Thursday, May 19, 2011

In "Catcher in the Rye," what is Holden Caufield's views on how to treat others?

It depends because what Holden thinks and how he acts often contradict each other. Holden is generally polite to people, including a classmate's mother he meets on the train, the nuns he meets at breakfast, the girls he dances with at a bar, and the cab drivers, but how he acts does not always determine how he thinks. Holden often calls people phony, but only in his head. For instance, he likes dancing with the girls in the bar, but as he is doing so, he thinks about how dumb and boring they are. The only time he fights with people or acts rudely is when they start it, such as with Maurice, the pimp who beat Holden up for $5. Even then, Holden does not do much to act on his hatred; instead, he daydreams about what he would like to do to Maurice.

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In Act III, scene 2, why may the establishment of Claudius's guilt be considered the crisis of the revenge plot?

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