Catcher in the Rye Portfolio Reflections

Chapters 1-6: “Old Allie’s Baseball Mitt” Reread Holden’s description of Allie’s baseball glove on pg 38-39. Write one paragraph about an object of significance to you. Describe the object as detailed as you can while revealing the importance this object has to you. Do not simply say, “this object is important because…” use the details and descriptions to set a tone and express the importance this object has.

Ideas: a favorite article of clothing, a gift from a deceased relative, a poster or picture in your bedroom, a piece of furniture

Chapters 7-12: Quotable Quotes: “The Wrong Kind of Skates” “She bought me the wrong kind of skates… Every time somebody gets me a present, it ends up making me sad” (Salinger 52).

Holden expresses his disappointment with concepts that bring most people joy. I find it interesting that he deters his sadness from packing and getting kicked out of Pency to his sadness of getting the wrong type of skates. Holden is willing to accept other people’s irresponsibility, but not his own.

Choose 5 quotes from chapters 7-12 that you find intriguing. In three to four sentences, explain why you find the quote interesting. Your response should be a brief, intelligent explanation or personal insight related to each quote. Responses should also reflect one’s knowledge and understanding of poetic devices and figurative language when and wherever possible.

Chapters 13-18: Character Profile Holden reveals several elements of his physical appearance in these chapters including his crew cut and how skinny he is. Both of these attributed are a source of self consciousness for him, in addition to a few other traits. Holden’s personality is still frighteningly clear, even without these descriptions.

For this character portrait, choose another character in literature, a character you have read recently or in the past few years, and create a character profile. Use as few physical descriptions as possible, and write a first-person narrative in stream-of-consciousness style. This one-page response should clearly identify the character because of their situation, but it should also demonstrate your understanding of stream-of-consciousness.

Chapters 19-26: Comin’ Thro’ the Rye: Holden’s actions at the end of the novel are evidence of his degrading state of mind. He compulsively tries to protect innocence, yet he is struggling to find his place in a mature, adult world. Choose an incident from chapters 19-26 and evaluate Holden’s perception of innocence. What does it mean to loose innocence? How does Holden try to keep it for himself? For Phoebe? For the other children at Phoebe’s school? For the whole of New York?

In a one-page response, interpret Holden’s actions and justify his need to keep the innocence of youth. “End of Something” Activity Writing Option 1 or 2 on page 1024 of the textbook

Multiple Intelligences Activity 1- Evaluate Holden's multiple Intelligence strengths. Choosing one of his strengths, identify a specific example from the novel to support his strengths. In your commentary, explain how Holden could be successful in school if his teachers knew of his strengths and gave him assignments where he could use his strengths. 2- Explain what this test may imply about students' learning behaviors and how this information would be beneficial in the classroom. Can each of these MIs be instructed to? In your response, relate to personal experiences where you have felt that you have learned better as a result of a teacher using strategies that reflected your MI.

J. Alfred Prufrock Analysis Question: Explain in detail how Prufrock is a representation of 1- the loss of conviction and will power 2- the fear of change or acceptance and 3- neurotic self-absorption in one complete paragraph or more with examples from the poem