Romeo and Juliet

I just recently finished reading through Act 1 of "Romeo and Juliet". Shakespeare's style of writing is sometimes hard to read, but I think there is some hidden humour. The words that make up sentences are rearranged in a different order that makes them more confusing. Another thing I found hard to work with was since "Romeo and Juliet" is written in a script format, there are no emotions behind the dialogue. It's hard to picture what the characters are feeling when you don't understand what they are saying sometimes!

While reading, I realized that Juliet was only 13 years old and her father was talking about how it was time for her to get married to Paris. Since "Romeo and Juliet" is a famous play, I already know the tragic fate of the two lovers. But it really surprised me that Juliet fell in love with Romeo and killed herself over him at the young age of 13! It was probably acceptable to get married at that age back when Shakespeare was alive, but it still surprises me that Juliet was brave enough to kill herself over a boy she just met. 

Romeo seems smart, depressed and very romantic. Throughout the beginning of the play, he is completely heartbroken over his old girlfriend who just broke up with him. When he sees Juliet at the Capulet party, he completely forgets his old girlfriend. He flirts with Juliet a little at the party and shows no sign of remembering his old girlfriend.

"Romeo and Juliet" is a widely known play with a plot that is known by almost everyone. I don't know about the minor details of the plot, but I do know that Romeo and Juliet (spoiler alert!) kill themselves in the end and put a stop to their long time families feud. Act 1 wasn't very exciting, it just have background information about the characters and their role in the play.

The Catcher in the Rye

            The Catcher in the Rye is the only book that I have read with excessive swearing. I don’t really think the swearing was all that necessary, but it was still a really good read. When I heard the name “Catcher in the Rye” for the first time, I thought it sounded like a very professional book about growing up. I thought the book was going to contain tons of big words and hard to understand symbolism. The very first page got rid of that thought. The book had lots of slang and easy to understand motifs and symbols. It was also easy to relate to the main character, Holden, and his thoughts.

           

            A hypocritical situation that I have encountered in my life would be when I was taking a much needed break from homework and decided to watch Cake Boss with my younger brother. He shooed me away and told me to go do my homework when he was also supposed to be doing his homework and not watching Cake Boss on Netflix. When Holden thinks that something is phony, he is saying that it’s fake and hypocritical. The lady in the theater had more feelings towards a movie than her own child. Holden thinks she has a phony personality because she is being mean and a hypocrite. In the beginning of the book, Holden’s teacher, Mr. Spencer, acts worried about Holden’s grades and then proceeds to ridicule him about his school work. Holden thinks that Mr. Spencer is a phony because he acted like he cared about Holden’s grades and future when he probably didn’t.

 

            I think Holden is sometimes depressed, almost always clueless and mostly lonely. Basically everything he sees or does depresses him and he even thought about committing suicide once. When he was in New York, he was constantly alone. He always thought about calling Jane, but he was always too scared. I think Holden is also clueless because he is just a teenager in a big cold, city all by himself. He does not really know what to do with himself because he has lots of money with no one to guide him on how to use it. Instead of feeling liberated or free, he feels depressed and bored.

 

            I think the prostitute, Sunny, is so young that Holden feels that he can’t spend the night with her. I think this symbolizes adolescence. This is because Holden realizes how young she is by the way she talks to him. Also, since Holden is young he gets scared of sleeping with Sunny because they are both so young. Holden wants and tries to act like an adult during this scene, but he’s not. Sometimes kids act like adults to feel grown up and mature. 

A Perfect Day for Bananafish and The Catcher in the Rye

In the short story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”, I found many similarities between the characters in this story and “The Catcher in the Rye”. I suppose these similarities aren’t coincidental because both of them are written by the same author; J.D Salinger. In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish”, there is a girl named Muriel Glass, who I think is much like Holden Caulfield. Muriel is independent and doesn’t like getting smothered with a lot of attention. Holden doesn’t enjoy attention and is independent throughout most of the book. In the book “The Catcher in the Rye”, there is a girl named Sunny who wears a green dress who Holden met in a hotel. In the short story there is also a girl who wears a green dress who Muriel met in a hotel. The last character similarity I saw between the two is between Holden’s mom and Muriel’s mom. Holden’s mom is always worried and paranoid because of her youngest son’s death. Muriel’s mom is worried about Muriel because she is thinks that Muriel’s husband isn’t mentally stable.