Journal 2 Animal Story

There once was a hippopotamus named Jesus Vermeersch. He lived in a very large house on account of hippopotamuses being so large, but not even Jesus needed a house as large as the one that he had. One night there was a terrible storm coming through the area that Jesus happened to live in. At the same time of this storm there was a frog passing by. The storm was so awful and Jesus was outside of his large house as he saw the small little frog pass by on the road. He felt bad and decided to offer for the frog to come in during the storm. The frog gladly accepted this offer and entered the home of Jesus the hippopotamus. Jesus made the frog coffee and gave him a blanket to warm up. But in the morning it was still storming. Jesus said that the frog was welcome to stay through the day until the raining and storming stopped. The frog was very grateful and decided to stay for the day. The two animals spent the day talking about their different lives and exchanging stories of the exciting adventures of each of their lives. Jesus the hippopotamus was actually glad to have the company of the frog and enjoyed spending time with him. Jesus made dinner for the two of them and they enjoyed the nice meal. Jesus wanted to pray, but the frog was not religious but he prayed with Jesus because he wanted to respect the beliefs of his gracious host. This was a great way that the frog showed his thanks for everything Jesus had done for him. Now even after dinner the raining and storming had not let up at all so Jesus said that he could stay the night again. Again, the frog was quite grateful and he stayed through the night. In the morning the rain had finally stopped and it was the most beautiful day that the hippopotamus or the frog had ever seen in their entire lives. The frog left and told the hippopotamus of his thanks many times and the hippopotamus knew that a new friend was leaving his home.

Journal 1 Native American Culture

Well there is a good amount of information that I know about Native American culture. One major thing is that they basically revolutionized the farming industry. They created a lot tools that are still used today; although today's technology is a lot better as it has been innovated over the years, but the basis for the tools is still the same. They also created a lot of irrigation systems to aid in their farming. They started out as a nomadic people but over time a lot of the peoples made settlements. This caused the development of different government systems. Along with new governments in the civilizations social classes started to form. While the Native Americans were very good at farming it seems that they were very bad at staying alive. Many of the many of the major civilizations seems to have just disappeared after being settled for a while. Not that these civilizations were under bad circumstances, because they were all excellent and prosperous as a whole. It remains a mystery to historians as to why these groups seemed to have just vanished. Personally I think that they were most likely destroyed or abducted by an alien organization called "The Alien." This is the only reasonable explanation that I can come up with. Another thing I know is that one of the groups of Native Americans is that they were quite good at making calendars. The Mayan’s were a group that made a pretty good calendar. Apparently it is ending in a couple years and that this is going to mark the beginning of the end of times, or Armageddon or the Apocalypse. This seems like a bogus claim to me, but the Native Americans were pretty good at basically everything else they did so maybe we should listen to the theories about this. Well there you go, that is pretty much what I know about Native Americans basically because I learned that all in American History this morning.

Symbolism in The Catcher in the Rye

This novel has some serious symbolism going on in it. One of the symbols is the ducks in the pond at the park. Holden presents a very serious and strong interest in these ducks. He is constantly asking and wondering what exactly happens to them during the winter when the lake is frozen. He actually asks quite a few people throughout the story and they just seemed to be annoyed by the questions. The first way this is symbolic is simply the fact that Holden does have this curiosity. With this being a novel about coming of age, the questioning of what happens to the ducks shows a different side of Holden; this being the child in him. Curiosity is something quite often associated with youth. Most of the time in the novel, Holden shows himself as knowledgeable compared to the other and it is the questions about the ducks that show a more juvenile side of him.

Anther major symbol in the story is Holden's infamous red hunting hat. I believe that this hat really is just a symbol of Holden's character and personality. He is constantly wearing it and it basically becomes a part of him. He seems to comment a lot about how it looks and he only really wears it when he is walking around by himself. The hat is quite unique in nature and this really is the main way that it symbolizes Holden. It is not something that most people wear in a metropolitan area and Holden is not really an average kid compared to the others that are around him.

Well that's basically the major symbolism in the novel, The Catcher in the Rye. The hat symbolizes Holden's uniqueness and the questioning of the ducks at the lake emphasizes the child that is still left in him.

All three summer novels

Well I am now done with all three novels for the summer. Overall I think that each had a different impact on me. The Catcher in the Rye has always been one of my favorite books and I would say that is because of my age. It is a novel about the coming of age and is just easy to relate to in this stage of my life. I’m sure that my views on it will change over time and I will have a different perspective on is as a whole. The same concept applies to The Grapes of Wrath as well. I read it and just thought that it was a really depressing story that was very long. I did not really feel like I got a grasp on the message of the novel entirely. But I think that this will change in time as well. My mom told me that she remembered reading it in high school and having the same opinion as me: a long, boring story about nothing really relating to my life. But she then told me that when she read it later in her life and she even read it a just a few years ago as well that it was completely different for her. The entire message of the novel had changed for her and it had a huge impact on her. It was no longer a boring story, but rather something that meant something. I think that I will reach this eventually but right now the story did not really have that much meaning to me. As for The Old Man and the Sea, I thought it was a very good book. It was an extremely quick read and also very easy to understand. I think this novel would also pick up a different meaning for me if I were to read it later in my life. I guess I will have to wait and see how all of these novels change for me over time and as my life changes.

Ending of the story

Well that was kind of weird and depressing for an ending. The depressing part is simply that the baby dies after birth. I mean I was kind of hoping for a little brighter ending but no, there has to be more death in the Joad family. There is no burial for the baby, they just put it in a coffin made of what they could find and it is put into a stream and it floats away. This is kind of random, but that kind of creeps me out. I kept thinking that someone would find the coffin and want to see what is inside and then they open it and find the body of a baby. Then they might think something bad had happened to it. This is all just weird thoughts from me though. I guess I’m just weird in that sense to think of stuff like that but whatever. Anyway, this is just like really sad. But with this loss there is a gain. A man comes across the family and has been so starved that he can not eat or digest solid food. He can only have soup or drinks. There is no food so Ma Joad looks to Rose to feed this man with her breast milk because she is lactating from being pregnant. I guess that is kind of a theme for this entire novel that even with a loss there are gains in the world. Who knows, maybe this man would have died if Rose have not let him drink her breast milk. Then there would have been two deaths in the world, one of them being able to be saved. Its kind of like when Granma Joad died because they used her as an excuse to get past some police officers that may not have let them go otherwise. In both cases a major loss is used to help either a group or an individual that really needs the help.

The farmer's anger

Chapter twenty nine goes back to the very first chapter of the novel in a sense. It has been raining now so no work can be done. This is very bad for everyone because that means there is no way to make money to buy food. Some people have resorted to begging for food which is quite degrading. I mean it’s not uncommon for people to beg for food, but for people that have had solid jobs and have been able to provide for their families needing to be, it is just quite sad. Some other people have taken a different approach and have started to steal food. I believe that these people have to feel awful about what they are doing but they are only doing it because they have no other possible choice. Another part of this chapter is how the women say that as long as the men stay angry they will be strong. This is similar to what was said in the beginning of the story. In the beginning the women say that as long as the men stay whole they will be strong. It is almost as if they mean as long as they have their lives they will continue to live and survive. Things have changed now though because the men have given up everything in their lives except for their families. They really don’t have much to live for except for themselves. Now the thing that is keeping them going is no longer their lives, but rather the rage they have for everything that has happened to them. All of the migrant farmers are furious and are ready to do something about it. This is really a huge part of the novel. The women shifting their ideas of what is keeping their men strong is really showing the whole basis of the farmers lives shifting as well. The novel is almost over and I am quite interested to see how it ends.

