Bringing the Base (Characters) Back Around

Before I begin, let me be clear that I know I already wrote a blog post about the similarities between characters in The Catcher in the Rye and The Bell Jar, but trust me, this one is different.  Yes, I am about to show another similarity between the books, but just hear me out.  Although I did appreciate the endings of both The Bell Jar and The Catcher in the Rye, in my opinion, there is something off putting about both of them.  Recurring characters, or I suppose lack-there-of I should say.  Both in Catcher and Bell Jar, there is an important character that I wish both authors had considered bringing back in the end.  These are: Catcher’s Jane and Bell Jar’s Jay Cee.

       

In Catcher, Jane is one of the main reasons Holden goes haywire on Stradlater.  We get glimpses of flashbacks where Holden is spending a lot of time with Jane, and how he explains that their relationship was one of the best moments of his life.  Every time Holden would talk about Jane, my longing for her to reappear in the end grew stronger and stronger.  This growing feeling caused me to be disappointed when I read the last page, and there was still no Jane.  We don’t even get to see Jane in the present once.  I think it would have been interesting to see how she would react to the Holden that ran away from his school and wandered the streets of New York.  But alas, Salinger decided to keep Jane out of the end.

       

Now we have The Bell Jar.  I really did enjoy the ending of Bell Jar.  As readers, we were able to see Esther at her lows, and then at her new high at the end.  She has a new positive outlook on the world around her.  But, as you have all probably guessed, I am left with a little disappointment.  In the beginning, Esther is working as an editor at a literature magazine company in New York.  She works aimlessly until her boss, Jay Cee, approaches her and asks “What do you have in mind after you graduate?” This question stumps Esther, for she realizes that she doesn’t actually know what she wants to do with her life.  If it weren’t for Jay Cee, Esther would have still been living a fake life until she had a mental breakdown sometime or another.  In a sense, Jay Cee sped up the process, which in turn helped Esther to have her treatment completed, while still having a life ahead of her.  Because of this impact, I wish Jay Cee had seen Esther after her treatment, or at least had visited her in her asylum.  It would have been interested to see how the two would converse after so much has changed.  But alas, that didn’t happen to Plath, (assuming the whole story is based off a true story), so it didn’t happen to Esther either.

       

In the end, I’ve realized that I am a difficult reader to please.  Although both endings work well rounding up each story, I think bringing those impactful characters back in the end would have made them even better.  But I’m curious to see what you guys think: Would bringing Jane or Jay Cee back have made a better ending to either book? Or was leaving them out in the end a better move?

The Bell Catcher (cheesy, I know).

After only reading the first five chapters of The Bell Jar, there are already some parallels that are beginning to emerge between The Bell Jar and The Catcher in the Rye, specifically themes involving the characters.  Esther (the protagonist/ narrator), Betsy, and Jay Cee all show significant connections to characters in Catcher.  

Esther can almost be thought as a older Holden Caulfield, with her views on how the women at the Amazon and her magazine work place act so fake.  Unlike Holden, Esther tries to blend in and act like one of the girls, but she finds it hard and boring.  She confesses her amazement at how one of her friends, Betsy, is able to act like an energetic, cheery, magazine editor, while Esther is troubled by trying to find the purpose of all the work she has done in her life.  Like Holen, Esther realizes that life a game of which she is uninterested in playing.  It will be interesting to see how Esther will develop and coming of age (of which I assume will happen since we are reading this in a  coming of age class).  

Betsy can be connected to Stradlater.  Like Stradlater, Betsy has the ability to play and succeed in the game of life.  Betsy’s and Esther’s friendship goes on and off as Esther realizes that, as much as should would like to be like Betsy, it just doesn’t appeal to her.  

Finally, Jay Cee can be connected to Mr. Spencer.  In the beginning of Catcher, Holden has a serious conversation with Mr. Spencer, his history teacher, about how he isn’t applying himself in school and how that will affect him later on in life.  Mr. Spencer tells Holden that he needs to play the game that everyone else is playing, or he will suffer the consequences later on.  Similarly, Esther has a conversation her boss, Jay Cee, over what she wants to do with her life.  Jay Cee notes that she has been noticing how Esther may not be enjoying her work, and questions her if she knows what she wants to do next once she graduates.  This line of questioning stunts Esther for it is the first time she admits to herself that she hasn’t the slightest idea what she will do with her life.  She has found herself in a rut, where her old ways of drifting along just getting A’s in everything isn’t cutting it for her.  Although Esther is an accomplished young lady at this point, she isn’t enjoying her lifestyle, and is confused whether the magazine life is for her.

It really helped to read these two books one after another, because it’s nice to notice even the smallest parallels between them.  Although we already know the ending of Catcher and Holden’s coming of age moment, it will be interesting to see when Esther will come of age and how that will affect her life.

Did He Earn It?

