Catcher In the Rye (Pages 185-214)

Finally got around to finishing J.D. Salinger's Catcher In the Rye. It was an okay book, although I don't really understand it. It was just about this guy traveling around trying to figure out his problems, and yet somehow in the end everything is magically okay because he sees his little sister Phoebe riding around on a merry-go-round. The book just didn't have any meaning or personal connections to me until the very end, like maybe the last 3 pages even. In these pages Holden is summarizing what has happened to him and the people he's met. He says that he is always asked what he is going to do next with his life, and how he has no answer to that question when people ask him. He says that it's a bad question because no one ever really knows what they are going to do until they actually do it. That quote was probably the most meaningful part in the book for me, because I can actually relate to it. Whether you thoroughly think through a situation or not, you never really know what you are going to do, how you are going to respond to any type of situation. For example, if you happen to be in a bank while it is getting robbed, everyone in the world would like to think that they would be the one to step up and save everyone, but that's just not realistic, and no one will ever know until they are actually put into that bad situation. I guess people just like to think that they have the ability to be a hero and step up whenever they want to, but the fact is that very few people probably would step up for others. On a more personal level, I am a lifeguard, and I know how to respond and act if I see someone sturggling to breathe or something. And although I know that I know what to do, it's sometimes difficult to believe that I can do it because I have not yet had to do it, if that makes sense. That's why I want to get my first save out of the way, just so I can prove to myself that I can handle the pressure and perform when it counts. I guess the book was okay, just not what I expected it to be.