The first time I read Catcher in the Rye, I liked and felt bad for Holden Caufield. The second time I read it, I couldn’t stand Holden Caufield and was happy about his demise. These contradictory feelings toward one of American Literature’s most famous protagonists is in line with Caufield’s contradictory feelings toward just about everything.
Intro Music
You can usually tell when someone is overly concerned about what others think about him because they tell everyone they know that they don’t care what other people think about them.
Let’s here from Holden himself:
Quote: “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would’ve done it, too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn’t want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory” (104).
Analysis: Shortly after Holden is assaulted by Maurice, the elevator pimp, he takes a bath, goes to bed, and confesses he would have rather killed himself than go to sleep. His reason for not doing it gives the reader a glimpse into his contradictory nature. He claims he wants to be isolated, yet is overly concerned with what everybody else thinks about him. He wants to die because everybody is a “phony” yet wants to live because he doesn’t want the “phonies” to judge him.
Class Discussion
Holden shares his suicidal thought in this passage and not for the last time. I promise there are students in your classroom who have had similar thoughts or still have them. Treat this passage with sensitivity.
I’m going to move away from Holden’s contradictory feelings and talk about something that’s not contradictory. And that’s elacommoncorelessonplans.com.
Over at elacommoncorelessonplans.com I combined most of the lesson plan units I’ve created into one pdf file and have made it available to you, my loyal listener. It contains complete units plans for 33 short stories, 11 poetry units, all types of writing, 3 novels, 2 Shakespearean plays, and an epic poem. You could literally not have to create a lesson plan for the entire year and still not get through everything.
Classroom Application
I have a quick lesson plan right now regarding Holden Caufield and his many contradictory thoughts, actions, and words.
I know it’s summer and you’re probably not writing lesson plans while at the beach or in the mountains, so just bookmark this and come back to it before you teach this novel. Does anyone still teach this novel? It is a bit saucy for high school. I’ve always offered it as a book club/independent reading type book with parental permission required. Anyhow, I have a good character lesson plan you can use with this or you can adapt it to another novel or short story.
- It’s a simple 2-column chart. Label the left column, “Words of Holden”
- Label the right column, “Contradictory actions or words of Holden”
Life Lesson
Let’s get back to the quote. I think it’s ok to discuss sensitive topics such as suicide in a classroom setting as long as we are sensitive about it. This would be a good time to talk about our thoughts in general. What thoughts come to mind when we are faced with a trial or a challenge.
I certainly hope it’s not thoughts of leaping out of a window in an effort to kill yourself, although I do admit to secretly hoping my car would accidentally crash into the brick wall of the baseball field before school my first year teaching.
Remember our thoughts lead to emotions, which drive our actions, which produce our results.
Links
- Free Video Course Sign Up : https://forms.aweber.com/form/34/1733538234.htm
- Catcher in the Rye Blog Post
- Complete Lesson Plans Collections: https://trent-media.myshopify.com/
