Loneliness

I think that Holden is lonely. He is just wanting someone to talk to. In chapter 13, he has the prostitute come over and he just talks to her... I wonder about Holden though, because, if he is so lonely then why does he shut everyone out all the time? He could be great friends with Stradlater and Ackley if he wanted to. I think that maybe he shuts people out so much because he was so close to his brother Allie before he died and it was just all taken away just like that. Maybe Holden is afraid of getting close to people, in fear that they will just leave him or he will lose them. He needs to open up and get over Allie's death. Its been a few years and he needs to move on and learn to be close to people again. He should try to see Allie's great qualities in others and stop judging people right away. If he tries to find those traits, he will find them in some people and he will become close to them. If he just assumes that everyone he meets is going to be a Phony or is just a bad person, than that is what he will get from them because he doesn't give them a chance. He needs to remember Allie for all of the good things about him and move on and try to see the good in people more often.

sympathy, empathy and judgment

After reading the end of chapter four and all of chapter five, I got to find out why we were talking about those three words in class. Sympathy. We all felt sympathy when we read the page in chapter five that was about Holden's little brother. I sympathized with Holden because I thought it was really sad that he lost his brother to leukemia. It kind of hits you when you read his way of telling us that he punched all of the windows out in the garage. Empathy though, I do not feel. I have never lost a close loved one, so I would not be able empathize with Holden. Judgment though, weather it is on purpose or not, I think that we all did it just a little bit at least when reading more about Ackley and his lack of hygiene. The way that Holden describes it tells us that he is mainly grossed about it more than anything. When we read it from that perspective, it makes us think that way about Ackley, too. I think that it is the same with Stradlater. We think that he is full of himself and also very handsome. That is mainly because of the point of view or the perspective that we are reading all of the descriptions of the events that happen from.