Tom's personality

Tom has decided to work and support the efforts to organize the farmers. He had been planning on doing so but Ma Joad warning him that people may know of him being in hiding is what makes him fully go for it. He tells Ma Joad and she reminds him that Jim Casy died for supporting and trying to help the cause. Tom kind of jokes about this but I think he really does take it very seriously. It seems like his personality to laugh in the face of death and make jokes out of very serious matters. I think there are a lot of people in the world like this. He makes a joke that he will duck more quickly then Jim did, but I think he truly does know the risk of what he has decided to do. I think he also partially may want to make sure that Jim’s death was not in vain and for nothing. Of course the other reason for helping out is simply that it may drastically improve the situation of the entire migrant worker population. Later it is kind of happy because as Ma Joad is returning to the boxcar they are staying in she is stopped by a man that tells her that he needs workers for a large cotton field. Ma Joad spreads the word of this work. Having work is just such a good thing for everyone at this point. Most of the people are running out of money and are just barely getting by, so work is the best thing they could possible do at this point. There are so many workers the next day that the field is cleared in almost half a day. As the family returns to their boxcar it starts to rain. I am assuming that the rain is important because there has not really been any rain spoken of up to this point. We will have to see what comes next for the Joad family.

Farmers in the cotten field

Those farmers really know how to con the con man. I found this part of the novel both sad but hilarious at the same time. There are now quite a few jobs available picking cotton and a lot of the migrant farmers are taking advantage of this. At first they only allow the farmers with bags for cotton picking to have the jobs, but then they allow people to buy the special cotton picking bags on credit from the land owners. I found this to be a bit ridiculous. Buying supplies for a job from the employer like in that situation is just weird. Then on top of that the farmers have scales to see how much the workers get each day, but they have scales that are off. They always are lower than what the workers have actually obtained. But the hilarious part of this section of the novel is that the migrant farmers that are working in the cotton fields started to put rocks in the bottom of their bags so it weighs more. Now I know that the farmers are cheating in a sense, but the wealthy land owners did it first. That sounds kind of childish but the migrant farmers have already gone through so much that I think its okay that they do a little to have some personal gain. I think it would be hilariously ironic if the messed up scales and the rocks in the bags actually balanced each other out and the farmers got what they worked for and the land owners paid what they were supposed to in the first place. This whole situation is quite clever on the part of the famers. They only do it to the corrupt farmers though so it seems like it is okay to do. Even though the migrant farmers are in a sense cheating I think that everybody that reads this is truly wanting the farmers to do so to get a little gain for themselves.

Tom on his own

Another Joad has shown the importance of family. After Tom had killed that one dude he was hit on the face and injured kind of badly. He is aware of the fact that it will draw unwanted attention from people that would probably hurt him more. Aware of this, he goes back and tells the family that he will not be staying with them just so they do not have to deal with any of the repercussions of what he did. This is quite a noble thing to do. It takes a lot of courage to separate yourself from the ones that you love. It is easier knowing that what you are doing is for their safety and good, but it still would be quite upsetting to have to do. Tom truly is willing to make a sacrifice for his family. They sneak food to the place where he is hiding. This is also a very awesome act of kindness from the Joad family. They have all seemed to keep their heads straight even during all of the things that are going on around them. Another thing you have to think about is Tom being alone. With all of the bad surrounding the people in the story it would be extremely difficult to deal with by yourself. When you are with your family or friends, you at least have people to confide in and tell you troubles to. With the sacrifice he made, Tom is no longer able to do this. It is sad because it seems that the Joad family is falling apart. I believe that Granma and Ma Joad were the ones that said that the family needed to stick together. Now there have been numerous deaths in the family and some of the members of the family have left to live on their own. Even after all of this it seems like the Joad family is still able to stay as positive as possible during this very rough time for everyone.

Tom killed a man

Tom showed a little bit of an evil side in this part of the novel. He killed a man. My saying he killed a man just reminded me of the movie Anchorman. Specifically the part where all of the news crews in the area have a huge battle royal and later they are talking about it and Ron Burgandy says to another man, “you killed a man” in a very funny voice. My apologies, because that is quite off topic but Tom actually did kill a man. He is checking out some commotion he noticed earlier and he comes across the preacher and family friend, Jim Casy. They talk for a while but then some guard like people come over and recognize Jim so they attack him. Tom is enraged by this so he gets the weapon and kills the man that attacked Jim. Now this I found to be quite interesting. I had always thought that Tom like Jim but he really dilled a man for him. This kind of adds some closure to my idea of Jim Casy. When he first entered the story I found that he seemed to be very important to the story. I thought it was clear that he would be in the story and I was upset when he was taken away in the first place. His reappearance made me feel a little bit better about the story. It is said that Tom had already killed a man in his life before. In fact that was how he ended up in prison in the beginning of the story. This part makes me think that he had killed the other man for a reason too. It does not really seem that Tom would just up and kill someone without a reason. That I why I think that when he killed the first man there was most likely justification for that as well as there was for the killing of Jim Casy’s assailant.

Work at peach farm

This section of the novel is quite dark and depressing. As the family is about to leave the camp a man tells them of work at a peach orchard. They go there and find that they can only make five cents per box, which is extremely awful wages even for a job such as that. The entire family works for the entire day and the fruits of their labors are very low. The family made just enough to pay for dinner for that night. It is not even that much food, because everyone is still hungry after eating. This is really sad. I think it is just terrible that someone can work for an entire day and not have enough money for one meal. It is just hard to imagine ever going through such an ordeal. This really does remind me of the Holocaust. Of course during WWII there was no wages at all but a small meal was provided. In this case there is pay but no mean provided. It ends up balancing out if you think about it. This is just so depressing to think that something like this happened to our country. It is hard to imagine that people in our own country went through much of the same things as the people in the Holocaust. It is obviously not as bad because people were not slaughtered and killed in cold blood during the Depression, but still, in both situations there are people that are starving to death and working very hard and jobs for either little or no money in each respective situation. I thought that the last chapter was really sad, but I would say that this section of the novel takes the title. When something reminds you of the Holocaust, it is probably safe to say that it is not a pleasant thing. This really explains why the Great Depression made such a big impact on so many people.

"The grapes of wrath"

With the migrant farmers coming into the state the owners of large land settlements are tying to get rid of them. Because of what they are doing to get rid of the migrant farmers from the central United States, they are also affecting the owners of smaller farms already in the area. I do not think that they really want to do this but it is simply a byproduct of what they are doing to get rid of the migrant farmers. A lot of the farmers are not able to keep up their farms so their plants or crops are starting to die. This means they have no income therefore they can not continue to keep their farms. Basically it is a big monopoly with caused by the owners of the large farms. It is in this section of the book that the main idea of the book comes out. It is obviously the main idea of the novel because it is related to the title of it. In this section there is a line that reads, “In the souls of the people, the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.” To me this means that the people can not deal with the burdens of their lives anymore. They just want to be done and have the fruits of life, which I think is actually quite reasonable. These people have dealt with so much that they deserve to be done with it all. If you think about it the Depression was something that truly affected the lives of all of the people involved in it for the rest of their lives. The “grapes of wrath” have had too much and they just want to reach the vintage of their lives. This event is what defined the people in it and they definitely deserved for it to be over a lot quicker that it was. That line encompasses the entire idea of the novel.

