The Catcher In The Rye Essay Essay Example for Free

The Catcher In The Rye Essay Essay The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is about a boy named Holden Caulfield and his struggle with life. Like any other teenager, he is simply looking for his place in the world. However, it is shown that Holden is no ordinary teenager for he displays many signs of depression. His depression seems to escalate throughout the novel. For example, many nights he has trouble sleeping, he also is quite the alcoholic and a heavy smoker, he doesnt feed his body with the proper nutrients and he talks of committing suicide at various points in the novel. Holden feels he has been alienated his whole life and that after losing his brother Allie, there was really no place for him anywhere. Holden Caulfield is a complex character that is in need of some real therapy because the problems he faces are not those of a normal boy his age, but are more serious in that hes really hurting himself and he is not nearly aware of these circumstances. Holdens signs of depression are very strong throughout The Catcher in the Rye. One of these prominent signs are the fact that he hardly every sleeps. It is known that sleep deprivation is one of the major signs of depression. Holden finds it hard to sleep even late at night, most of the time he claims to not even be tired. He says, It took me quite a while to get to sleep- I wasnt even tired- but finally I did. (104) Holden had a quarrel with Maurice that night about a prostitute and how Holden didnt pay her enough money. Holden feels sorry for the woman because when she got there he didnt feel like having sex with her, especially because before she showed up he wasnt even sure he wanted to give up his virginity at all. Holden is indecisive about all the things he should have his mind made up on, which partly explains why he has such a problem sleeping. If Holden could simply clear his mind for once, he would be able to get a good nights rest. However, there are always things running through his mind which prevent this. Holden has insomnia and if he were to have seen a psychiatrist he would be able to retain help for this problem. Holden needs to learn just how to relax without drugs and how to get his mind off everything that is keeping him awake. There is no doubt in anyones mind that Holden is addicted to alcohol. Throughout the novel he spends most of his time drinking and smoking. The  reason he is able to receive all these horrible things is due to his appearance. Holden has grey hair and is strikingly tall for his age; he uses these attributes to order himself drinks. Holden enjoys getting drunk and says, Boy, I sat at that goddam bar till around one oclock or so, getting drunk as a bastard. I could hardly see straight. (150) Holden feels that he can drink a lot before he really gets drunk. He claims he has a terrific capacity and says, I can drink all night and not even show it, if Im in the mood. (90) However, when Holden does reach this sort of capacity he imagines himself with a bullet in his guts and him just bleeding everywhere. He would hold his wound as if he were actually injured. The way Holden drinks is defiantly a cause of his depression since alcohol is a depressive stimulant. When Holden pictures himself wounded it is a sign of depression because he imagines himself hurt physically while he is hurt mentally. Holden needs to learn that what he is doing to himself is really dangerous not only for him, but the people around him also. Holden could make great use out of a psychiatrist because they could first off, help him with his alcohol problems, they could also help him learn about the effects of what he is doing to his body with every drink he has, and give him options of dealing with his problems other than alcohol. Holdens depression had affected him to the point that he just does not eat. Even though he doesnt have that much money to spend on a lot of food, he does have enough to feed himself a couple of meals a day. He simply opts against this and all he really does is drink and smoke, and thats how he gets the full feeling of eating. For instance he says, I felt pretty hungry as soon as I had a cigarette. The last time Id eaten was those two hamburgers I had with Brossard and Ackley when we went in to Agerstown to the movies. That was a long time ago. It seemed like fifty years ago.(105) Although Holden is aware that he hasnt eaten in quite some time, he just hasnt felt hungry. Holdens nutrition is just all over the place. His depression has forced him to do crazy things. For example, after a night of drinking Holden says, I puked before I went to bed, but I didnt really have to-I forced myself.(90) This shows that Holden is hurting his body in defiantly more ways than one. Holden is also aware that he is somewhat depressed due to his lousy feelings and inability to eat much of anything.  Holden is on a walk when he says, Id feel better if I had something to eat. So I went in this very cheap-looking restaurant and had doughnuts and coffee. Only, I didnt eat the doughnuts. I couldnt swallow them too well. The thing is if you get very depressed about something, its hard as hell to swallow.(196) This just goes to show that Holden is very depressed and it effects the way he handles simple tasks such as eating. Even though he is aware of his depression, Holden does not speak of seeing a psychiatrist for serious issues such as his malnutrition even though he should really see one. An obvious sign of Holdens depression is the fact that he talks of committing suicide at various points of the novel. Every time Holden is feeling really lousy he would talk about how he would kill himself or just about his death in general. For example, while Holden is sitting in bed after having a quarrel with Maurice, he says, What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window.(104) Whenever Holden isnt occupied with something he gets into his lousy feeling. One time he was just standing in the lobby and said, but I was feeling sort of lousy. Depressed and all. I almost wished I was dead.(90) He had not had much of a reason to say this, but after all, he really was depressed. Another example of when Holden speaks of his death is when he says, If theres ever another war, Im going to sit right the hell on top of it. Ill volunteer for it, I swear to God I will.(141) Here, he is talking about what a great invention the atomic bomb was and for some reason he claims that he would sit on top of the next one if there was another war. This is a clear sign that there is a part of him that wants to die. Holdens only hope really is to see a psychiatrist. With all these thoughts running through his head he can hardly think straight. He needs the guidance of a psychiatrist to get his life back on track. Holden Caulfield is the main character in J.D. Salingers The Catcher in the Rye. The story follows his struggle with finding out who he is, and his road of depression. Throughout the book his depression becomes more prevalent as one reads on. Holden faces the issues of insomnia, alcoholism, malnutrition, and the fact that he is suicidal. Holden does somewhat recognizes this, however, he never feels the need to seek help through a psychiatrist even  though it is clear he is in need of one. Holden never felt that there was a certain place for him in the world which also led to his depression. Holden is like no other boy his age and is in desperate need of a psychiatrist because hes been hurting himself in more ways than one. Bibliography J. D. Salingers The Catcher in the Rye. Harold Bloom editor. Chelsea House Publishers. Philadelphia. 2000.

