My Favorite Part of Jane Eyre so far

My favorite part of Jane Eyre so far is the scene where the fire is started in Mr. Rochester's room. Here is the scene from the movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS5SLdPiDUg. This is my favorite part because it leaves so many unanswered questions. Who started the fire? Was it Grace Pool? Why didn't  Mr. Rochester wake up? Why didn't Mr. Rochester fire Grace Pool? and why did he leave so suddenly the next morning? All of these questions make me want to read further into the book, unlike some of the other scenes where all Jane does is describe a room or the weather. I am excited to find out some of the answeres to these questions later on in the book.

Cultural Refernces to the Catcher in the Rye

After browsing the web looking for a topic to blog on, I found some cool facts and other works that the Catcher in the Rye has inspired.

• One of the most famous incidents associated with the Catcher in the Rye is the murder of John Lennon.  Mark David Chapman is the murderer and he was so obsessed with the character Holden Caulfield that he tried to change his name to Holden Caulfield. Also on the night that Chapman shot John Lennon he was found with a copy of the Catcher in the Rye and he had written "This is my statement" and signed his name as Holden Caulfield. While he was in court he read a passage from the book as his defence and some say he shot John Lennon to preserve his innocence much like Holden wanted to preserve children's innocence.
• If you have ever seen the movie The Shining one of the main characters, Wendy, is seen reading The Catcher in the Rye, which is a foreshadow to the loneliness similar to that of Holden.
• One of the South Park episodes pokes fun at how controversial the book is. In the episode Butters is  brainwashed into killing John Lennon and Ronald Reagan after reading it.
• In the comic strip "Fox Trot" one of the characters is seen reading "The Pitcher in the Wheat." 
• There were a ton of songs that had references to the Catcher in the Rye but some that stood out to me were: The Aesop Rock song Save Yourself and it contained the line  "Naw man it wasn't me, it was Holden Caulfield, brother / I just read and pulled the trigger." , The Beastie Boys song Shadrach and it contained the line  "Got more stories than J. D. got Salinger, I hold the title and you are the challenger.", and also even the Jonas Bros had a reference with the song Six Minutes which contained the line "Sometimes I feel like I'm a catcher in the rye / Sometimes I just wanna catch her eye."

Before this class I had never even heard of the book The Catcher in the Rye, but after reading it I can understand a lot of references. I defiantly feel this book was worth my time to read.

Song about Holden Caulfield- Green Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQVmudGLKXo

After doing a little bit of research on Holden I stumbled upon a song by Green Day called "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield". Because Billie Joe is extremely hard to understand here are the lyrics.

A thought burst in my head and I need to tell you
It's news that I for thought
Was it just a dream that happened long ago?
I think that I just forgot


Well it hasn't been the first time
And it sure does drive me mad


There's a boy who fogs his world and now he's getting lazy
There's no motivation and frustration makes him crazy
He makes a plan to take a stand but always ends up sitting.
Someone help him up or he's gonna end up quitting


I shuffle through my mind
To see if I can find
The words I left behind
Was it just a dream that happened long ago?
Oh well...
Never mind.


Well it hasn't been the first time
And it sure does drive me mad


There's a boy who fogs his world and now he's getting lazy
There's no motivation and frustration makes him crazy
He makes a plan to take a stand but always ends up sitting.
Someone help him up or he's gonna end up quitting


There's a boy who fogs his world and now he's getting lazy
There's no motivation and frustration makes him crazy
He makes a plan to take a stand but always ends up sitting.
Someone help him up or he's gonna end up quitting


There's a boy who fogs his world and now he's getting lazy
There's no motivation and frustration makes him crazy
He makes a plan to take a stand but always ends up sitting.
Someone help him up or he's gonna end up quitting


What I understand from these lyrics is that there is a boy, Holden, that wants to do something meaningful with his life but the lack of motivation and frustration keeps pulling him down. It also shows that we all need a little help sometimes or else we might end up "quitting". This song really portrays the apathy that caused Holden to fail out of school, it even applies to a lot of people I know and even myself sometimes.

Bloggin' on Holden

"All of a sudden, this lady got on at Trenton and sat down next to me. Practically the whole car was empty, because it was pretty late and all, but she sat down next to me, instead of an empty seat." This is the scene where one of the moms of a Pencey Prep student talks to Holden on the train.

I chose this scene because it shows Holden as a hypocrite. Throughout the book Holden is always explaining how he hates phonies and liars, but then he repeatedly lies to this mom about her son. He even told her that her son would have won class president, but that he was just too shy.

This scene leaves us with the question is Holden a reliable narrator? If he is always saying one thing and doing another car we trust him?

Visions of Childhood

In the four short stories I have read the move from childhood to adulthood has been a common theme. In these stories there are many similarities and differences in how the transition is depicted. In the story "The Sutton Pie Safe" childhood is depicted as ignorance. Cates has an idea of what is going on, but can't put together the pieces to see the whole picture. In "Every Little Hurricane" childhood is defined as learning to become independent. Victor was in a bad situation and forced to mature faster than most children his age. In the story "Bottle Caps" childhood can be viewed as not caring what other people think. The main character in this story goes around in alleys looking for bottlecaps, not caring what people think. In the story "For Esme- With love and squalor" childhood is defined as maturity. In the story Esme gave the watch of her dead father to a stranger that she met in a resteraunt. In these short stories the transition from childhood to adulthood have some differences, but all carry the common theme of being forced to grow up and mature in life.

The TV show "That 70's Show" depicts childhood in an interesting mannar. It really shows the fun part of childhood and how people should really enjoy it while they can. This TV show is most similar to the short story "Bottle Caps" because it shows people having fun and doing what they love.