Riot in the camp

During this chapter there are men that try to start a riot in the camp during the dance. Tom and some of the other guys stop a different group of guys that are trying to start something. When Tom gets them away from the other people he asks why these men would possible turn against their own brethren. One of the men says that they were paid quite a bit of money to start this riot that they had planned. This is a great example of how humans can turn against each other. For a while the people of California were doing things that made the migrant farmers band together and be even more furious with them, but now they have used migrant farmers against migrant farmers. This is definitely a smart move because everyone is so desperate. If you select a small group of people from a lager group that are all desperate and you entice them with something they want, they are bound to do what you want. It is human nature to look out for yourself when you are in a rough and tough situation. People may even turn against their own families if they can benefit enough from it. I think that it is awful to think that money could turn people against the other people that are in the same boat as them, but it is undeniable that it happens. This can even be related to the Holocaust. When the Nazis were hunting people, they would tell other persecuted people to give up locations of their friends just so they could live. Even then, the people were most likely killed even if they did give up the hiding spots of people. The desperation that people experience really can make them do very evil things even though they think it is a good decision at the time. This is simply because people only want to look out for themselves in bad situations.

"Pleasure on the roads"

All of the migrant farmers are trying to do things to distract them from all of the bad things they are experiencing. This seems like a very normal human thing to do. They tell stories and they make music. Some even have enough extra money to by alcohol, which seems like something that many people would resort to if they could. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Great Depression made a lot of people into alcoholics. One thing that stuck out to me was the very last line of this chapter. It reads, “The migrant people looked humbly for pleasure on the roads.” This seems to completely capture what the people are feeling. If you are in one of the worst situations you could possible experience, you are obviously going to try to distract yourself and detach yourself from the world so that you can forget about the bad things in your life. Making music seems like the best thing that you could possible do. Since the beginning of time music has brought joy to all of the people that listen to it. That is why it is such a good outlet for stress and pain. In fact, a lot of people use music as an outlet for stress now in our time. If I ever feel bad I either find music to listen to that matches my mood or I play music myself. It doesn’t really matter what I play, just the fact that I am making music makes me feel better about a lot of different things and situations. This is exactly what the migrant farmers are doing. The one thing I would say about all of this is that, no matter what the situation is music and storytelling are things that will people will always resort to even in the worst case situation. This chapter is actually kind of happy because the people are doing things that can take their minds off of all of the bad.

Hope for the Joad family

At last there is some hope for the Joad family. Some good has finally come there way. They reach a camp for the migrant workers where they can live without the hassle of dealing with the police officers and the other people that do not want them in California. Here Tom meets some people that have a job for a farm. In the morning they take them to the farm to talk to their boss about getting Tom a job. The man tells them that he can only pay twenty five cents an hour because there is a group governing how much they pay. He says he knows it is wrong to pay that little and that he wishes he could pay more, but it would cause too much controversy. While Tom is at this farm Ma Joad is talking to the leader of the camp. He is very nice and kind. This of course is very refreshing for the people at the camp and for Ma Joad in particular. She says that his kindness allows her to feel human again. This is obviously a huge part of the story. The entire time the family has dealt with nothing put pain, loss, and devastation. This is finally a chance for them to experience something that makes them feel better as people. This section of the novel is basically a turning point because literally things are turning around for the Joad family. Tom ends up with a job and the family starts to be able to be around people that are not extremely cruel and wanting them to be out of the state. It is somewhat sad though because none of the other men have been able to get a job. Although all none of the other men have been able to get a job, it seems to be okay because Tom did in fact get a job. This really provides hope for the entire family.

Farmers coming together

The wealthy landowners have caused the tenant farmers to do exactly what the California residents did not want them to do. With all of the hostility that they have shown towards the tenant farmers, the farmers have come together. One quote that describes this is, “the flare of want in the eyes of the migrants.” This is what all of the land owners and California residents fear of the farmers. They have hired armed people to protect the land from the migrant farmers. This is probably a mistake too, because this will only cause the farmers to come together more. This is shown in the previous chapter because a sheriff tries to shoot someone that asks for help from a land owner. What the officer does is extremely reckless and I would say against protocol for the police department. This makes the other tenant farmers upset because it made them understand how easily they could get in trouble or get hurt by people for simply wanting to have a job to survive. The people trying to push the tenant farmers away and keep them out of the state really can not do anything to stop them. The farmers have absolutely nothing left so they do not have to worry about dying really. They have already sacrificed everything so it really is not a big deal that a couple of people try to keep them away. It is also sad because the owners of the big farms are trying to keep the small farms out of business along with keeping the migrant farmers out and away. This causes even less jobs because the small farms are the ones that would actually hire any of the migrant workers. Overall everything that the land owners and the California residents are doing to keep the tenant farmers out is what is making the farmers band together and become stronger as a group. It just seems that the land owners don’t get what they’re doing.

Sadness and kindness

First of all I would like to say that chapter twenty is so long. It is like forty pages. I was really tired after reading in but there was quite a bit of good information in this section of the book. First, it is quite sad because the Joad family is not able to have a funeral service is something that would be really sad to do. I think that you would feel really bad if you had to do this because it does not really seem that you are doing your loved one justice if you do not give them a proper burial. The family ends up leaving the body at a coroner’s office. This is really another more depressing part of the story. It is offset by something done by Ma Joad though. She makes a pot of stew for dinner. Of course she first feeds her family because family is the most important thing in her life, but then there are leftovers. The smell attracts some very hungry kids and Ma Joad decides to give the rest of the food to the kids. This is one of the things in the story that add a little happiness to the story. If you think about it, she may have save the lives of those children’s lives because so many people are starving or close to starving to death. You can tell that they are starving because when they get the food they absolutely destroy what was left of the stew that Ma Joad made. I can imagine that the stew was delicious because it seems that Ma Joad would make all of her meals with love. Plus everyone has not really had anything to eat lately so I’m sure that anything would taste good. This chapter is a huge mix of good and bad. First there is something that would make a family feel that they have not done justice to their loved one, but it has a part of caring and kindness from the Joad family.

People of California

Chapter nineteen goes back to just the narrator describing something. This time it is about the residents of California. It is described that the state was originally owned by the Mexicans and the farmers took over. Those farmers that worked on the land are now the wealth landowners that are controlling everything. The landowners have security so their land does not get taken over and they pay very little wages so that they can keep their large fortunes. These landowners are afraid that the migrant tenant farmers coming into the state are going to offset the balance that they have worked so hard to get in the first place. This chapter really gives a lot of perspective to why a lot of the people are acting the way that they are towards the migrant farmers. They are really trying to preserve what they are afraid to lose. Now I know that it seems reasonable to want to keep what you have, but I believe that they could really be a little nicer to the farmers. Another part of the chapter describes how some farmers tried to grow their own little gardens. These gardens are destroyed by the police officers. This part actually is not that sad. I did not really feel bad for the farmers on this one just because what they were doing was actually not right. They were planting things on land that is not theirs which is illegal. So really I think what the police did was actually justified. Overall think that what the local landowners are doing is somewhat justified, but they could probably handle the situation a little better. The migrant farmers only want to make enough to survive so the landowners could most likely find a way to work with them. Also what the police officers did was pretty much justified too. It was a little cruel but the farmers were doing something that is illegal to start with.

