Just finished this little gem, and wow was it book-kino if i've ever seen any

Just finished this little gem, and wow was it book-kino if i've ever seen any.

But what's with that weird part where he tried to justify the title of the book? It felt so unnatural and came out of nowhere.

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When you think of a cool title before the rest of the book, you have to stretch it a bit.

It apparently comes from a poem by Robert Burns called 'Coming thro' the Rye', which Holden overhears a boy singing, somewhere early on in the book. That's what conjures up the whole shebang about kids running through the rye, and him catching them before they fall off the edge as a metaphor for preserving their innocence..

Even weirder is that the poem is about sex, and his misunderstanding of it is the irony

I thought the same exact thing when i was reading it. I remember rereading the paragraph numerous amounts of times trying to fully grasp it. Felt too forced.

he rapes his sister, Pheobe

Yeah it actually reminds me of one of my favorite parts of the book, which was when Holden told the elevator guy in his apartment building that he couldn't wait in the lobby because his "leg had to be a certain way." He said people would do whatever you want if they couldn't understand you. I think he was really just bullshitting people with how surreal this part of the book felt like there was some rhyme or reason to it when in reality he was just justifying the cool title.

Yeah I get that but it was still dialogue coming from holden, and it came out like nothing he'd said before. Especially the part where he actually name drops the title of the book.

It is a really fucking cool title and then the book itself is really great so I forgive him for it.

Please, explain?

i just want to take a moment to praise the cover art on this book. i rarely remember or even notice cover designs, but wowee, a bang up job!

are you dumb?

What is the cover even about? I mean it looks cool sure but what is it?

I think it signifies the horse on the carousel at the end. Not sure, someone can expand on that

I was going to give you a joke answer but I looked closely and it's very obviously the carousel from near the end of the book.

It always stuck with me how he sat and thought about the prostitute calling him a crumb-bum.

It's all about the carosoul ride (roulette wheel) at the end of the book. Holden is holding Phoebe's money for her. So when she wants to ride on the merry-go-round he gives her, her money to go buy a ticket. To me I see Holden as a banker...and the name Caulfield,( hmmm...well you will have to go to the first page in the book David Copperfield gutenberg.org/ebooks/766 to see how this might relate to banking.) So Phoebe gets on the merry go round and starts looking for the best horse and settles on this big brown, beat-up-looking old horse.

She picked her number...and now the roulette wheel...I mean the carrousel starts going round. No Phoebe is not getting anywhere she is is just going around in circles on her old-beat-up (value depreciated stock or house or what ever people get stuck ridding on through life)

This is a CON-fidence game.

And one of the rules that you have to learn if you are going to hold other people's money is...

that when they grab for the GOLD RING, they might fall off the goddam horse, but Holden is not going to say anything. The thing is with kids is that if they want to GRAB FOR THE GOLD RING, YOU JUST HAVE TO LET THEM DO IT AND NOT SAY ANYTHING. If they fall off or Lehman Brother's goes belly up, ...IF THEY FALL OFF IT'S BAD BUSINESS TO SAY ANYTHING TO THEM...you have to sell them the junk that you are trying to get rid of .

She tries to get Holden to play the game with her. I mean ride the ride with her. Goldman Sac's says no way I think I will just watch from over here. I mean Holden says this. Cause he is holding all the money.

She runs (better hurry they aren't making enough houses and you may not get yours before the price goes to five times as much as they are worth)

Once she got on her horse...she owns it now. It begins to rain like a bastard. Boy don't we know what that means. All the parents and mothers (aren't they the same thing???) run for cover so they won't get SOAKED. He just sits on the bench and gets soaked but fortunately for him he has a HUNTING HAT (WAR) to protect him.

Holden was so damn happy he was nearly bawling. "I don't know why. It was just that she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around and around in her BLUE COAT, and all...

Do you see DEPRESSION in that symbol of the blue coat that she wears?

Came here to post this

The carousel at the end

it's an old lamaymay

I've given you the evidence:
* Repeated freudian slips
* A sexualised date with his sister that includes severe lacunae
* Flashbacks combined with elisions on sexual themes, that match his past interactions with Phoebe
* Continuous latent pedophile threats projected from Holden
* Catch her body in the rye
* The guilt from the brother being related to not letting the brother participate in an activity
* And most obviously, supporting the above, the unreliable narrator set in an asylum and Holden repeatedly providing psychological clues in his unreliable narration

Are you saying this part in the books could be a metaphor for the Great Depression?

no, the book invokes the great depression as itself a metaphor, for when he rapes his sister, Pheobe

I kinda see your point but i think youre taking the rape too literally.
I think it's more of a desire for some connection with his sister that he's unable to communicate

If he didn't rape his sister than why is he in an asylum retelling the tale? Don't tell me they shipped him out to california because he flunked a few classes.