I know I have already written a blog post on the idea of coming of age, but through recent events I would like to pose a new answer to the question: When do you really come of age? I know that, in class and throughout the blogs, the general consensus has been that a coming of age moment is actually a process.  But it is really just a process? I may have stated this differently in my previous blog post, but right now, I believe, although everyone’s coming of age is a process, it’s a process characterized by a string of events.  So it may be a process, but not a smooth one.  With that being said, I am going to state another question: Which event is the most impactful in one’s coming of age process? 

Now, I know Valentines Day has just passed, and during this very special holiday, comes very special movies that are released on the days leading up to February 14^th.  This year, the most controversial and debated movie that was released was the awaited Fifty Shades of Grey.   Now, although I have not read the book nor seen the movie, I have read reviews and such, and have pieced the general concept and partial components of the plot, without having to experience the graphic, pornographic content, of which I’ve heard is a vast majority of this “story”.  Putting all those graphic scenes aside, one in particular that I have decided to focus on involves Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey’s conversation that leads to the first sex scene of the movie.  More importantly, the line where she tells Mr. Grey that she is a virgin, and how, after hearing this, Mr. Grey sweeps her off her feet and takes her to the bedroom. 

Personally, I would consider this reaction by Mr. Grey to be very judgmental. Anastasia has just revealed that she has yet to have an intimate connection with someone before, keep in mind that she barely knows him at this time, and his reaction is to “fix this” by quickly doing the deed.  Honestly, I find this action to be disrespectful.  What if Anastasia was saving herself to someone special? Someone who she has known for a while. Someone who understands her.  But I guess those options have disappeared.

Putting Mr. Grey’s actions aside, I would actually like to focus on the concept of one’s virginity.   Losing one’s virginity is seen as a pivotal moment on one’s life.  But should it be considered as a coming of age event?  Maybe even the most important? Does sexual intercourse further the process of coming of age?  If so, what if someone is uncomfortable to with losing his or her virginity? Have you not come of age until you’ve lost your virginity?  If not, is losing one’s virginity really that important?

I have contemplated the questions posed above, and am interested in what any of you guys think. 

But Wait, Hear Me Out

I’ve decided to try and organize my thoughts in this blog post for my critical response paper, so here it goes: In The Catcher in the Rye, I find myself weirdly satisfied with the scene with Holden and Sunny, the prostitute.  But wait, hear me out: When reading James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artists as a Young Man, we also read a scene where Stephen Dedalus messes around with a prostitute.  But in this particular scene, Stephen is so young and in a very weird mindset, and so he is totally detached from the whole event.  Knowing this and Stephen’s personality, it made the whole scene very awkward to read.  This is why I was very disappointed when the stage was being set for a similar scene with Holden.  Holden’s personality is very bipolar, which can make him very socially awkward.  He is also very young, like Stephen.  With these factors in mind, I would imagine, if the prostitute had gone through with her act, this scene too would have been very awkward to read.  This is why I am glad that Holden stops the woman from coming on to him.  Unfortunately, it backfires a little for him when he gets beat up by Maurice and, by Holden’s account, robbed by Sunny; but I’m happy he is still a virgin because I see Holden as too emotionally unstable to be having that kind of a connection with another person. (I do mean that in the nicest way possible).  

The Frame is the Most Important Part of the Picture

After finishing reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce from cover to cover, the main theme that stuck out to me is how Stephen has developed throughout the book.  In the beginning, we are given an image of a small, timid, socially awkward, young boy who has yet to find his place in the world, but when reading the end of the book, although Stephen has yet to fully master the friend department (although he has made some!) he has definitely found himself and has become determined to accomplish the high reaching goals he has set out for himself.

In the initial chapters, the image of Stephen isn’t a strong one.  We see him pretending to play with the other boys at Clongowes Wood College.  He watches the “wide playgrounds swarming with boys... (watching) the greasy leather orb (fly) like a heavy bird through the grey light” (page 4).  In this, we can see that sports aren’t really Stephen’s forte, and that he’d much rather describe what’s happening that actually play.  We also see scenes of Stephen being bullied, as we read him account that “(It) was mean of Wells to shoulder him into the square ditch... how cold and slimy the water had been!” (page 7). Through these, we can see that in his earlier years, Stephen Dedalus had never really been part of the in crowd.  But, even though it can be painful to read of this young boy being excluded and picked on by other boys, it shows how his childhood shaped his later on introverted years.  Although there are a lot more factors that go towards his big decision in the end of the book, I think Stephen’s time at Clongowes was one of the more significant ones.    

But after reading five chapters of Stephen Dedalus’ life, we see the transformation of this young outcast boy become this very introverted, inspired teenager.  In the end, Stephen decides that he needs to escape his homeland, Ireland, and move to Europe to pursue his vision of becoming a true artist.  Although he has his doubts, relating his story to that of Daedalus and Icarus, where Icarus flies too close to the sun and his wings burn and he falls, where as Daedalus makes it to land.  But even though he has some uncertainty, he still decides he is going to leave his homeland to pursue whatever his passions may be.  