Another loss

The Joads are having even more trouble on their trip. I really can not wrap my head around how they can still continue to move on. This is what has happened to them recently. After Tom spoke to the man and his son at the river, the Joad family has decided to continue on anyway. This is a feat in itself because this man and his son are in basically an identical situation and they were not able to make a living to survive in California. As the family continues on it is clear that Granma Joad is getting sick. Since Granpa Joad died she just hasn’t been the same. Also the Joad family has left the Wilson family behind. Now in a previous chapter it is described that the families on the road have joined together in a sense. So when the Wilsons are left behind it is almost as though the Joads have lost another part of their family. At one point in the chapter Ma Joad makes a comment that the family is falling apart. It seems that this is almost true because they have lost five people at this point I believe. This is really upsetting. I would most likely not want to continue on with a journey if I had lost so much. It is hard to understand what this family is going through though because the situation is so unique for them. It could be possible that they are continuing because they do not want everything they have lost to be for nothing. Ma Joad does use one of the losses to their advantage. When a police officer stops them, she says that Granma needs medical attention. The officer lets the family move on. Later Ma Joad says that Granma Joad had already been dead for quite a while. Even though a loss did help them, I think that everything that has happened to the Joad family has been quite rough on them.

In California

Now that I’ve gotten some of those random thoughts about the Catcher in the Rye, I think its time for me to go back to the tale of the Joad family in the novel the Grapes of Wrath. At this point, once again someone has warned the Joad family to turn back because there is no work. This time it is from a man that Tom meets by a river. The man and his son are there and the man says that they have just turned back. He tells them that the people of California are very hostile and resentful of all of the migrant farmers that are coming into the state. Now this is something that would really make oneself feel bad. Tom had already heard from the man at the car shop that there is no work and now he had another first hand account that things are not as good as people hoped for. This situation must have been even worse though because at this point the Joad family is in the state of California. They are not in the area they plan on reaching yet, but they are in California none the less. I can only imagine how awful it would feel to reach your destination and then be told that you might as well turn back. I mean, these families have sacrificed everything just to make the journey, and now that they are where they were headed, they have been told there is nothing there for them. A lot of this novel is quite depressing. Though there are glimpses of kindness, it seems that for the most part everyone does not want the migrant tenant farmers coming to the west. This part of the chapter obviously fits into the category of depressing. I do not know how a family could go through all of this. I guess that if you are that desperate you would do anything to make ends meet.

Holden can be a jerk

Holden is really an interesting character. He is really good at seeing through people. Not that he has x-ray vision or anything crazy like that, its just that he sees how fake people are. I think that most everyone does this but the difference is that most people hold these things back and don’t say those kind of things to people’s faces. Obviously there are people that you wont like in life, but you have to have tolerance. This is a trait that Holden has not quite master. Maybe he never will but at this point in his life he can be a jerk to a lot of people and that is not good. In life you don’t really have to be the smartest person or the best person at something to be successful if you have people skills. When people like you it is easy to call for favors and ask for help on different things, which is really helpful a lot of time. For Holden it is hard to do this though because he doesn’t like anyone really. If you can’t like someone or simply tolerate them there is no way that they will ever be able to like or tolerate you. The fact of the matter is that Holden can not deal with people so his life will be very hard unless he can learn to tolerate people. Though Holden can be quite a jerk I think that he could learn to have some more people skills and eventually be liked by more people in his life. In all reality there are only two people that he can stand. They are Jane Gallagher and his little sister Phoebe. These people are the only ones that he has ever really opened up to and that he fells comfortable opening up to. If he could treat the people in his life with half of the attitude that he treats them with he would be alright.

Jane

Since I was thinking about Stradlater for my last blog I started thinking back on the Catcher in the Rye. One other character I thought of was Jane Gallagher. She is very important to the story and Holden’s character. She is like one of the most important girls in Holden’s life. She is really the only girl that he can stand to be around. It is weird though because he never sees her in the course of the novel. I can imagine that she is very attractive but not very fake just because I think that the kind of girl that Holden would like. When they were younger, Holden and Jane would play checkers because they lived close to each other. This seems to be very important to Holden because he keeps mentioning how she would keep her back row in their place for the entire game. I think this is really like the girl of Holden’s dreams because he talks about her all of the time. Its hard to tell if she really likes Holden as much as he likes her. I think that she obviously likes him as a friend but in all reality that could be the only way that she really likes him. I can imagine that she is quite attractive. She basically has to be a babe because I don’t think Holden would go for an ugly chick; although Holden could really only care about her personality. She obviously can see past people’s fakeness like Holden because she can stand to be around Holden. I think a lot of people are annoyed by Holden and the way he acts just because it seems like he could be quite the jerk. She can probably see that Holden just doesn’t like how a lot of people are and she appreciates this. So in conclusion Jane Gallagher is a really nice person that in my opinion is most likely a babe as well.

Stradlater

So I was just sitting here thinking about some random stuff. One thing that came to mind was the character Stradlater for the great, classic American novel the Catcher in the Rye. I think that he has a very interesting personality. He is considered a cool and popular child but Holden sees him for who he really is. One thing I find hilarious is that Holden sometimes calls him a sexy bastard. This is because Stradlater is sexually active. This is very unique because all of Holden’s other friends are not active and doing things of the sexual nature with people of the female sort. Not many people do anything sexual at the school they attend. Basically Stradlater is a pimp. Now although Stradlater is a stud, Holden knows who he really is as a person. In reality, Stradlater is quite disgusting in a lot of different ways. He uses a razor that is extremely old. It is probably over a year or two old. I would imagine that it is covered in rust, but apparently it still works because all of the girls love his cleanly shaved face. It is probably a very big health risk because there is a chance that he could have to get tetanus shot to prevent infection. At one point in the novel, Stradlater and Holden have a bit of a falling out. They end up getting in a fist fight; well really Stradlater just destroys him. I think that this probably had happened before just because of the relationship they have. It seems that Holden doesn’t really mind him as much as a lot of the other people that he knows. He almost has a slight respect for him. This may be because of the fact that they have been around each other for quite a long time. Overall I personally think that Stradlater is an alright guy but he could definitely get annoying so I understand Holden’s feelings for him.

Car troubles

After a chapter that shows kindness and generosity, the story shifts back to misfortune. The Wilson’s car breaks down and Tom and Casy have to fix it. Ma Joad says they aren’t going to leave without them so everybody ends up staying back. This shows that Ma Joad does not want anyone to split up. Another instance she shows this is when the some of the family members are talking about opening their own store by themselves. Ma Joad is upset by this. I think a lot of this comes from the fact that she has just lost her husband that she was married to for so long. When you lose someone important to you, it seems that a lot of times you want to keep really close to the ones you have left. This is really a coping mechanism since people can’t stand the idea of losing everyone. This is similar to Uncle John with this wife dying. His coping mechanism was being extremely nice to everyone around him, but Ma Joad’s is becoming over attached to the other family members that she has left. Another depressing part of this chapter is a man working at a car shop telling Tom and Al that he went to California and had no luck. He said he lost his entire family and there was absolutely no work there for him. This seems really discouraging, but the preacher Casy insists that he and the Joad family will have a different experience there. I really think that this chapter moved the mood of the story back down a lot. The kindness of the waitress in the previous chapter was nice but all of the descriptions of being unsuccessful can offset that back to nothing. I think the man telling the story about his family dying really made an impact on the ones who heard it. Now they know what the repercussions could be for not being able to find work.

