Blogger option 1:
The author of Your
Rattle No One Else Can Hear? uses the idea of a rattle that her car makes.
She puts a greater meaning to the rattle, she compares it to a thorn in your
side. “that thing that is the thorn in your side, that others can’t see or
detect that you’re told to get over” (Your Rattle No One Else Can Hear?) The
rattle is basically anything in your life that seems small or insignificant to
other people but to it’s a big deal and a problem you need to take care of. The
article is really about the burdens of your life that no one else sees as
burdens. Holden’s rattle is his brother. Holden really misses his brother, we
see this when he writes the story about his baseball mitt. Holden can describe
Allie so easily and when he wrote about his baseball mitt Holden could easily describe
it. They was Holden talks about his brother you can really tell that he misses
him. “But it wasn’t just that he was the most intelligent member in the family.
He was also the nicest, in lots of ways.” (Salinger 43) In a way I think Holden’s
rattle is the fact that he wished he would’ve died instead of his intelligent,
nice little brother. Holden doesn’t come out and say this but by the way he
talks about him this seems as though this is the case. Holden doesn’t think of
himself in a good positive way, he describes himself as a screw up and sort of
worthless. The total opposite is how he talks about Allie, which leads us to
believe that his rattle is Allie and what happened to him.
I was interested in your response because I liked how you compared the way Holden views himself and the way he views his brother. When Holden was writing the essay, you could immediately tell that Holden missed his brother and I think that the baseball mitt and Holden not being able to make a fist anymore, serves as a constant reminder of his brother and the kind of person he was.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you. I think the essay he wrote for Stradlater really showed his love for his brother and how much he missed him. I didn't think about the reminder that he cannot make a fist anymore. That would bring back such a bad memory of his loss. That would definitely be a constant reminder to me how good of a person my brother was and i would constantly compare myself to him. I think this might be a contributing factor to Holden's depression that we see later on in the novel. How do you think Holden is going to handle this situation with the loss of his brother and it's contributing factor to his depression as we read the rest of the novel.
ReplyDeleteI thought you did a very thorough character analysis of Holden which I really appreciate. I agree with Kierstin that we need to take importance of the fist because it will continue to appear throughout the book. I believe the first reference to Holden's night in the garage when he says "It probably would've hurt him a lot, but I did it with my right hand, and I can't make a good fist with that hand. On account of that injury I told you about." With the combination of Holden's fist, his views about his brother, and how he views himself, that Salinger is trying to depict Holden in a particular way?
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