The Meaning Behind Alien Abductions :: essays research papers

www.angelfire.com/mt/montalk Souls can only incarnate inoto bodies with DNA responsive to and compatible with that soul. Because souls are shaped by experiences and thoughts, different soul types will reincarnate into different body types of the same species. As humans, their personality is influenced and restricted by the characteristics of their soul. Spiritual evolution is limited by one's biological, genetic, and physical composition. For instance, a dog cannot grow emotionally as we do because their brains are biologically incapable of perceiving the same range of emotions. Dogs also do not feel equal self sacrifice and devotion to truth that some of us humans enjoy, and we are therefore superior to them. Lastly, since all souls, once out of the physical body and deep into the stages of the afterlife, are essentially the same being, there is no place for evolution in the spiritual realm; all evolution occurs on the physical plane of existence. This is why planet earth is so valued by the powers that be. It is the perfect training, evolving, and learning grounds for positive souls with the privilege of physical presence. In this region of the solar system, without an earth, there is no evolution, and whatever pain a soul is in continues indefinitely until that soul can reincarnate to evolve out of its pain. Because souls evolve by earthly hardships, new types of souls can only develop by modification of the older ones over millions of years of evolution. Thus, if a sudden jump occured in the genetic sophistication of a species, a spiritual void would be left as the older souls would be outdated and incompatible with the newly created species. The new species would be born as still births unless some source of soul were available that is suitable with the DNA of that species. The human race was a result of drastic genetic engineering by a coalition of several alien species/races several hundred thousand years ago, each group putting its own spin on the basic human template. Most of the aliens themselves were products of undisturbed evolution upon their homeworlds. Since human evolution was catalyzed, the souls of our ancient primate ancestors could not reincarnate in the newer advanced bodies. Thus existed a spiritual void which was immediately filled with a new source. Considering it was aliens who created humans, these aliens must have had some reason to profit from the task. In fact, most alien bodies were too primitive to allow further spiritual