I find this action very heroic for it takes a lot of courage to leave your homeland and explore the unknown.  It’s pretty amazing how dedicated Stephen is to becoming an artists, and that he is finally carrying out what he needs/ wants in his life, instead of trying to pretend and please others.  But, in my opinion, without the experiences at Clongowes, even if they weren’t very pleasant, Stephen wouldn’t of had an essential development as a poised artist.  Although the finished portrait of his artist can be very satisfying, a picture is nothing without a defining frame.  

A Nicens Little Boy Named Baby Tuckoo

In the first section of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, we are introduced to the many characters that influence and shape the main protagonist, Stephen Dedalus.  Although we are only given Stephen’s home and family environment in this section, ideas of mine are beginning to form on how these dynamics will shape Stephen’s personality later on in life.

In the first section of the book, which only amounts to a little over a page, we get a glimpse of how Stephen was as a infant and his family environment that helped shape him as he gets older.  As a child, Stephen’s father used to tell him fictional stories that Stephen could enjoy and relate too.  With these stories, we can see how strong the father son dynamic is, for Mr. Dedalus was able to connect with Stephen at a young age by strengthening both of their imaginations in the tales that he told.  As for Stephen’s mother, in the first section we get how she “had a nicer smell than his father” (page 3).  Given this information, we can infer that Stephen’s incipient stages brought about many warm and pleasant feelings towards both his father and mother, and that they were prominent figures in his life.  (But it may also have caused him to become a little timid as he grows up because he is so attached to this nice, perfect, and fictional world that his father has created for him, and we see examples of this when we read how Stephen deals with “the fellows”).  

The next significant character in Stephen’s life would be Dante.  She is Stephen’s nanny and seems to be very opinionated when it comes to religion. (We experience more of this when reading section three of chapter one at the christmas dinner table during the fight between her, Mr. Dedalus, and Mr. Casey).  But in the first section, we see how Dante teaches Stephen to associate the religious figures Michael Davitt with maroon and Parnell with green.  We also see that when Stephen has gone or said something wrong that offends Dante, his mother tells her that he will apologize, and Dante adds that “ if not, the eagles will come and pull out his eyes” (page 4).  With these words, Stephen escapes into his own mind and begins to make a rhyming phrase out of them.

Pull out his eyes,

Apologise,

Apologise,

Pull out his eyes.

Apologise,

Pull out his eyes,

Pull out his eyes,

Apologise.

(page 4).

Although this rhyming scheme may be seen as insignificant at the time, it shows a significant development where Stephan has begun playing with words (of which we know will ultimately lead to him becoming a full blown artist in the end).  

We also get a short glimpse of Uncle Charles. But all we read is that he is older than Stephen’s mom, his dad, and Dante.  And finally, we are introduced to Eileen Vance, whom Stephen decides he will marry when they grow up.  Although the significance of this is not seen yet, throughout chapter one, we do see Stephen sporadically mention Eileen and how nice her ivory hands are.  

Although this section is only just over a page, we already have a glimpse of how each character is forming and how they all play a part in Stephen’s life.  We can also see how Stephen’s home environment and family dynamics will shape his personality later on in the book.  

PS: I wrote this before we finished chapter one.  Since we are already at the beginning of chapter four, I now know how each of these characters I mention in this post (of which I implied to be significant influences throughout Stephen’s life), will soon drop off out of Stephen’s life...My bad.

When do you “Come of Age”?

I initially when I read the phrase “Coming of Age”, I think of a typical underdog struggling to find his true identity, and when he finally does, he becomes the hero of the story.  In a sense, I generally link Coming of Age novels with Heroes Journey novels (of which I suppose this post will consequently serve as a decent transition from Heroes Journey to Coming of Age).  But when I try to relate to a focal Coming of Age moment in American society, I get a whole new viewpoint.  

It can be argued that there are numerous times in our lives where we “Come of Age”.  In these modern days, you really can’t pinpoint when your exact coming of age moment is your life, because everyone is different and people develop in unique and in independent ways. Personally, I believe that most of these moments revolve around college.  Finally completing the college process (which includes applying and getting in to a university), going to college (moving in and adjusting to the new college environment), and/ or graduating from college could all be considered pivotal Coming of Age moment in our lives.  But it doesn’t just have to be about college either; getting your first job, marrying a significant other, starting a family, etc.  All these are milestones in one’s life and provide an experience that help define who we are.  We all go through these processes differently, and that’s what makes us find ourselves.  

Personally, I believe the main coming of age moment in our lives is when we graduate college.  At this moment, you have learned how to study and usually live on your own.  You’ve learned how to start over, new friends, new teachers, new classes, new environment, etc.  Not to mention, after college, you tend to have a feel for what you want to do with your life.  It’s a great process that can be experienced differently for every person.  Although I do believe you do grow and develop more once you move on from college, you will always remember your personal college experience, and how it shaped you.  

Now, discovering your true heroic self and going to college are two very different “Coming of Age” moments, but they both serve the same purpose: to find one’s self.  Whether it takes riding to battle on horseback with a sword in one hand and shield in another, or packing up your bags and heading off to a university to study, a “Coming of Age” moment in one’s life is essential and is achieved differently across fictional and non fictional worlds.