcher in the Rye Holden character. I wrote an essay on the book, by the way. I wrote for an English class for freshman year in high school.

My Essay:

The Catcher in the Rye

Being a teenager is not easy. There are complex issues of identity, belonging, connection, and alienation. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caufield recounts the days following his expulsion from Pencey Prep, a private school. After a fight with his roommate, Stradlater, Holden leaves school two days early to explore New York before returning home, interacting with teachers, prostitutes, nuns, an old girlfriend, and his sister along the way.

In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden got kicked out of Pencey Prep because he was flunking four subjects. He went on his way to say goodbye to old Spencer, his history teacher. Holden lived in the Ossenburger Memorial Wing of the new dorms at Pencey.His roommate Ward Stradlater had a date with Jean Gallagher that night. Holden and a friend of his, Mal Brossard, plus Ackley all decided to take a bus into Agerstown and have a hamburger. Then Stradlater came back from his date and they got into a conflict and started fighting. Holden decided to run away from Pencey and check into a hotel in New York because it made him too sad and lonesome to hang around there any longer. He walked to the train station and met a lady. The mother of a boy in one of his classes named Ernest Morrow. Holden checked into the Edmont Hotel and phoned a girl named Faith Cavendish. Then went down to the Lavender Room, a nightclub in the hotel, and danced with three girls around thirty or so. Holden sat in a chair in the lobby and thought about Jane for a while. Then he got a cab to travel to Ernie's, a nightclub. Holden saw one of his brother's friends, Lillian Simmons, while he was there. Then he ordered a prostitute up to his room from the elevator guy. Old Maurice, the pimpy elevator guy, and Holden got into a clash about how he owed him five bucks. Then he gave Sally Hayes a buzz for a date. Since his date was not until four more hours Holden had breakfast at this little sandwich bar where he met some nuns.Then Holden payed a little visit to the Museum of Natural History. He went on his date with old Sally to a play called The Lunts. Holden decided to see a movie at Radio City till him and an old intellectual friend of his named Carl Luce had a drink at the Wicker Bar. After the movie was over Holden walked to the bar to meet Carl there and had a conversation about each others sex life. Holden stayed at the bar getting drunk and walked over to Central Park. Then he decided to walk home and sneak in quietly to talk to his little sister Phoebe for a while. Holden's parents arrived so he left. He went over to Mr. and Mrs.Antolini's apartment to stay for the night. Holden wrote a note to Phoebe and they visited the zoo.

The Catcher in the Rye has many themes; however, I believe the most conspicuous is alienation as a form of self protection. I believe that the main character, Holden, learns how to use his isolation as proof that he is better than everyone else around him and therefore above interacting with them. I learned that interactions with other people can usually confuse and overwhelm some, and that cynical sense of superiority serves as a type of self protection. A quote that helps support this theme is when Holden says, "He really was, too. You could see that. But it was just that we were too much on opposite sides of the pole, that's all." (8). Holden seems to be excluded from and victimized by the world around him. He continually attempts to find his way in a world in which he feels he does not belong.

An example of setting is when Holden started telling his story from his school. "Where I want to start telling is the day I left Pencey Prep. Pencey Prep is this school that's in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. You probably heard of it. You've probably seen the ads, anyway. They advertise in about a thousand magazines, always showing some hotshot guy on a horse jumping over a fence." (1). This quote represents setting because Holden tells the readers the school he goes to and what state it is in. He also adds a little bit description of the school. 

My favorite part of this novel is when Phoebe and Holden went to visit the zoo because that was the only time he was happy. It was nice to know that the story ended with Holden feeling "so damn happy."

When I first got the assignment, I did not know what to expect. Most first person books are about girls, so that was a game changer for me. I would give this novel a 5 out of 5 stars because I could always relate to Holden somehow in his stories. I would recommend this book to teenagers and all young adults alike because this age group would be able to relate better to the themes of this modern classic of the coming of age genre.

As I said before, being a teenager is not easy. But this teenager makes it look easy. Even though he has been depressed throughout the whole story, he has found ways to make himself happy. So if you are ever feeling down just find different ways to make yourself happy. In the end, the only thing that matters is you.

Originally published on Wix Blog on Oct 4, 2018.