History of Broadway Essay

There have been many debates on whether or not Broadway musicals are considered â€Å"serious† art forms. People feel that a musical can never be taken seriously if the character is always singing sporadically, which is very unusual in real life. However, musicals have been around for quite some time now, many musicals are being adapted into major motion pictures, many children are raised on the famous Disney musical cartoons and everybody( whether they’ll admit it or not) has seen at least one musical in their lifetime and are able to sing some of the songs from it. It seems that musicals have made an impact on society but yet are still not taken seriously. The history of musicals dates back to the Greeks. It is a common known fact that the Greeks incorporated song and dance into their stage comedies and tragedies as early as the 5th Century B. C. Some used existing songs but it is known that Sophocles wrote his own. The Romans are also known for taking the Greek musicals and expanding on them. The Romans liked the idea of musicals so much that they attached metal chips to their shoes, creating the first tap shoes, so that there would be more focus on the dancing throughout the play. Of course musicals and the idea of telling stories through song and dance really became popular through the Renaissance era. During the 1700’s the two main types of plays were ballad operas and comic operas. Many people think that musicals evolved from operas however if you follow the history of musicals and operas you will learn that it is the other way around yet operas are much more respected than musicals. Musicals came to America during the mid-1800’s as saloon shows. They were also known as variety shows and consisted of everything from clowns, singers, dancers and chorus girls. In Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, New York, 1991, p. 92), historian Luc Sante, claims that variety shows were born in Manhattan’s Bowery saloons during the 1840s. One of the first and most famous variety houses was Koster and Bial’s on West 23rd Street in New York City. The variety shows were very distasteful and were later cleaned up and renamed vaudeville then in the 1900’s the shows were cleaned up even more and were then known as minstrelsy. While the minstrelsy shows were much cleaner than the original variety show they would still be considered extremely raunchy by today’s standards. Musicals later came to take the form of the misunderstood form of Burlesque performances. Burlesque shows became popular and kept America entertained from 1840 through the 1960’s. Many people identify burlesque with strippers or scantily dressed women. The burlesque shows however covered many topics of interest from Shakespeare to spoofs of the famous operas of the moment. In 1860 Burlesque made its appearance on Broadway with Lydia Thompson’s British burlesque troupe and their first hit entitled Ixion. It became clear that respectable people would pay lots of money for a sexy performance. The theatre group would use popular songs of that time and parts of operas to perform too which made some of the audience try to say made the Burlesque show more classy and easier to relate too. Soon the offended audience members began to raise their voices in protest of the performances saying that they were extremely inappropriate and tasteless. This of course only made people more curious about the performances and the crowds began to grow for the show. With the success of the shows people began to copy them and bring them back to their own communities. The majority of the managers and choreographers were women and finally women were beginning to gain respect in the theatre business. Men quickly began to see the success and start their own shows. The point of the shows were to hint at the idea of the women being naked and to show as much skin as was considered acceptable. The Burlesque shows, while being popular, were considered to be the lowest form of theatre, many of the actors would move on to vaudeville shows which were considered to be the top of the line where if a vaudeville actor would appear in a Burlesque show it was considered a step down and the actor was labeled as â€Å"washed up†. Burlesque soon took on comedy routines and would make fun of the current issues that the middle and lower class were dealing with. However in the 1920’s there began a raid and the police felt the need to shut down all of the Burlesque shows which was a major hit to the Manhattan society where most of the theatres were at the time. While the Burlesque scene was popular musical comedies were beginning to rise without the help of the nudity factor. The musical comedy was born on Broadway between the years 1878-1884 by the famous producers Edward (Ned) Harrigan and Tony Hart. Harrigan would write the lyrics and songs with some of the music he had taken from his father and add them to plays that would feature characters and situations that the everyday lives of New York’s lower class. They had one particularly famous bit entitled â€Å"Mulligan Guard’s March† which started in San Francisco and was quickly spread all across the country and reached New York where it ran for over a year in the most popular theatres. With the success of their short bit they expanded into a 40 minute performance which was greatly accepted and kept playing for a month which was considered a good run for that time. Their show became so popular that it started a seven year run of different shows with Harrigan directing, producing, performing and writing the scripts and lyrics. Their shows ran with much success on Manhattans downtown streets and overpopulated theatres. People quickly saw the success and began to try to create their own versions of this new style known as musical comedies. Some had success but were quickly forgotten or overlooked with Harrigan and Hart’s success. The more light-hearted and â€Å"cheesy† musicals began to pop up all over the Broadway scene in 1940. The Broadway producers felt that with America at war and people still suffering from the Depression audiences just wanted to be entertained and no longer wanted to see their troubles and everyday situations acted out on stage because they were no longer comical. There were still a few comedies left however, one of the most popular being This is the Army a comedy which spoofed the army life. This particular play had a huge success in America and also had successful run in London. This is the Army became so popular that they even made a motion picture out of the play which earned over $9 million and donated to the Army’s Emergency Relief fund. The 1940’s were filled with famous musicals all with the hopes of just being pure entertainment and losing the idea that only the most artistic performances would be well received. Two of the most famous musical writers in the history of the business made their debut during this time, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Rodgers and Hammerstein were friends in college and both agreed that the best way to approach a musical was with the lyrics first, which was rare for the time. When the two were ready to debut their loved musical Oklahoma the Theatre Guild was bankrupt so the two took the major decisions in their own hands. They took some major risks one being to not open with a big catchy theatrical number and the other being to cast smaller unknown actors instead of the guaranteed success of the more popular actors of the time. The play was something that had never been seen before; it was a well rounded well written musical. On opening night in New York the show however was not sold out, since there were no major known stars, however the show quickly became a huge success. The success of Oklahoma changed the quality of musicals forever. It was soon realized that musicals could contain more than just â€Å"cheesy† dance numbers; musicals could contain drama, comedy and all around quality acting. Future musicals had higher standards and required better and more talented actors. The actors had to be skilled dancers, singers and actors. There was a lot of talent discovered all over the theatre community during the 40’s while everybody tried to compete with and follow the success of Oklahoma, however most of the talent was quickly forgotten. The 1950’s were soon open the musical community and show tunes were considered the main source of entertainment. Even the smaller musicals that did not have the most talented actors could be very profitable because the audience hoped to discover another winning team like Rodgers and Hammerstein. The fantastic duo were still ruling the musical world of Broadway, at one point they had 4 successful musicals running at the same time. In 1959 one of the most famous musicals of all time was created and praised, The Sound of Music. Everybody loved the music and the story and it was an immediate success, however it is also remembered as their last great success together as Hammerstein died just a few months after it opened which brought the end of their ruling. The 60’s and 70’s also had some great success in the musical worlds with the idea of bring rock music to the stage. In the 60’s show tunes could not be found in musicals and were replaced by edgier rock songs. The 60’s are of course known as the years of sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll and those ideas were put into story lines and portrayed on the stage. The 70’s had two major hits with Grease and The Wiz. However, the 70’s ended on a bad not for musicals because many people were tired of the shoddy performances being produced and their change in taste of music. There were some other great musicals that were produced in the 70’s but unfortunately they went overlooked. At the end of the decade revivals were beginning to pop up with famous actors playing the major roles in the musicals to boost up ticket sales. In 1980 the success of Broadway was revived with the huge success of Cats. The success and word of Cats spread all across the world and totally revived the spirit of the musical theatre. Many American composers debuted works after the success of Cats but sadly many failed. One of the biggest failures, Carrie, made its debut in 1988 which many considered the death of the Broadway rage of musicals. The main source of entertainment was now and movies and nobody paid much attention to Broadway anymore. Broadway however had one major hit left in The Phantom of the Opera. Andrew Lloyd Webber gave Broadway one last major success which is still running today. The Phantom brought in a new crowd and sold tickets at outrageous prices that the audience did not mind paying for at all, they also spent ton of money on the souvenirs. The 90’s saw a pretty bad drought in musical success except for the mid-90’s when it seemed like musicals were back with the success of Rent, Chicago, Cabaret and Bring in Da’ Noise, Bring in Da’ Funk. The success carried into 2000 and is still working it’s was on a comeback with a hot streak. With the huge success of Chicago being adapted into a major motion picture with huge stars like Rene Zellweger, Richard Gere, Taye Diggs and Catherine Zeta-Jones a new interest and spark was ignited in musicals. The theatre has also seen success recently with The Lion King, Hairspray, Aida, The Producers and Mamma Mia!. Musicals have overseen many changes and has a great history of success and failures just like any other type of theatre. As stated in the beginning many children are raised on musicals and grow up surrounded by music yet musicals are not seen as serious pieces of art. While the most popular musicals are the entertaining ones that don’t deal with any major issues that doesn’t mean that they can’t be serious as well. There are many types of musicals but why does that make them less important? Should comedic plays be seen as less artistic than dramatic pieces? Musicals have just as an important background and history as plays so I feel they should be viewed just as valuable to our society as any other piece of theatrical art. While it may be unnatural for a person to just burst out into song throughout their everyday life I don’t think it’s that far of a stretch if it did happen. How many times are we reminded of a song we hear earlier that day and sing it in our head? The only real difference between musicals and everyday life is that when we do sing our songs throughout our lives they aren’t always originals, everybody around you doesn’t join in and automatically know every word and we don’t have perfectly choreographed dance numbers to go along with them, however if we did have all that I think it would make life a lot more exciting and interesting. I am personally jealous of musicals for those reasons and wish they were given more respect.

