The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger.[3] Originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage confusion, angst, alienation, language,[4] and rebellion.[5] It has been translated into almost all of the world's major languages.[6] Around 250,000 copies are sold each year, with total sales of more than 65 million.[7] The novel's protagonist and antihero, Holden Caulfield, has become an icon for teenage rebellion.[8]
- angst (n.) 不安；憂慮
- alienation (n.) 疏離
- rebellion (n.) 反抗
- protagonist (n.) 主角
- antihero (n.) 反英雄; 非英雄主角
The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923,[9] and it was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It has been frequently challenged in the United States and other countries for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and teenage angst. It also deals with complex issues of identity, belonging, connection, and alienation.
- profanity (n.) 沾汙神聖;褻瀆;不敬
- portrayal (n.) 描繪; 飾演; 描寫; 肖像
- sexuality (n.)性特徵;性方面的事情;性欲
These concerns may have stemmed largely from the death of his brother, Allie. Eventually, he sneaks into his parents' apartment while they are away, to visit his younger sister, Phoebe, who is nearly the only person with whom he seems to be able to communicate.
Holden shares a fantasy he has been thinking about (based on a mishearing of Robert Burns' Comin' Through the Rye): he pictures himself as the sole guardian of numerous children running and playing in a huge rye field on the edge of a cliff. His job is to catch the children if they wander close to the brink; to be a "catcher in the rye." Although misinterpreted, Holden believes that to be a "catcher in the rye" means to save children from losing their innocence.
Mr. Antolini tells Holden that it is the mark of the mature man who wants to live humbly for a cause, rather than die nobly for it. This rebukes Holden's ideas of becoming a "catcher in the rye," a heroic figure who symbolically saves children from "falling off a crazy cliff" and being exposed to the evils of adulthood
This upsets Phoebe, so Holden does her a favor and decides not to leave after all. Holden tries to reverse her saddened mood by taking her to the Central Park Zoo.
"Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."
Writing style
- subjective style (from protagonist, Holden Caulfield)
- stream of consciousness
- reflected the teenage colloquial speech of the time
intern
1. (拘留)to put someone in prison for political or military reasons, especially during a war
* internee: a person who has been put in prison for political or military reasons, especially during a war
2. someone who is finishing their training for a skilled job especially by obtaining practical experience of the work involved
* internship
3. (US intern, AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH resident)
a male or female doctor who is still training, and who works in a hospital
autograph(auto→self; graph→to write): a famous person's signature that they give to someone who admires them
e. g. Can I have your autograph?
recuperate psychiatric/physical strength 恢復體力；恢復精神
recuperate: to become well again after an illness; to get back your strength, health, etc=recover
e. g. Coles is recuperating from a sprained ankle.
institution: a place or building where people are sent to be cared for, especially a hospital or prison
encounter(en→; put→into):
1. to experience, especially something unpleasant
2. to meet someone unexpectedly
terms
e.g. encounter difficulties/obsticles
prep school(=preparatory school私立而且收費高的,專為使學生能進入著名大學而辦的特種中學): in Britain, a private school (= a school paid for by parents not the government), for children, especially boys, between the ages of 7 and 13, who will then usually go to public school, and in the US, a private school for children over the age of 11, which prepares them to go to college
flashback: a device used in literature to present action that occurred before the beginning of the story. Flashbacks are often introduced as the dreams or recollections of one or more characters.
Flashback techniques are often used in films, where they are typically set off by a gradual changing of one picture to another.
foreshadowing: A device used in literature to create expectation or to set up an explanation of later developments.
In Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, the graveyard encounter at the beginning of the novel between Pip and the escaped convict Magwitch foreshadows the baleful atmosphere and events that comprise much of the narrative.
(http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/glossary/glossary_fh.htm#h)
allegory(寓言;諷喻;象徵): A narrativetechnique in which characters representing things or abstract ideas are used to convey a message or teach a lesson. Allegory is typically used to teach moral, ethical, or religious lessons but is sometimes used for satiric or political purposes.
**allegorical adj.
<c.f.> satire: A work that uses ridicule, humor, and wit to criticize and provoke change in human nature and institutions. There are two major types of satire: "formal" or "direct" satire speaks directly to the reader or to a character in the work; "indirect" satire relies upon the ridiculous behavior of its characters to make its point. Formal satire is further divided into two manners: the "Horatian," which ridicules gently, and the "Juvenalian," which derides its subjects harshly and bitterly.
Voltaire's novella Candide is an indirect satire. Jonathan Swift's essay "A Modest Proposal" is a Juvenalian satire.
<c.f.>metaphor: afigure of speech that expresses an idea through the image of another object. Metaphors suggest the essence of the first object by identifying it with certain qualities of the second object.
An example is "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?/ It is the east, and Juliet is the sun" in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Here, Juliet, the first object, is identified with qualities of the second object, the sun. (Compare with Simile.)
