Allie died of cancer at age eleven. Other than innocence, what did he represent? Both he and James Castle could symbolize innocence sacrificed on the alter of adulthood. Though Castle died violently, an apparent suicide, neither boy was guilty of some egregious wrongdoing. Religious rituals have involved the taking of innocent life, with Jesus being a prominent example. Through his poetry, Allie stood for art. And James Castle, by refusing to submit to fascist bulling, stood for freedom of the human spirit.
People always seem reluctant to talk about the ones who have died. People die and everyone's in a big hurry to forget about them. "Put it behind you," they say. "Let bygones be bygones."
No one talks about the dead and what their lives meant, what they stood for, or failed at while striving for something. But not Holden. Holden is haunted by the deaths of James Castle and Allie.
Innocent kids aren't supposed to die, but they do all the time and when they do it raises the ante on the bet made each time a child is born. Life means something. And when it stops we need to park the car, turn off the radio and think.
There were two alcohol-related death during my kids' high school years and nobody wanted to talk about it. Grief counselors should have been brought in at school. Nothing. Kids just went on with their cheerleading and football games and pep rallies and two kids' lives got brushed under the rug. Detritus on the soles of restless Reeboks and Nikes.
Holden Cauflield was profoundly affected by the deaths of Allie and James. He can't move on. He didn't cry at Allie's funeral. He's a basket case because he needs to grieve. He is forced to face what these two lives mean to him.
Allie speaks to us through Holden's "madman stuff" and the poems he wrote on his baseball glove. The deaths of Allie and James could represent not just the metaphoric death of childhood on the odyssey toward adulthood, but the deaths of all innocent people.
Holden still has the glove. He's holding onto it. He can't let go. A physical treasure of leather anointed with Allie's sweat and creativity.
If there were a sequel to Catcher in the Rye, what do you think Holden will do with Allie's glove?
When we die we leave a legacy, of things and of memories. The grim tally at Gettysburg gave Abraham Lincoln ample reason to give the value of life considerable thought: "...that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion --that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain."
What is a life worth? It's a question that each of us in our own individual way, moment by moment, lives into an answer.
People always seem reluctant to talk about the ones who have died. People die and everyone's in a big hurry to forget about them. "Put it behind you," they say. "Let bygones be bygones."
No one talks about the dead and what their lives meant, what they stood for, or failed at while striving for something. But not Holden. Holden is haunted by the deaths of James Castle and Allie.
Innocent kids aren't supposed to die, but they do all the time and when they do it raises the ante on the bet made each time a child is born. Life means something. And when it stops we need to park the car, turn off the radio and think.
There were two alcohol-related death during my kids' high school years and nobody wanted to talk about it. Grief counselors should have been brought in at school. Nothing. Kids just went on with their cheerleading and football games and pep rallies and two kids' lives got brushed under the rug. Detritus on the soles of restless Reeboks and Nikes.
Holden Cauflield was profoundly affected by the deaths of Allie and James. He can't move on. He didn't cry at Allie's funeral. He's a basket case because he needs to grieve. He is forced to face what these two lives mean to him.
Allie speaks to us through Holden's "madman stuff" and the poems he wrote on his baseball glove. The deaths of Allie and James could represent not just the metaphoric death of childhood on the odyssey toward adulthood, but the deaths of all innocent people.
Holden still has the glove. He's holding onto it. He can't let go. A physical treasure of leather anointed with Allie's sweat and creativity.
If there were a sequel to Catcher in the Rye, what do you think Holden will do with Allie's glove?
When we die we leave a legacy, of things and of memories. The grim tally at Gettysburg gave Abraham Lincoln ample reason to give the value of life considerable thought: "...that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion --that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain."
What is a life worth? It's a question that each of us in our own individual way, moment by moment, lives into an answer.
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