web blog post 12 the catcher in the rye disccusion 1-9

Question 3 

a) Why do you think Holden cries before he leaves Pency?

The first chapters of the catcher in the rye talk about the process that Holden is living when he is forced to leave Pency prep his 4th school.

Holden is forced to leave Pency prep because he is falling 4 of his 5 subjects. He got some warnings but he never improved, therefore he got expelled. Holden always critics his school and says that is full with crooks and morons. However something weird happens when he is leaving because he starts crying. 

I think that there are a variety of reasons why Holden cries. First of all I think that Pency prep had become a big part of his live and the fact that he had to leave it behind hurts. Other of my hypothesis would be that he actually liked Pency, although he never says something good about it; this is because he always sees and emphasizes the bad aspects of people, places and things so it would be hard to leave something that you like therefore he was crying.

Although the past reasons are valid and good, personally I tend to lean towards the two following options. The first one is: Holden feels sorry and depressed because he feels he let his mom and family down. He just received a present from home and he said he got depressed. This may be because he feels he let his loved ones down by getting expelled again. The second option and more important from my point of view is that Holden now realizes his lack of accomplishment in life, realizing what a bad life he has lived. Coming back to the First chapter of the book when Holden is having a discussion with his history teacher old Spencer in which he is suggested to take life more seriously and put some effort on it.

Holden is a very special character. Our first impression of him as readers is that he is a negative guy, however if we take a moment and do a close reading will find out that he also states positive aspects about people, places and objects. So this can also apply to his personality, when he tries to be the tuff guy that don’t care about anything he could be a different guy that cares about life and success but wont put effort into it.

In conclusion there is not only one reason but also a variety of them. As I mentioned above personally I tend to lean to the 4^th option but we cant really tell that one was the one. They’re all valid thesis about his moment.