p.+1+Catcher+Soc+Sem+notes

p. 1 Socratic Seminar – Catcher Round 1 – 8:55 – 9:25
 * Jane – what’s she doing in the book?
 * He’s never around her – and he likes her!
 * She doesn’t change
 * If he calls her she might change in his mind
 * She’s tied to the museum and fear of change
 * Tied to his ideal world, where no one is phony and there are cabins to live in
 * Ducks?
 * Why ask a taxi driver? Why not a teacher?
 * He thinks his teachers are phonies
 * He’s asking what he should do when the storm hits/ the fall comes
 * So he wants to know what the taxi driver did when bad times came – led to being a taxi driver
 * Same as asking why is my life so terrible
 * Why did the taxi driver get mad?
 * Wants to be the guy with the answers?
 * Why does Holden give Phoebe the hunting hat?
 * He wants her to be like him – not phony
 * He wears it to show he’s an individual, not a phony
 * Puts on the hat for comfort
 * Is giving it away symbolic of growing up?
 * Why does he want to be the Catcher in the Rye?
 * He wants to help people?
 * Is Holden’s perception of kids and grown-ups correct?
 * He knows what he wants life to be
 * All contradictions
 * At the end he talks about people he misses
 * Why is Catcher the title?
 * He wants to maintain innocence for kids
 * Conflict – does he want people to grow up
 * Gives Phoebe the hat so she’ll be like him
 * Mad at her for bringing the suitcase
 * Being like him!
 * Mr. Antolini
 * Keeping himself safe because he’s been here before
 * Teacher didn’t mean to be creepy
 * Is petting Holden’s head treating him like
 * a child? Petting his head
 * like an adult? A sexual advance?
 * Why is he dizzy crossing the street?
 * What’s the timeline? Is he really tired?
 * Alcohol? No sleep?
 * Is he suddenly realizing truths?
 * Allie? Everything?
 * Is he getting lost in society? Crossroads?
 * Is he letting a different part of himself go?
 * What’s the deal with the ending?
 * Where is he?
 * Maybe he’s talking to a counselor?
 * Is he going back to school because he’s doing better?
 * Maybe he was sent to wherever he is instead of the next school.
 * Will Holden do better in the fall?
 * Something has changed
 * Would a psychoanalyst be able to help Holden?
 * They can’t tell you what to do
 * Will Holden think a psychologist is a phony?
 * Do we know what’s wrong with Holden?
 * He’s depressed and wants badly to be special
 * He’s sad about Allie and wants to be an adult
 * Sometimes people say if you suffer a big loss you have to grow up fast
 * Can Holden not deal with that?
 * Wants to be mature, but doesn’t want to be phony
 * He hires a prostitute
 * Why? Is it teenage confusion?

Round 2
 * Why is Holden upset when Phoebe wants to go with him?
 * He’s a wreck
 * He doesn’t realize that running away is adult-like
 * Until he sees that Phoebe is trying to do what he does
 * If he runs away can he stay as a child?
 * So, is the hat holding onto childhood?
 * Growing up
 * He thinks he’s more mature than others
 * But he wants to be a kid
 * Is he jealous of Allie, he didn’t get to grow up?
 * Phoebe is good, still a kid
 * Holden likes Jane and Allie
 * They don’t change
 * Allie symbolizes childhood
 * Jane is adulthood
 * What about Allie’s glove?
 * Holden’s way of remembering
 * Keeping the glove helps him hold on to childhood
 * Is he Holden because he’s holding on?
 * Is Little Shirley Beans a way of passing on his childhood?
 * Then it breaks – he can’t pass it on
 * He still gives her the pieces
 * What is so upsetting about adulthood?
 * He expected Sunny to be a phony – she wasn’t it
 * She was raw and honest – it scared him
 * So did he want that phoniness to protect him?
 * Would sex have meant he wasn’t innocent? Was an adult?
 * What about the museum?
 * Is he afraid of change?
 * One of the few parts of his childhood he can return to
 * Parents aren’t really part of his childhood
 * Is it inevitable that we turn into phonies?
 * If we were always honest, would we have friends?
 * We have a public façade
 * That isn’t phony, it protects us
 * Not going back to Mr. Antolini’s is Holden choosing not to pretend everything was okay
 * Is the hat a way to show individuality?
 * Is the hat to show he’s not conforming
 * Then he decides to stay – gives the hat to Phoebe
 * He wants to be like Phoebe
 * Innocence of a child – not phony
 * Really smart like an adult
 * Themes:
 * It’s okay to grow up
 * Growing up is hard – but you can do it
 * Does he become the Catcher in the Rye?
 * Holden antagonizes adulthood – makes it the other
 * He learns there is no other
 * We’re all a little phony, we’re all a little real
 * What’s the fall?
 * Is it growing up?
 * Is that the ducks question?
 * Why do things change?
 * He likes the nuns, they don’t change
 * Is it hard to be an individual?
 * Does everyone conform?
 * It’s about finding a balance
 * Be an individual
 * But conform when you need to
 * The individual is what makes society
 * But you still have to be part of society
 * Child vs. adult
 * Are children individuals and adults conformists?
 * Holden puts everything into boxes of definitions
 * Is Holden conforming to what an individual should be?
 * Trying to be something is what makes you a conformist?
 * Is Holden already a phony?
 * Is he a phony by trying hard not to be one?