Global Financial Collapse Of 2008 - 908 Words

Economic growth is mostly stagnated and has been since the global financial collapse of 2008. This collapse led people into different avenues of providing financially for their families and themselves, mostly due to the loss of jobs. In addition to that, people had surrendered to the idea that their financial futures would be threatened and that there is not secure job as that is a paradigm of the past. It appeared that the only viable option would be to start a business of their own. In an effort to minimize expenses most of the businesses that these people, who are known as entrepreneurs, are starting businesses in their own homes. The businesses are referred to as home-based businesses and it is believed that they have generated a large portion of the economy in the United States alone. Some of the most profitable businesses to start are make and sell food products, teaching music, teaching a craft, photography, computer and graphic design services, and many more (Best Home-based Business Ideas, 2015). However, the one point that must be considered is that the study of entrepreneurship is not a new phenomenon as attempts to study it in a systematic manner are becoming fairly common in colleges throughout the world. What is interesting about many businesses that are home-based is that a majority of them do no possess the same characteristics as a traditional business would, â€Å"These ventures may or may not be formally registered, typically have no premises, very few assets,Show MoreRelatedThe Great Recession And The Housing Crisis1600 Words   |  7 Pagesrecession of 2007 -2008 and the Housing bubble and the latter talks about the newspapers articles and other opinions of economists which support the idea of approaching bubble. 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