Ackley is unhygienic and he is annoying. He comes into you room and pick up your personal stuff and put it back in the wrong place. He will cut his toenails all over the floor He is two years older than Holden and he thinks that make him superior. Holden really doesn't care for him. Holden is a compassion guy. He invites Ackley to come along with him and Mal Brossard to the movies because no one else would hang out with Ackley for the night.
You could say that Holden is so lonely he hangs out with Ackley, even though can't stand the guy. After Stradlater punches Holden in the nose, he goes into Ackley's room looking for company and conversation for the night. It is really combination of both.
While Holden is reading Out of Africa, Ackley comes in the room, pretending his arrival is an accident. He comes in and trash talk Stradlater.
When Holden asks if he need to be a Catholic to join a monastery, Ackley get offended thinking Holden is making fun of his religion. When Holden left, Ackley said Holden going to get his head bashed in someday for being such a wise guy.
Salinger, through the character of Holden, uses clothing and physical descriptions to develop many characters mentioned in the novel. Salinger's descriptions of women, like his aunt as well as his love interest, Sally Hayes, benefit particularly from details to do with their clothing.
Holden describes his aunt as a well-dressed woman who enjoys charity events, but he is careful to say that she would not enjoy these events if she wasn't able to wear her nice black clothes and red lipstick. These details reveal that Holden's aunt is likely an affluent person who likes to partake in activities that other affluent people attend; though she is generous enough to want to participate in charity functions, she is not so generous as to participate without her appearance just as she likes it to be.
Sally Hayes as well prefers to dress carefully, and her clothing choices reflect her own awareness of her physical appearance. For example, when Holden and Sally go ice-skating, she expresses enthusiasm for renting a skating skirt that reveals her figure; Holden is aware and somewhat judgmental of Sally's vanity, but he begrudgingly acknowledges to the reader that she did look great in the ensemble after all.
Here are a few notable examples of clothing and physical appearance used to develop characters in The Catcher in the Rye:
Holden's red hunting hat plays a role throughout the novel. He purchased it when seeking comfort while the fencing team was angry at him, and at first wears it only in private situations while feeling vulnerable. The hat may symbolize his clinging to childhood, and although he gives it to Phoebe for protection when he is planning to leave town, he is grateful when she returns the hat to him at the end of the book, even though he realizes it does not truly protect him from anything.
Stradlater's rejection of his own flannel jacket for Holden's houndstooth jacket foreshadows his pretentious nature, which is demonstrated when he flatters Holden with the goal of getting a homework assignment written, as well as when he goes out on a date with Jane and Holden recalls Stradlater's many dishonorable interactions with women.
Holden describes the three girls in the Lavender Room as "pretty ugly, and they all had on the kind of hats that you knew they didn't really live in New York, but one of them, the blonde one, wasn't too bad." The hat comment is ironic since Holden, a New Yorker, describes his own hat as unattractive and an ill fit for the city; however, his assumption about the women is true since they are actually from Seattle. The women fit into Holden's idea of phonies, as they are in the club with the main goal of seeing or being seen by famous people. Their superficial behavior aligns with his superficial initial impression of them.
Holden's descriptions of his sister Phoebe are more detailed than his descriptions of anyone else in the novel, which makes sense, since he idolizes her as an admirable, innocent example of childhood bliss. Near the beginning of Chapter 10, he vividly describes her ears, hair, body type, and personality, and the childish characteristics that are highlighted point to Holden's respect for innocence and his desire to cling to youth.
No comments:
Post a Comment