They deliver interesting information
In this text you see Phoeb act out very unpredictable. She immediately starts yelling at Holden right after Phoeb found out that Holden was kicked out. She threw herself on bed with a pillow covering her face and would not let go for her life. In this event you see Holden's other side to him, he acts of out care and almost tries to protect her. He immediately starts comforting her, saying it is alright, how things are going to be ok. At this point you can see the voice in this text off the actions that took place in the text.
They employ humor
In the text, after Phoebe picks apart Holden to find out he has been kicked out, she starts to punch him and you can see the Salinger's voice trying to add humor in the situation, "Then she hit me on the leg with her fist. She gets very fisty when she feels like it...Then she smacked me again with her fist. If you don't think that hurts, you're crazy." As you can she Holden kind of makes a joke about his sister hitting him, but at a very serious moment.
They often employ techniques of narrative
In past chapters you see Holden make poor decisions, in the text at the end of chapter 21 Holden says, "Cut it out, now. Nobody's gonna kill me. Nobody's gonna even-C'mon, Phoeb, take that goddam thing off your head. Nobody's gonna kill me." You see Holden repeating over and over again about how no one is going to hurt him. He does this mainly to comfort Phoeb because at this time she is scared for Holden. But even though Holden has made some poor decisions you can really see Holden's other side too him come out here. Authors can your dialogue to benefit characterization, in this case Salginger does this on purpose trying to build up the character of Holden.
When looking at the first paragraph you can see how unpredictable Phoebe was as you explained very well. Why do you think she reacted the way she did when she found out Holden got kicked out?
ReplyDeleteI think she acted in this way because Salinger wants to capture the readers attention, there might be a specific reason she acted out like this that Salinger hasn't yet informed us of. Maybe Phoeb knows something that Holden does not?
DeleteI like your example of humor with Phoebe when she hits Holden repeatedly in the leg. Although I like the example I don't see much supportive opinion in your blog to help me be persuaded that Catcher in the Rye has a lot of humor tone and a good aspect of humor in the book. What support do you think the humor aspect does in the book when there is serious situations.
ReplyDeleteAfter hearing Holden's news, I remember Phoebe repeatedly saying, "Dad's gonna kill you." This raises an interesting question. Why did she talk about what their dad would say rather than voicing her own opinion? Why would she be so concerned with that?
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