Writing Voice

They exhibit perceptivity

• "It was the middle of the night, she was standing outside, in the pouring rain, under an umbrella, in her pajamas, barefoot, while her house was in flames."

This quote displays, or shall I say exhibits, perceptivity because the author, Mark Bezos, notices something that other volunteer firefighters probably didn't. He noticed the homeowner and he noticed how she was standing outside barefoot in pajamas getting rained on. He shows empathy at this time too, with the characterization of the homeowner, Mark makes the audience feel empathetic toward the lady. He wants us to imagine what it would be like to be in her perspective.


They employ humor

• "The other volunteer who had arrived just before me, let's call him Lex Luther, got to the captain first and was asked to go inside and save the homeowners dog. The dog! I was stunned with jealousy"

Mark Bezos uses humor throughout the speech. One area where it is very clear is when he was talking about the other firefighter and how he got to save the homeowners dog. This lightens the speech because he started talking fairly seriously when he was talking about the house and the owner but then he lightens the speech and makes the audience laugh by joking about the name of the volunteer being Lex Luther, and by saying he was jealous about not being able to save the dog.


They offer surprising information and observations

• "A few weeks later, the department received a letter from the homeowner thanking us for the valiant effort displayed in saving her home. The act of kindness she noted above all others, someone had even gotten her a pair of shoes."

This is an example of a small, precise, unexpected detail. We would think that the owner would write about the "real firefighters" putting out the fire, or she would thank the other volunteer for saving her dog, but no. She thanks Bezos for going and getting her a pair of shoes. This makes the text very authentic and real. The sentence structure that Bezos uses here builds suspense because he starts by saying "the act of kindness noted above all others" he then tells us what the act of kindness is. This builds the importance and makes us realize how grateful she was. We also realize that Mark is no longer jealous, he realizes how  important and kind his duty was and how  it wasn't a "job" of the firefighters but they did it anyway to help make her feel a little better.

Vignette

One area within chapters 15-16 where we see a vignette by Holden is on pages 120-121. Here, Holden is reflecting back on when he and the rest of his class went to the museum and what the
different displays were within the museum. A powerful moment in the vignette was when, toward the end, Holden says "The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was... The only thing that would be different would be you." (Salinger, 121) In this moment, Holden is reflecting on how he likes that the displays never change, you can go in there time after time and the display will always be the same. I assume that he doesn't like change because change in his life so far has always seemed bad. His constant changing of schools and Allie's death both help prove this.

Catcher in the Rye 9-10

Blog Option Two

We all know who Holden is. He's some punk kid who doesn't care about his grades or his future or anybody around him, or at least that's what he's telling us about himself. However, through his words and stories we get glimpses of a different Holden, one who is sensitive, curious, and emotional.

Several places throughout Catcher in the Rye, we have seen Holden's real personality instead of the personality he's built up as a guard. One place we can see the true Holden is in chapter 7 when Holden says "I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead." (Salinger, 48). This is one of the places where Salinger makes us feel sorry for Holden and we start to get a better idea of how lonely and depressed Holden really is.

 In chapter 10 we start to feel even worse for Holden though. At this point he has left Pencey and he is at a night club trying to be social and friendly. He met these three women at this club and he started to dance with one of them but she wouldn't pay attention to him. "'You know when a girl's really a terrific dancer? ' 'Wadga say?' she said. She wasn't listening to me, even. Her mind was wandering all over the place."(Salinger, 71). Holden was already lonely and now he can't even get this girls attention. Here we start to be able to tell what he is feeling, not because he tells us what he's feeling but because he starts to insult them and as we have already found out, he covers his insecurity and emotions with a wall of insults. This shows how complex Holden is, sometimes he really makes it hard to feel bad for him because he is so rude but this is because he doesn't want pity from others. He just wants to live in his own sorrowful little world.

Holden also is a romantic, not in the way we usually think of the word with flowers and wine, but he follows one of the main concepts of Romantic ideals, and that ideal is the preservation and beauty of nature. "I didn't throw it at anything, though. I started to throw it. At a car that was parked across the street. But I changed my mind. The car looked so nice and white." (Salinger, 36). Here Holden made a snowball and started to throw it, however, he appreciated the beauty of the snow on the cars and he didn't want to disrupt the nature.