Blog Option One
In the article, "Your Rattle No One Else Can Hear?" the author and her husband hears a rattling noise coming from their car that others can't hear, such as the guy from the dealership. The dealer couldn't understand what was wrong with the author and her car when they were taking a drive and probably considered the author to be crazy. The rattle that the author hears symbolizes her and her husbands personal problems that is still lingering in their lives. It's a challenge for them to have to battle and deal with theses problems, as it is said in the article, "The chronic pain that doesn’t go away from a long ago injury. The brain injury that doesn’t show on the outside, but completely rewired you and your life forever. The cancer you survived, but leaves you feeling unsettled." These events seemed to be fixed over a short time period. Inside though, those events can't be resolved easily and lasts over a long period of time with lingering consequences.
This gets into what else the rattle represents. It also portrays how others not close to the person can not understand their problems. They won't understand them if they haven't known you for a long time and can share or relate to the physical or emotional pain that they suffer from. For example, when Holden wrote about the baseball mitt that represents his brother, Allie, he writes deeply about how much that mitt represents his brother. He indirectly explains in the composition that he's writing for Stradlater of how he is still affected by his brother's death and what that baseball mitt symbolizes about him and what emotional tie it has with Holden. However when he presents the composition to Stradlater, he is unimpressed and doesn't understand why the composition is centered around a baseball mitt, as he explains in chapter 6, "Holden, this is about a baseball glove....You always do everything backwards" (Salinger 41). You can imagine that Stradlater is confused by Holden's rattle. Yes, the outside of the rattle may be colorful, shiny, and untouched to everyone viewing it. In reality, the components (these would be the events in Holden's life) inside the rattle may have damaged it and the inside of the rattle is really the most complex thing in Holden's life and the inside is what matters the most, yet Stradlater simplifies the inside of Holden's rattle so that he can understand it when that is not possible.
If Stradlater had written the composition himself, then his story would make much more sense to himself than if Stradlater wrote someone else's story. This would probably spark the same reaction Stradlater gave to Holden when he saw what Holden wrote for him. Thus, this exhibits that everyone has their own personal rattle. As explained in both of the pieces of text, the only people that can understand your rattle is yourself and others very close to you. You can't get help from anyone if they weren't there with you in those life changing events.
Figuratively, Allie's glove is a symbol for Holden's emotional expression. He keeps it hidden, it is precious and holds his heart. Allie's glove has poetry written on it. When Holden has to write a composition for Stradlater's homework, he looks to Allie's glove for inspiration. Allie's glove is Holden's connection to his feelings, which he reserves for a very few, Allie being one and Phoebe, his little sister, being the other.
ReplyDeleteYes, Holden always seemed to hide and not share his stories or his own rattle. It was unusual when he wrote that specific story about his brother. It shows the sensitivity that Holden possesses within himself and shows how he has many personal problems and personal barriers that prevent him from trying the best that he can. Hopefully he'll be able to overcome the loss of his brother and hopefully we'll see Holden open up more about his past experiences like he did with this story.
DeleteAllie's old baseball glove has poems on it so that Allie could read them when in the field and he was bored. This shows the kind of character that Allie was and since Holden loved his brother Allie we can infer some about Holden's Personality. What can we infer about Holden through this small event.
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