**Holden(hold) Caufield (allegory)
** Farie Queen (allegory & metaphor)
nostalgia: a feeling of pleasure and sometimes slight sadness at the same time as you think about things that happened in the past
nostalgic adj.
nostalgically adv.
白先勇 寂寞的十七歲
《寂寞的十七歲》為白先勇早期短篇小說的集結，作者才氣縱橫、不甘受拘；他嘗試過各種不同樣式的小說，處理過各種不同類似的題材。難得的是，他不僅嘗試寫，而且寫出來的作品，差不多都非常成功。
slob(不修邊幅且舉止粗魯的人;笨拙的人): a lazy, untidy and often rude person:
He's a big fat slob of a man - I can't stand him.
checker(棋盤花格, 格子花紋; 西洋棋棋子):
1. someone whose job is to calculate what you owe and collect your money for the goods you buy at a supermarket. British cashier
2. any one of the small round pieces used in the game of CHECKERS. British draught
cab=taxi
I was wondering that S V
字辨
wonder: to ask yourself questions or express a desire to know about something
wander: to walk around slowly in a relaxed way or without any clear purpose or direction
lagoon(潟湖): an area of sea water separated from the sea by a reef (= a line of rocks and sand)
bizarre: very strange and unusual
bazaar: an area of small shops and people selling things, especially in the Middle East and India, or any group of small shops or people selling goods of the same type
crotch(褲襠): the part of your body where your legs join at the top, or the part of trousers or underwear which covers this area
意外聯想XD:
fop, playboy, dandy 紈褲子弟
vulgar: rude and likely to upset or anger people, especially by referring to sex and the body in an unpleasant way:
It was an extremely vulgar joke.
**vulgarity n.
in the beginning
at the beginning of the race
***we use the preposition "at " to describe the special or given place
chipmunk(花栗鼠): a small furry North American animal with dark strips along its back
squirrel(松鼠): a small furry animal with a long furry tail which climbs trees and feeds on nuts and seeds
1. commence with to begin or to start something
從 ... 開始
The course commences with a one week introduction to Art Theory.
commence doing sth
The planes commenced bombing at midnight.
2. faculty (n.) a department or group of related departments within a university
faculty of
the Faculty of Law
the Engineering Faculty
3. superficial (a.) not complete and involving only the most obvious things:
I thought that article was written at a very superficial level
4. phony (n.) false or not real, and intended to deceive someone
= fake
a phoney American accent
someone who is phoney is insincere and pretends to be something they are not
>phoney n [C]
He's a complete phoney!
5. physical altercation 口角爭吵
6. clumsy (a.) moving in an awkward way and tending to make things fall over
I felt clumsy, shy and awkward at the party.
7. pimp (n./v.) a man who makes money by controlling prostitutes
8. stem from 起源於;由...造成
His error stemmed from carelessness.
他的錯誤是由於粗枝大葉而造成的。
9. sneak (v.) to go somewhere secretly and quietly in order to avoid being seen or heard
= creep sneak in/out/away etc
They sneaked off without paying!
She snuck out of the house once her parents were asleep.
10. naively (adv.)
naive (a.) not having much experience of how complicated life is, so that you trust people too much and believe that good things will always happen
→innocent
a naive young girl
Jim can be so naive sometimes.
it is naive to think/suppose/assume etc
It would be naive to think that this could solve all the area's problems straight away.
11. virtually identical 幾乎完全相同
12. rebuke (v./n.) to speak to someone severely about something they have done wrong
= reprimand rebuke sb for doing sth
Members of the jury were sharply rebuked for speaking to the press.
>rebuke n [U and C]
a rebuke from the President
13. cocktail (n.) a drink, usually with a lot of alcohol in it, made by mixing different drinks together
14. highball glass (n.) A highball glass is a glass tumbler which will contain 8 to 12 fluid ounces (240 to 350 ml). It is used to serve highball cocktails and other mixed drinks.
15. flitty (n.) here, Holden uses the term to refer to male homosexuals.
16. speculation (n.) when you guess possible answers to a question without having enough information to be certain:
Rumours that they are about to marry have been dismissed as pure speculation.
Speculation about his future plans is rife.
17. head out (v.) 離去, 啟程
I have a long way to go before dark. I'm going to head out.
After all those hours of arguing, the talks began to head out and it was not long before we were able to reach an agreement.
18. reverse (v.) to change something, such as a decision, judgment, or process so that it is the opposite of what it was before
reverse a decision/verdict/policy etc
The decision was reversed on appeal.
19. inconsequential (a.) not important
= insignificant
inconsequential but amusing chatter
20. allude to (v.) to mention something or someone indirectly
Rick didn't want to discuss his past, though he alluded darkly to 'some bad things that happened.'
21. mental hospital (n.) a hospital where people with mental illnesses are treated
= psychiatric hospital
22. disjointed (a.) something, especially a speech or piece of writing, that is disjointed has parts that do not seem well connected or are not arranged well
disjointed fragments of information
留言列表