At the restaurant

In chapter fifteen a little more kindness is shown by people. At a small restaurant a father and his two boys come in. As soon as they come in the two children go over to a little candy machine and gaze at it. The father asks the waitress if he can buy some bread for a nickel. She says she can not sell it to him because its not a grocery store and even if she could that it would cost fifteen cents. The cook of the restaurant then tells her to sell him the bread for the nickel. She does and then gets some of the candy for the boys for two cents even though its worth five. This part is just nice to read because the workers at the restaurant show some humanity and compassion for the people who were most likely out of food. It was extremely nice of them to sell them the bread for a third of the price. I’m sure that the father was really only trying to look out for the well being of his children. I also think that he would have paid full price if he could have, but that may have been the last of their money. One part of this I didn’t really understand was the part with the truckers. After the family leaves, some truckers that were in the restaurant make a comment about how the candy cost more than what the waitress charged for it. Before she can say anything they say that they have to leave and hey leave some change on the counter. The walk away and she tells they that they have change and then one of them says, “You go to hell.” I thought this part was really weird. I think that the truckers were upset by the fact that the waitress and cook of the restaurant wanted to help and showed sympathy to the people passing by. Really I think they did a great thing for them.

What to fear

The first half of chapter fourteen really stuck out to me. It describes the idea of man advancing as a people. Its says that if man wants to advance it may need to stumble forward, but forward nonetheless. Even though it is painful to fall forward it must be done in the sake of moving at all. The narrator then says that sometimes man has to move back half a step but never a full step. It is almost as though we as people will be moving forward, but can move backwards in the sake of keeping movement going forward. The last line of this passage seems to be extremely important. It reads, “… fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe.” This encompasses the entire concept spoken of in the previous parts of the passage. It concludes with the idea that if people are not will to give up everything to move forward, then no one will ever be able to move forward again. The passage also describes what you else should be feared like the idea that bad things stop happening. This is because when the bad in the world ceases, there is no way to know if anything is worth anything. It is the things that we fear that allow us to know that what we have done and what we need to do is not for nothing. It shows purpose to the things we do in our lives. This idea in this particular chapter really is speaking of everything that is happening in the county with the bad economy. It is happening so that the country can advance and recover to be stronger than before. The last line of the quote is extremely important. It basically says that the quality of dying for something is what makes man so great and separates us from the rest of the universe.

More death in the Joad family

This is just a bad day for the Joad family. First they have to deal with just making the trip of long travel down the highway 66. Then, at a gas station they lose their dog, which is an important part of every family. Now an even worse lose for the Joad family. Grampa Joad has passed away at the end of this chapter. It is truly a devastating day for this family. I thought it was bad when their dog died but now an actually human member of their family. I remember when my Grandmother died. It was the first death in the family I ever experience and it was awful. I didn’t really realize anything until a while after. I started to think about never seeing a person again and thinking back on all of the time we spent together. This death for the Joad family was traumatic for everyone in the family on the trip. There could not have been a worse time either. It was at the end of a very long day of travel. Everyone was tired and then they have to deal with a funeral for a close family member. There was one plus to this event though. Before his death, the Joads meet with another pair of people. After Grampa Joad’s death, it was determined that the two groups should join together. The Joad family seems to show a lot of humanity. The Wilson’s car has broken down and they are in need of help. The Joads already took the preacher Casy when they did not have to, and now they are taking an extra set of people with them. This is just a clear example that the Joad family is extremely kind and hospitable. They are willing to help out their fellow man, which is exactly what the people in the country need to do at that time. With the lose of a family member the Joads have gained a new pair of friends.

A loss for the family

Things have gotten a lot worse for the Joad family. When they stopped for gas their dog got hit or run over by a car. This is just awful timing because they are already under enough stress and then they lose their pet. I for one would be extremely upset if my dog died even under regular circumstances. Really pets are like members of a family. I would most likely cry if my dog were to die suddenly. Even if it isn’t a sudden and tragic death, I will still most likely cry when my dog dies. When you have a pet that you are around for a long time they really become a major part of your family. As I’m writing this blog, my dog is lying next to me sleeping. Its little things like that you would really miss when a pet dies. Before this happens in the story the family is trying to get gas but the employee at the station says that people have been stopping by with no money. He and Al argue for a while, but it turns out that the attendant at the station has some sympathy for the family. He says that he will bury the dog for them. This is such a nice act for the family since they are so devastated by the death. It is really these rare instances of people showing kindness and compassion that most likely make the trip bearable. It would be so hard to continue on when there is no one that even seems to be showing human emotion. The action of helping bury the dog may have been something that made the family have hopes that things would be alright. It is a situation like this one that showed that there are still people showing human emotions. Up until then, most everyone has been cruel, selfish people that are only looking out for themselves. The death of the dog really was a major part of the story.

Highway 66

Chapter twelve was also sad like chapter eleven was. It talks about all of the cars on the highway, route 66 to be specific. Most people’s cars are breaking down because there were not in good condition to start with. This of course is because of the car salesmen earlier in the story. Most of the families fear that they may not even make it the next stretch of road without something going wrong. All kinds of parts are breaking and it is really sad to know that the families have to go through with all of it because it would be so difficult to turn back at that point. Some people are stuck at the side of the road hoping that someone will pick them up and take them with them, but no one really wants to have to look out for extra people. All of the workers at stops with parts for cars are selling them at ridiculous prices like the car salesmen did earlier to the farmers. Once again the farmers are in no position to negotiate prices. It is sad at the part where someone tells a farmer that they should just turn around. He says that there are police at the border turning people around and not letting them in so they should just stop now. To hear that would be so discouraging, and then to continue on would take so much motivation; actually, not as much motivation, but rather desperation. The farmers have nothing to go back to though, so their only choice is to try and continue on. They farmers were convinced that they had an opportunity waiting for them in California, but one of the workers at a stop told them that someone was just kidding with them. It is really depressing to think that someone lied to them during such a rough time for everyone. This is just a sad chapter that really depicts how desperate all of the farmers are.

chapter 11

Chapter eleven is quite short in length but still in a short amount of word paints a very dark picture of the countryside. It starts by describing how the new workers on the farm are not really a part of the farm, and this is true. When the tenant farmers lived there the farm was their life. When they were done with work they would go back to their house that was already on the farm. This is really a valid idea. If you have a job that is also your passion or what you were raised to do, then you do it with a solid work ethic. If you do something you love and care about you are bound to do a good job at it. The current workers do not have the connection both physically and emotionally to the farm land that they are working on. It is just a job to them, not their lives. After this, the narrator describes the conditions of the houses that the tenant farmers lived in. Not even that long after they have left, their houses have started to fall apart. Weeds in the gardens and around the house along with wild animals coming into the houses at night are described. It is scary to think about something like that. Having your house be destroyed and deteriorating because you can not stay to keep it up. This chapter seems to really capture how depressing the environment is. Farmers may have seen this happen to their neighbors and they would have known that it was inevitable for them as well. Overall I think that this chapter really captures the entire concept of leaving everything you own and care about behind. It is a depressing thought and this short chapter portrays it perfectly. The tenant farmers really have to endure a very difficult series of events and there is nothing that they can do to stop it which makes it worse.

