Saturday, June 4, 2016

Holden coufield and me

 Just finished reading 'the catcher in the rye' , The book that I bought after reading some of its extract from goodreads. after reading that one paragraph of the book I could not stop myself from  buying it from amazon.
 Its very simple story by all means yet so complex. To explain the story of the book will not take more than 3-4 sentences yet it tells a lot more than that. I find catcher in the rye a composition of misplaced Christmas vacation which turned out to be part-adventure , part-self realization for Holden Coufield, the protagonist of the book.
Holden seems like any normal guy and you really relate yourself with him , at some points you find his experiences quite relevant to your own experiences and some times you find him too lousy and irritating. He's just any other guy who hates everything about life, is too much obsessed with himself and at the same time thinks himself as a failure . The fact that he blames everyone for his wrongdoings except for himself makes this fictional character look real. He has a bad mouth, he is rebel, he lacks courage, he is under-performer, he doesn't respect others. He's confused, intolerant yet loving and caring. He has bad qualities in abundance and good ones are rare. Holden is a protagonist who no one aspires to be but most end up being. 
 For me his most endearing quality is the way he points out hypocrisy of people. He will, in very few words, show you how people change their stand with changing situation.one more thing I love about this character is that he does not have  great expectations from himself neither does he want people around him to expect great things from him. His loving and caring nature is seen when he is with his younger sister. Their relationship is raw and pure. It's just about sibling love and purity of love when there are no expectations. This relationship is steady like a rock and beyond the peripherals of right and wrong. He is just holden for her; good or bad doesn't matter. That's the reason this relationship is most precious thing for holden and he's so protective of it. Holden is one of those people who would  not care for you a bit if he doesn't like you but he'll go out of his way and do everything thats possible for him to keep his loved ones happy.

Basically if I put myself at his place, I'll have almost all bad qualities that he is having. Maybe, like him i judge people every moment and blame them for my own loss,  like him I call everyone phony, like him I respect very few around me. I lack discipline, I lack courage, I lack desire and I lack most things in the world. But unlike him I pretend to not judge,I pretend to respect, I pretend to be disciplined, courageous and desiring. I am not true to myself most of the times and still I expect.
Holden is not a benchmark of goodwill. He is just true to himself and his people ; and I? I need to be.

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