Blog #3: Is Holden A Phoney?

According to Holden, being a phoney means saying things or doing things infront of people that you usually wouldn't ever do or saying things that only people want to hear, not what you actually believe. I believe another word for phoney would be a lier. If you say things you don't actually believe then doesn't that make you a lier? If your doing something that you usually wouldn't do infront of an audience, I believe another word for that is a fake, which is pretty much the same thing. Holden does this a lot when meeting new people. He begins to lie to people to either make the feel sorry for him ( Mrs.Morrow when he told her he had surgery) or when he knows it's what they want to hear( The nuns when he says his best subject is english). The thing is you don't even need an audience to be a phoney. When your alone, you can think of things you may want to do or say but never actually do it (When Holden got hit in his hotel room and pretended he got shot and was going to go down and shoot the guy). Holden also believes that actors are phoneys because they act in movies like the really wouldn't in real life, but thats the point of acting and being good at it. If they can act like a completely different person I believe that person is a really good actor. They may be phoneys because of what they do but it's their job. Holden isn't an actor but he does act a lot in this book, which makes him an even bigger phoney then the real actors. So with all of this said, Holden does accuse many people of being phoneys and he shouldn't because I don't think he realizes he's one too.

Blog Entry #2: Is Life A Game?

Is life a game? Yes, in many ways it is a game. You go through many different stages in your life which you can win or lose, but it's your choice, because it's not like life is exactly like a board game made with certain rules, you make the rules of this game. You can decide to follow them or not, but the rules you make will decide weather you win or lose. These rules I believe are made from your own morals, what you believe is right and wrong. Everyones morals are different which makes everyones rules in this game different. There are people in this world that have rules just to make it easier to win, and these people are bad people who will take the easy way out of everything, robbers, rapists, killers, etc. A Thing to remember is you may make the rules, but it doesn't mean they are the right ones. In the book Catcher in the Rye, Holdens life is like a game, but he keeps losing. He keeps getting kicked out of school and moving to different schools, but still loses. He also got beat up pretty bad by Stradlater, that also counts as him losing. He lies to Mrs.Morrow about stupid things and thats also losing. There is no need to lie about anything. It doesn't get you anywhere and it makes people lose trust in you. Having people trust you is an important way at winning. People can win alot easier with eachother then by themselves. Everybody needs someone and if you don't have someone, you might find yourself quiting at this game early. Life is really what you make it, and you can really do anything you want to, but to actually win this game, you have to play by the right rules.

What Does It Mean To Be A Good Person

To be a good person, you pretty much have to be nice and care about just about everything. It means that no matter what people do or say you wont judge them until you actually get to know them, because they can have a side that you havn't seen yet. It is not hard to be a good person, you must think positive about your life which will generally make you a good person. It actually may allow you to incourage other people into getting into a good mood. Being a good person also inculdes helping others. Even when it is hard, and you may not even like the person, this might mean that theres not many people who will be willing to help this person, so it would mean that much more to them if you helped them with what ever they need. When you see a conflict occure, you might try and slove the conflict if your that type of person. Dealing with conflicts from both sides of an argument will allow you to pinpoint the problem and suggest a solution. This also will allow you to gain valuable conflict resolution skills, and will also allow people to feel comfortable to turning to you when they have problems in the future. To generally be a good person, you need to not be so quick to judge people, and be able to understand different types of people to be able to comunicate with them, and know when your about to say something that will hurt them or upset them. Caring is the biggest part of being a good person.