More on the preacher

In chapter eleven there is more reveled about the preacher, Casy. In this segment of the novel the family has a meeting to decide if Casy will be able to come with them to California. It is decided that he can come with them. This to me seems like a surprising thing. After all of the people like the bankers, the car salesmen, and the people buying the farmers possessions being awful as humans and just inconsiderate, it seems strange to me that the Joad family would still want to take someone extra. Everyone else is only looking out for themselves but the Joads do the noble thing and allow the former preacher of their church to come with them. Obviously Casy is extremely grateful of this. After this, Ma Joad goes to salt meat for the long trip they are about to make. The preacher offers to help with this and she tells him that he shouldn’t. She tells him that it is a woman’s job and he shouldn’t be burdened by it. He then refutes this by telling her that in the times they are dealing with there are not really jobs that should be taken on by one group of people. This part really stuck out to me and showed a lot into the character of Casy. It is another thing that really shows that there is still the mentality of a preacher left in Casy. It seems that he has very good intentions about everything and has a clear head when it comes to what is right and wrong. He also insists about helping out with work that someone like him would never do under regular circumstances, but he understands that they are not dealing with regular circumstances and that he should do whatever he can to help. Really this just shows that he is a noble man and a man of righteousness even though he tries to say he lost his faith.

Selling everything

Chapter nine is really depressing in a sense. It describes how the families are preparing to leave for California and all of the things they have to do to get ready for the trip. It describes how the farmers are thinking about how much different things mean to them. Possessions are something that the farmers think about along with simply the memories of the places that they lived in and growing up in the area that they would have wanted to stay for the remainder of their lives. The narrator tells about how the families must sell most all of their possessions because they do not have any room to take them to California with them. Also they need the money to pay for the trip to California for supplies, gas, and other necessities. This is really tough on the families because they have to get rid of basically everything they own. I can not begin to imagine what that would be like to endure. It would be even worse for things that have sentimental value because the people they sold their belongings to do not care whatsoever about that. They are just looking to get some things from people that are desperate for money. The people that are buying it really don’t pay that much for anything. They make sure to get the minimal amount they can to give to the farmers. It is sad though because the farmers are in no position to try and make better deals with the people they sell to because the buyers know how desperate they are and just see how low they can get the price. Even things that cannot be sold must be left behind because there is no room for them to take to California. It is really just sad to imagine giving up all of your possessions, although you do what you have to do in times of desperation. It cannot be said better than “desperate times call for desperate measures.”

Tom's Parents

When Tom finally reaches the house of his uncle John, he arrived to his father, Pa Joad, outside. He tells his father that he has come home and his dad’s first question is if he busted out of jail and needed a place to hide. Tom then tells him that he is free and he has come home to the family. Pa Joad tells him about how they are leaving for California and now that he is here that he can come with them. They then go into the house to surprise Ma Joad by saying there are just some people passing by. She tells them to come in and then realizes that it is Tom. She seems really happy and then asks if he busted out of prison just as his father did and again he says that he has his papers with him. I think it’s quite bizarre that the first thing his parents asked is if he was actually supposed to be out of prison. I would think that after being gone for many years that a child’s parents would just be happy to see their son. It also seems strange that they didn’t really recognize Tom at first. It took Tom’s mother a while to realize that the stranger coming in for breakfast was actually her son. I hope that if I was gone for years that right as I came in to see my family everyone would at least recognize me. I guess maybe Tom could have changed quite a bit during his time in prison, but I just cannot understand the idea that a mother can for get the face of her son. This kind of makes me question the kind of relationship that Tom had with his parents before he went to prison and the type of relationship that he will have with them now that he is back. This part of the story seems to suggest that Tom did have an odd relationship with his parents or that he was in prison for quite some time.

Uncle John's story

The first part of chapter eight is really interesting. As the men are traveling towards Tom’s uncles’ house, Tom tells a story about his uncle. A while back his wife had complained about stomach pain but Uncle John didn’t do anything about it. He wouldn’t take her to a doctor and he didn’t really do much for her personally either. Not to long after that, his wife died. He was so devastated by her death. He most likely felt responsible for her dying, which is a normal and human thing to do. A lot of times in situations like this people do tend to blame themselves. They find one mistake they made that’s related to the event and they claim that they caused it. Tom then tells that since that tragic event, his uncle John has been doing a lot of nice things for people. They are really just random acts of kindness. This is most likely his attempt to make up for the death of his wife. It could be that he owes it to her to be nice to people and take care of others, or maybe it is that he feels he owes simply society as a whole for letting a person die. I could also be a combination of both. It seems that this guilt that John has for the passing of his wife is really keeping him from letting her go. The acts of kindness probably don’t help much in the long run with his coping because he will always have to remember why he is being so nice. The change in his personality will always be there to remind him why he changed his personality in the first place. It is really going to be an endless loop of John feeling guilty about her death. Until he can prove to himself that he could not have done anything to help her, he will be stuck feeling the way he does with all of the guilty and blame he puts on himself for her death.

Car sales

Chapter seven is quite sad. It describes how all of these car salesmen are selling the tenant farmers really awful cars. Since the tenant farmers don’t know anything about cars, the salesmen can do anything they want to and sell at any price they want to. These salesmen are just doing nasty things to the cars before they sell them. They change the batteries with old crappy ones right before they are going to sell it. It really shows how a lot of people have become lousy crooks during this bad economic time. Some would say that it’s good business, but it’s just a dirty thing to do. They raise the prices because there is such a high demand for cars so that families can go to California. It is the smart thing to do by raising prices when demand is high for a product, but it seems that the salesmen have just crossed the line. At a certain point you have to think that they would want to be kind to their fellow man, but they are really crooked and are only worrying about making more money for themselves even if it means cheating people. This is similar to the part about the bankers but a more extreme level. They bankers weren’t being unreasonable, just doing what they are supposed to do because it’s their job. The car salesmen on the other hand are just trying to make as much cash off of this opportunity as they can. Both of these parts of the story just prove that when people are desperate they will do anything. That could mean having to be mean to people or taking advantage of them for their own benefit. Either way, it is not a pleasant thought that no one is really going to look after you if everyone is ever in a bad situation. Really the car salesmen are just deceivers trying to make a buck off of other people’s desperation.

Tom Joad

At this point in the story not much has been shown about Tom Joad on an emotional and physiological level. The only thing that really stuck out to me was what he told Casy. He describes his life in prison and what he did to another man. He said that he was in a fight with a man, both of the men were drunk at the time, and the man pulled a knife on Tom. He was stabbed by this man, but made it over to a shovel an killed the man by hitting him with it. He then describes how his life in prison was not really all that difficult. He says that the lack of women made it very hard on him. This is something that Casy could definitely relate to due to the fact that he had an extreme lust for women during his time as a preacher for the church. But the women were really the only bad part of it. He received very good treatment, having regular meals and just having it easy all around. I don’t think that prison really had a major impact on Tom just because it really was not that bad for him. After telling Casy this, it is clear that he likes the preacher. Tom makes a comment that the Joad family always thought very highly of him during his time as the preacher of their church. I think that both of these men like each other and can easily relate with each other as well. I also think that Casy will end up staying with Tom for quite a while but I’m not sure yet. At this point he has continued far enough to see the empty land that was the Joad farm, but I am not sure if Casy will stay long enough to meet up with the Joad family that Tom is trying to reach. Overall Tom hasn’t really opened up that much, but I would like to see how his character develops.

