麦田里的守望者英文的总结

麦田里的守望者英文的总结
就是简介拉

麦田里的守望者简介英文简介
The Catcher In The Rye

Preface -

This book has been steeped in controversy since it was banned in
America after it's first publication. John Lennon's assassin, Mark Chapman,
asked the former beatle to sign a copy of the book earlier in the morning
of the day that he murdered Lennon. Police found the book in his possession
upon apprehending the psychologically disturbed Chapman. However, the book
itself contains nothing that could be attributed with leading Chapman to
act as he did - it could have been any book that he was reading the day he
decided to kill John Lennon - and as a result of the fact that it was 'The
Catcher In The Rye', a book describing nervous breakdown, media speculated
widely about the possible connection. This gave the book even more
notoriety. So what is 'The Catcher In The Rye' actually about ?
Superficially the story of a young man's expulsion from yet another school,
'The Catcher In The Rye' is in fact a perceptive study of one individual's
understanding of his human condition. Holden Caulfield, a teenager growing
up in 1950s New York, has been expelled school for poor achievement once
again. In an attempt to deal with this he leaves school a few days prior to
the end of term, and goes to New York to 'take a vacation' before returning
to his parents' inevitable wrath.

Told as a monologue, the book describes Holden's thoughts and
activities over these few days, during which he describes a developing
nervous breakdown, symptomised by his bouts of unexplained depression,
impulsive spending and generally odd, erratic behaviour, prior to his
eventual nervous collapse.

However, during his psychological battle, life continues on around
Holden as it always had, with the majority of people ignoring the 'madman
stuff' that is happening to him - until it begins to encroach on their well
defined social codes. Progressively through the novel we are challenged to
think about society's attitude to the human condition - does society have
an 'ostrich in the sand' mentality, a deliberate ignorance of the emptiness
that can characterize human existence? And if so, when Caulfield begins to
probe and investigate his own sense of emptiness and isolation, before
finally declaring that the world is full of 'phonies' with each one put out
for their own phony gain, is Holden actually the one who is going insane,
or is it society which has lost it's mind for failing to see the
hopelessness of their own lives?

Holden's Personality -

There are 3 main aspects in Holden's personality :

1. His criticism toward the 'phony' things in society.
2. His perception that laws (Rules) are 'child's play' for the
strong and a difficult struggle for the weak.
3. Respect for fellowman.

The criticism toward 'phony' things in society is expressed in the novel
primarily by the word 'phony'. Holden is a representative of the world of
childhood whose characteristics are the opposite values to those Holden
calls 'phony'.
One of the things Holden often calls 'phony' is the world of movies
and everything about it. Examples of it are his anger toward his brother
D.B. because he moved to Hollywood, aversion of Sunny the prostitute who
tells him she spends most of her time in film theaters and derision to the
three women he met at the bar who are only interested in movies and famous
actors.
Another thing Holden calls 'phony' is the theater. He finds the
theater 'phony' because he thinks that instead of demonstrating reality as
it is, the emphasis is put on polishing theatricality. He says he has never
seen so much 'phony' things like he saw in the theater. Out of these
examples and others we see that for Holden it is very important to be
'real', honest and not 'phony', thus the criticism toward the 'phony'
things in society is the most significant aspect of his personality
Another important aspect in Holden's personality is that rules to
him were meant to serve the strong, whereas he belongs to the weak, thus he
ignores them completely. His attitude toward rules can be demonstrated by
these examples : Ring Lardner's tells Holden a story in which a married
policeman fell in love with a girl who drove faster than the speed limit
and eventually was killed because of it. In this story laws (Rules) are
mentioned twice :

1. The policeman fell in love with a girl while he was married and
this means breaking social laws.
2. The girl drove too fast and this means breaking traffic laws.

The outcome of this story is failure and death. From here we can learn of
Holden's personality because he likes this story very much and he thinks
that these felonies don't require punishment.

Another example is Holden's talk with Mr. Spencer who tells him :
"Life is a game boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules...
If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game... But
if you get on the other side, where there aren't any hot-shots, then
what's a game about it ?". Holden agrees with Mr. Spencer.

Actually, Holden has an ambivalent view of rules which is expressed
in Holden's words : "I'm always setting myself rules about sex and I
immediately break them". Holden refers rules to the world of the strong but
he himself cannot avoid setting rules for himself, yet he never keeps them.
So this is another contradiction in Holden's personality.

Another aspect of Holden's personality is the fact that Holden
can't stand people who don't respect fellowmen and don't listen to what
they say. Holden thinks that it is very important to listen to people and
respect their privacy. Examples of this can be found in many parts of the
story such as :

1. Holden's willingness to stop in the middle of the sexual act
because of a girl's request when others wouldn't.
2. Holden's respect to the nuns.
3. Holden's respect to Jane : the willingness not to kiss her and
comforting her when she cried.

In light of these examples and others we can conclude that fellowman is
very important to Holden. However, when people criticize him, he doesn't
respect them at all. This can clearly be seen in Holden's attitude toward
Pheobe and Antolini.

Holden's attitude toward :

1. Teachers.
2. Friends.
3. Family.
4. Life.

1.Holden's attitude toward teachers is ambivalent : on the one hand he is
instinctively against them because they are representatives of the laws he
breaks. On the other hand he respects teachers like Antolini and Spencer.

2.Holdne's friends are presented as negative and selfish characters such as
Stradlater and Ackley. Although Stradlater and Ackley are socially opposite,
(Stradlater on the top and Ackley in the bottom) they are both unfit for
Holden and under the disguise of the handsome successful athlete or the
ugly rejected sloth, they are the same - selfish, hurt other people and
obey laws.

3. Holden has an exceptional attitude toward his parents. On the one hand
he wants to please them and on the other hand he doesn't do anything to
accomplish that so he disappoints them.

To his brother D.B, Holden has some respect accompanied with
disappointment of him becoming commercialized all his life as a writer in
Hollywood, of his girlfriend and of his car.

To his sister Pheobe, however, Holden has a special sentiment
because she represents childhood, purity, innocence and understanding to
Holden. Despite all this, Pheobe likes movies, participates in school plays
and criticizes Holden. Allegedly, Holden should have hated her but he
chooses to ignore these 'disadvantages'.

4.Holden's attitude toward life results from his attitude toward himself.
His low self-esteem causes him to try to run away from life and from
reality. When life is presented to him as a game with rules, he breaks the
rules and leaves the game.

In Conclusion -

We see Holden as a constant character. As a person who refuses to
accept reality and tries as much as he can to grasp childhood. He wants to
become patron of the children in order to protect their purity and
innocence.

And as a final remark I would like to say that when we are honest
we can see within ourselves suppressed elements of the forces operating
within Holden Caulfield, and because of that I would recommend this thought
provoking novel as a fascinating and enlightening description of our human
condition. However, beware ... for that very reason it is not comfortable
reading.