In the “Cather
in the Rye” I found that the vignette about Holden and his issue with suitcases
in chapter 15 was powerful and had great meaning. The Vignette talks about
how Holden hates how his roommate has an old cheap suitcase. Holden goes on to
talk about how he appreciates when people have nice new suit cases that are genuine
and leather; like Holden himself.
Holden says, “It sounds terrible to say it,
but I can even get hate somebody, just looking at them, if they have cheap
suitcases with them” (141). Why do you think Holden says this?
Holden tries to make the point that people judge others on superficial things like the kind of suitcases they carry,
ReplyDelete"...it's really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs - if yours are really good ones and theirs aren't. You think if they're intelligent and all, the other person, and have a good sense of humor, that they don't give a damn whose suitcases are better, but they do. They really do".
Holden recalls his roommate, Dick Slagle, who had bad suitcases, which he hid. Although he criticized Holden's suitcases for being overly rich and "bourgeois", he actually wanted people to think Holden's suitcases were his.
When Holden discusses this he is showing how he does't want Dick to feel bad about himself so he puts his nice suit cases under the bed. By doing this he is trying to help Dick because he doesn't have very nice suitcases, but Dick pulls the suitcases back out from under the bed. He does this because he wants people to think that the suitcases are his, he wants people to think this because he doesn't want to be judged for his suitcases. This proves Holden's point of how others will judge people on superficial things like suitcases, it shows that people have a fear of this type of judgement that Holden is talking about. How did you think Dick felt when he saw Holden put his suitcases under his bed?
DeletePersonally, I think that Dick was wondering why Holden was putting such fabulous bags under his bed if he can show them off to everyone else. Also, if this proves Holden's point of view about how others will judge people on superficial things like suitcases, and he judges people based on suitcases, what does that say about Holden?
ReplyDelete