Jim Casy

I am quite intrigued by the character of Jim Casy. I had already read ahead to where he said to Muley that he should have kept his family together and when he could not sleep because he was too troubled by what was going on at the farms. I have now thought back a couple of chapters to when Tom and Casy first meet. Jim tells Tom that he was the priest who baptized him but he had stopped preaching a while back. He then tells his story of why he stopped. He says that he would be taking girls out after church and he could not control it. As he tells this my first thought was that his lust for women was a huge flaw in his character because he is a priest. He tells Tom that he came to a conclusion that there isn’t any sin and there isn’t any virtue in the world. This appears to show a loss of faith from Casy, but in a later chapter as I referred to in a previous blog, he states that he cannot sleep because of what was going on with the farmers. That to me seems to be genuine caring and virtue. And his previous stage of life where he had a lust for women, Jim seems to have sin. All of this meaning that what he said about being no virtue and sin in the world is a complete and utter contradiction to his actions that he did in his past and what he has shown now. Although Jim Casy has seemed to have lost his faith and belief in the church, he tends to show that he is still displaying and proving it true, even if it is not all the good things. His actions show both virtue and sin in the world and he is a preacher, so he has proved the point he was trying to when he thought that he was caring for the church earlier in his life.

Meeting with Muley

When the men reach the farm they meet up with on of Tom’s former neighbors whose name is Muley. He informs them that Tom’s family has moved to stay with his uncle on a different farm. They plan to work picking cotton to make enough money to buy a car so that they can make it to California. Tom asks about Muley’s family and is told that they have left for California already. Casy then says something that I think really shows into his character and personality. He tells Muley that he should have kept his family together. This really shows what Casy thinks is important in life and gives the reader an understanding that Casy has strong values and morals. This kind of contradicts what he has spoken about before of how his life was previously. After the men eat they go to where Muley has been staying to sleep. Casy says that he cannot sleep and this is also very important to his character. He says the reason he cannot sleep is that he is so troubled by what they have learned about the farmers and their land. He is genuinely upset by what is going on in the area and this makes him out to be a very caring character. It seems that he has a lot of morality for other people and this shows that he probably was an excellent priest and that he really did care for the people and the church. Earlier he said that he had stopped preaching because he had a realization about the world and what he was doing. This part of the story seems to prove that he did and still does care a lot about people and he could help them out a lot too. Maybe there will be more in the story relating to Casy, because I think that he has a lot of potential to be an important character throughout the rest of the novel.

the bankers

After reading the first couple of chapters of The Grapes of Wrath I have already determined that it is an awful time in the country. I mean this is kind of assumed but one part really made an impact and really encompassed the idea of how bad of times it is. This part I am referring to is when the bank owners are telling the tenant farmers that they have to leave the land. Obviously the farmers are quite upset by this because it is the only way they have to make money to support their families that are just getting by as it is. The bank people truly treat the farmers like they are nothing. It seems unreasonable and makes the bank workers seem evil in a sense, but they are only doing their jobs as well. You have to consider that they have families too and that the economy is bad for everyone. They are only doing what they are told when they have to evict the farmers from the land. The bank workers have nothing really against the farmers on a personal level, its simply that when times are tough people tend to only look out for themselves. The bankers tell the tenant farmers that they could go to California for work, which is an honorable thing to do considering they have just told the farmers that they are basically out of work for the area they are in. In the course of all of this, the bankers are made out to be cold and emotionless about the whole ordeal, but really they can only do what they are told. For all we know the bank could be laying off employees and they just want to do what they are told so that they can keep their jobs. Although it is an awful thing to have to tell someone that they no longer have a job, it is a job to be done and someone has to do it. The bankers may seem unreasonable but it is just what they have to do.

Santiago's death

One thing that I didn’t think about until a while after reading the Old Man and the Sea was if he died at the end. After I finished the book I didn’t give it much thought. I just assumed that he was asleep like it said he was, but then I gave it some more thought. I now think that at the end of the story, that Santiago is dead. There is quite a bit of evidence to support this thought. The first is that the fish he caught was like his final task. He wasn’t able to catch anything for a really long time but after catching this fish he could bring his life to a close. It was the largest and best fish he had ever caught in his life and it seems appropriate that it would be his last time at sea and the last thing that he catches. Even though he does not bring the fish back in a state that it would be worth anything, just the fact that he accomplished the task of catching it seems to be enough. Also at the end of the story, it is stated that he is thinking about the lions on the beach again. This is very important to the idea that he has died at the end of the novel. In the middle of the story he says that he has had the dream before and its always the same. That really means a lot because it is so definite in his mind. He says that he has the dream at milestones in his life. Also he states that he is always happy when the having of this dream occurs. And the ending of his life could definitely be happy because he has completed everything that he has needed to do in his life. He ends it on his own terms really, because it could have bee anytime before that. Just the fact that he has this dream at the time that it is at makes the idea that he has dies extremely plausible.

Talking to himself

One thing I didn’t really get was that Santiago talked to himself throughout the story. Every once and a while he would be thinking about something, and then he would say aloud his response or like the end of the thought. I do not think that he is crazy; it’s just a little bizarre and hard to explain talking to oneself. At one point he says that the other fishermen that go out on their own are starting to bring radios and they listen to baseball games and whatnot. I think that Santiago would have really enjoyed that during the times he was bored or wanting to have the boy to talk to. He says that he does just like being at on the sea though. Maybe that’s enough for him and he is happy just listening to the waves, but talking to himself is just kind of weird. I think that it would be less weird if he was just saying everything that he was thinking, but that’s not what he did. He would be thinking about something, ask a somewhat rhetorical question to himself, and then he would say his answer or thoughts on the matter out loud. Even when he was talking about the other fishermen that have the radios to listen to the baseball games he goes through this same process that makes him seem even crazier. It’s almost like the inner monologue on the TV show Scrubs. All of his thoughts are in his voice and then he says the ending part just like J.D. does in the show. I kind of want to know if he does this when he is around other people because if he does it would be practically identical to what J.D. does in Scrubs. Personally I do not think that Santiago is crazy. I think maybe he just has a weird thought process and it helps to say parts of his thoughts out loud.

a less ridiculous comparison

Though there are an extremely low number of characters in the story the Old Man and the Sea, two of them are practically identical. These two characters are Santiago and the fish that he is trying to catch in the story. Both characters display very similar characteristics and traits. The first and foremost is their strength. Santiago shows this by holding onto the line for days at a time. The fish shows it by having the hook inside of itself and carrying the weight of Santiago and the boat from is. A similar trait is their endurance. Both of the two characters go on for days at a time doing things that require a massive amount of energy. By the end of the story Santiago is so exhausted that he cannot even make it back to his house. The fish looses its strength to go on only a little bit before Santiago and it costs it its life. Santiago shows even more endurance by going on to kill the loads of sharks that attack even after the fish is dead. Nonetheless, both characters show large amounts of both strength and endurance. Another characteristic both characters have is a high pain tolerance. It would seem that this is mainly for the fish, but Santiago also goes through quite a bit of pain. The fish has a hook in its mouth, or it may even be all the way in its stomach and it is pulling a boat by it. Santiago is on the other end of this pain too though. He has to hold onto the line and feed it or pull it in when necessary. This causes him to get cuts on his hands that bleed all of the time. Even when he puts it on the parts of his hands that are tougher from having this happen before, the force is still enough to cut through his tough skin. These characteristics are what make the fish and Santiago so similar.

