Diction and Mood In The Catcher In The Rye

         In chapter 25 in The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger creates an emotional piece for the reader, as Holden describes his actions when he walks down Fifth Avenue. As he approaches the street and crosses the block, he is encountered with a fear that he would never make it to the other side, and rather fall away or disappear all together. Every time he got this feeling, Holden would ask his brother Allie not to let him slip away. When Holden made it to the other side of the block, he would thank his brother, reliving the fear again each time he tried to cross the street. Due to the diction and connotation within the passage, a disparaging and negative mood is created. Furthermore, such a bleak and harsh mood and tone is created when Holden uses harsh language such as "goddamn" and "bastard" (197). These words show that Holden no longer cares about his overall image and is defeated and angry. These words also could mean his is exasperated, overall creating an negative and hopeless atmosphere. Similarly, Salinger  uses words like "spooky", "scared", and "afraid" within the text (198) which are again associated with a dark or unfortunate  tone which, overall, creates tension and senescence for the reader, as they wonder what will become of Holden. With in the scene Holden appears to have hit rock bottom. This is due to the use of syntax and repetition of the words "down" and "disappearing" (198) which concludes Holden is feeling about as alone and isolated as he has ever was. This idea with the use  of words associated with dark or negative images create a depressing and bleak atmosphere for the reader. Over all, the mood of the sense is disparaging, suspenseful, and scaring, as Holden feels as tough is he slipping away and being forgotten.

Descriptive Item

        I have a lot of fond childhood memories, most of them in Canada hanging out with my cousins in our cottage. I am not really the person to hold onto or cherish objects which hold memories of the past, or even one of those people who like to post picture of friends and family around their room. I think that stuff is sort of depressing in a way. It's like a moment frozen in time, eventually forgot and something you can never relive. Anyway that's not the point. The point is, despite my opinions on the matter, I do have one object that I have kept over those years to remind myself of those happy memories. When I was younger about seven years ago, my cousin Jess and I, were pretty creative at the time got really bored. I don't remember why, but we started looking through my parents closet, probably playing dungeons and dragons or something like that. Anyway, we started going through my dad's clothes and found this old pair of odd socks that my mum probably forgot to throw away. We thought it was a shame to waste still perfectly usable socks so, we grabbed some thread and needles and stitched our own sock monkeys.

        To others, my monkey probably looked like something out of a horror movie, but to my cousin and I, our sock monkeys were our prized possessions. My monkey is disproportional, its head being way to large for its body and its arms twice the size of its legs, making it look like a bobble head. His eyes are made out of these two black buttons, but we could never find a pair that matched so one eye is  the size of a penny the other twice the size, giving him a goofy appearance that makes me laugh. Although seven years old, the eyes are still polished shiny raven black, that make it appear as those his eyes are twinkling. My dad has huge feet, so the sock monkey is about the size of my arm but the cotton has thinned over time and no longer a pure white, but a grey worn out body. Because of this, I have had to constantly stitch and patch its fur together, making it resemble a rainbow. It might seem tacky, but I think it brings life and character to him. Despite the fact that the monkey looks worn out, the smile is still intact. A huge bright cherry red arch stitched on, as if someone decided to freeze time the exact moment someone told a really funny joke.

      It is probably the most odd thing in the world and very childish, but the monkey represents my youth and childhood memories. When ever I have one of those bad days where everything goes wrong, I like to hug my monkey and remember the good times I had playing with it and creating it with my cousin. Those moments are probably the happiest memories of my life so far. All the things people might find weird about my stuff toy is why I treasure it so much, it reminds me all the happy memory and good things in life, and most importantly makes me smile.