Skip to content

Catcher in the Rye, Part 1

2008-08-02 · John · watch on YouTube · Books & writing · explainer learning

John reads the first fifteen chapters of The Catcher in the Rye as a study of loneliness: Holden keeps trying and failing to talk to someone, shields himself with his red hunting cap and says 'you' when he means 'I'; John also suggests the book is a bit misogynistic.

What is said

00:00:00 — Belated apology for the late video; one-sentence summary of chapters 1-15

  • ★★ John begins his belated video on the first half of The Catcher in the Rye, apologizing for its lateness and saying he has always been the kid who asks for an extension. — 00:00:00
  • ★ John summarizes the first 15 chapters in one sentence: Holden is kicked out of prep school, goes to New York, asks cab drivers about ducks, meets a prostitute but does nothing with her, breakfasts with nuns. — 00:00:00

00:01:12 — The red hunting cap as protective shield; innocence vs experience deferred; loneliness: the phone booth, the cab driver and the ducks, the prostitute; the cap as security blanket; Hank's stuffed ferret

  • ★★★ John says Holden keeps putting on and taking off his red hunting cap because it is his protective shield. — 00:01:12
  • ★★ John agrees that discussions of Catcher rightly frame adolescence as the tension between innocence and experience, but thinks that is better discussed after the whole book. (hedged) — 00:01:12
  • ★★★ Perhaps because he is alone in a hotel room on a Saturday himself, John chooses to talk about how incredibly lonely it is to sit alone in a hotel room. (hedged) — 00:01:12
  • ★★★ John reads chapter 9: arriving at Penn Station Holden goes to a phone booth to call someone and has nobody to call, like scrolling your contacts and finding no one who wants to talk to you. — 00:01:41
  • ★★ John notes that the cab driver will not take Holden's important question about the Central Park ducks in winter seriously, and even a girl who is probably a prostitute won't talk to him. — 00:01:41
  • ★★★ John argues that for the whole first half Holden is only trying to talk to someone, so no wonder he needs a security blanket in the red hunting hat. — 00:02:10
  • ★★ John notes Holden puts the hat on after his teacher humiliates him and takes it off only where adults would mock it, comparing it to a comforting stuffed animal kept too long. — 00:02:10
  • ★ John jokes, while comparing the hunting cap to a stuffed animal kept too long, that he believes Hank still has his stuffed ferret. (playful) (hedged) — 00:02:40 · Hank Green

00:02:40 — Holden says 'you' when he means 'I' (holding hands with Jane) to distance himself from painful memories

  • ★★★ John notices Holden often says 'you' when he means 'I', as when recalling holding hands with Jane in chapter 11, because remembering lost intimacy and innocence is too painful. — 00:02:40

00:03:09 — Holden and the ladies: is the book a bit misogynistic; invitation to discuss in the official Ning thread

  • ★★★ John thinks Catcher is 'a wee bit misogynistic', citing Holden's claim that once you get past second base girls lose their heads and can't control themselves. (hedged) — 00:03:09
  • ★★ John suggests Holden's wish to protect people and keep them innocent may in some ways inhibit the empowerment of women. (hedged) — 00:03:38
  • ★★★ John invites discussion of this and anything else in the first 15 chapters in the official Catcher in the Rye thread he started on the Ning. — 00:03:38 · Nerdfighter Ning

Threads in this video

BR2_4f92759fab