A ridiculous comparison

After reading some criticisms on the novel it is evident that many believe that Santiago is meant to represent Christ. There is evidence to support this, but personally I do not believe this to be true. One thing that supports that he is a Christ figure is the damage done to his hands. The fishing line cuts through his hands while on the boat and he bleeds for a long period of time. Critics compare this to the damage done to Christ’s hands while he is crucified because of the nails through his hands. This to me just seems like an odd comparison since people get injured during their jobs all of the time. The next supporting piece of evidence is that after returning to shore, Santiago falls a couple of times as he is carrying the mast of the boat up a hill. He carries it across his shoulders and some say that it is meant to represent the cross that Jesus carried up the hill. I refuse to believe that this event has any relation to the crucifixion and the events leading up to it. These just seem to be events that replicate events during the life of Jesus Christ, but just coincidences nonetheless. I do not think that they have any direct relation to the story of the crucifixion at all. Santiago’s beliefs refute the possibility of any representation of Christ. He states that he is not a religious man and he rarely prays, so why would an author choose a character that is not religious to represent Christ himself. It all seems a little ridiculous to me. Although there are some events that seem to support this idea, I personally believe that Santiago’s character is not related or in any way a representation of Jesus Christ. This is simply the story of a man trying to catch a large fish, not a huge metaphor for the story of Jesus. It’s just a simply story. Nothing else.

"I wish I had the boy"

All throughout the novel, the Old Man keeps repeating the same phrase. It seems like it is always right after times that he could have used some help to make things easier or when he just wanted someone to talk to. The line is, “I wish I had the boy.” Santiago says this or some form of it so much throughout the story. Now I would say that Santiago is kind of a loner. I don’t think that he really needs anyone else and that he blocks most people out. Only the boy seems to have gotten past all of the walls Santiago has put up to keep himself separated on an emotional level from all of the people in his life. There are a lot of people in this world that try to block people out and only spending time with them allows one to have insight into their psyche. This is exactly the case with the boy for Santiago. Santiago practically raised him and was a very strong influence on him. He became a father figure for the boy even though the boy had a family, specifically a father that took care of him and loved him. I think that Santiago realized that he had become like a father to the boy and that is why he got so attached to him. When they were on the boat together they were able to talk to each other. Now I believe Santiago is a very simple man because all he really mentions besides fishing is baseball. The boy plays and both characters enjoy talking about the major league teams. This may not seem like a very deep topic but it is what the two of them would talk about and it is what allowed the boy to become one of the few people to get close to Santiago. I think that both characters care for each other very much and that they would remain important to each other for all of their lives.

The Arm Wrestling Match

While on the boat being pulled by the fish, Santiago has a lot of time to think. One of the things he thinks about is something that happened to him a while back. He remembers a time when he had an arm wrestling match down by the docks. He recalls that it was against the strongest man in the area, but he was also very strong. The two men were most likely the best there could possibly be. He says that people made bets on the match because it was supposed to be so good. He tells about how the match started and they both were going at it strong. They continued for hours and even through the night. The official didn’t want to call it a draw because of all of the money people had on it. In the morning Santiago’s opponent tried to make a move to win, but he started too early and Santiago still held him off. The man became tired from his efforts to finish it so Santiago saw his opportunity and ended the match. This story really symbolizes the entire novel. Santiago’s opponent is just like the fish, a worth adversary in both strength and endurance. In the end though, Santiago is able to become victorious with the fish as he did with the man in the arm wrestling match. He waits it out long enough so that each opponent becomes tired making one last attempt, and then Santiago makes his move. As Santiago thinks about this story he recalls that the man he faced was supposed to be stronger than him. Maybe it was Santiago’s experience that he knew when to make his move to bring himself out as the victorious one. This is the same thing that allowed him to catch the fish. This little story shows exactly how Santiago planed to catch the fish the entire time. This metaphor explains a lot about the story, but also simply about Santiago as a character.

The Catcher and the Old Man

After analyzing both characters it seems that they are polar opposites but at the same time have common characteristics. Both of these characters, Santiago and Holden, display strength in different ways. Santiago shows strength in his physical capability and in his mental stamina to stay focused while Holden shows his strength in his opinions and how he voices them. But nonetheless both of the characters have strength and do things that show it. The other similarity in the novels is that both cause the characters to make a major realization about their lives. For Holden it is that he has to accept the responsibilities that come with getting older and becoming an adult even though he doesn’t like how it seems. For Santiago, it is that he has accomplished everything he needed to in his life to be at peace with himself so his life can end. The similarity is that both characters are doing something that opens up a new chapter in their lives. The difference is that one has just begun the longest and most important part of his life and the other has ended this part and is ready to bring his life to a close. The major difference in the two characters is their intelligence. On one end, Holden believes he is always right no matter what and always wants to voice his opinion, while on the other end, Santiago has a great amount of knowledge but keeps to himself about it. He has had a lot of experience but remains humble about it. Holden does not have much experience in life with many things but still acts like he knows everything that there is to know about anything and everything. Overall I think that the characters of each novel show similar traits, but have a lot of differences in personality and style. Maybe if Holden was as old as Santiago, he would have a different attitude and have even more in common with him. Maybe he would just be the same hardheaded person he was as an adolescent. Its hard to tell, but personally I think Holden would be a lot like the Old Man.

Santiago

Santiago is a very important character in the world of literature. His story gives a lot of insight into his character because of the extreme actions he takes. One of his major characteristics is his strength. He is one of the best fishermen and he knows it. He is never like a bragger about it, but he is very confident in his abilities and can back it up with his history of catching fish. Not only does he have this mental strength that allows him to know what to do and how to react in certain situations, but he also has immense physical strength as well. He manages to hold on to the line with the fish pulling for days on end. At the same time he also has to catch other fish to eat for himself to stay alive out on the sea. Through the course of the novel Santiago makes a realization that he has accomplished a lot in his life and he can finally rest. This is really him finishing the final chapter to his life. The trip out to sea that the novel describes seems to be his final actions that can conclude his life. In the story he also displays his independence. Though he likes having the boy around while he works, he can be by himself and still accomplish a lot of things. After thinking about the ending of the novel again, I came to the conclusion that Santiago has died at the very end when he is dreaming of the lions. This is because he always thinks about the lions at major times in his life and it seems that this represents him being at peace. If he has truly died, it is as if the events of the novel are what made him realize that his life can come to a close after everything that he has done. The death of Santiago really captures how simple events can cause a person to make such a major realization.

Thinking back on the Catcher in the Rye

After reading both the Catcher in the Rye and the Old Man and the Sea I have gained a new perspective on the characters. Holden is really an interesting adolescent. His character seems to capture all of the emotions and characteristics of people his age, but magnifies and intensifies them to an extreme level. It is this that makes Holden such a strong character. This also makes it easy for readers to relate to him on a very deep level. One major characteristic of Holden is his arrogance. He always believes that he is right about everything no matter what. He will not take advice from others because he truly believes that it is irrelevant to his opinion. This makes him very hard headed, which often times according to adults, is the way that most teenagers are. At a younger age opinions about many things in life seem to be formed and often times they need to be voiced. Holden portrays this perfectly. Maybe this is a characteristic that some people have but it could also be that every adolescent feels the need to rebel to understand how many things in life work. The entire point of the novel is to show that Holden finally understand that he is not acting the way he should. The story is one of the most important coming of age novels of all time. Holden’s opinions and attitude change through the course of events in the novel. This happening allows Holden to be ready to enter a new part of his life. He is no longer a juvenile, but rather a young adult with an understanding of his environment and his position in society. The major thing I would like to point out is Holden’s strength in his voice and opinions. I think it is a very important part of his character and has a lot to do with how the reader pictures him after the novel has ended.