Breaking The Code To The Catcher In The Rye discussion

The Catcher in the Rye
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Breaking The Code To The Catcher In The Rye: Tying it all together; Phoebe

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message 1: by Cosmic (last edited Dec 16, 2017 12:14PM) (new) - rated it 5 stars

Cosmic Arcata | 207 comments Mod
In The Catcher in the Rye we have Holden (a archetype of the GM corporation) searching for Pheobe. He looks for her in the natural History museum (or in history). I always thought Phoebe was someone that was feeble. Or the gullible masses. Obviously Phoebe didn't get the same advantages that a private school like Pencey Prep gave to the boys. There would be no hurdles that would be easily jumped over. No connections made that would glide Phoebe. She would be destined to a Dead Beat Horse. On the wrong side of the argument.

But even though I believed this i couldn't find the literary tie to who Phoebe was till this week. Not only did Phoebe become personal but so did the title The Catcher in the Rye.

Holden says that he wants to be a hero, in a rye field, saving children from going over the cliff.

By the time Salinger has invented Holden many Phoebe(s) have already gone to war and perished. And by the time he writes The Catcher in the Rye we have already seen WW2 and have begun a cold war with Russia. Maybe even the Korean war?

But today i read The Lost Phoebe. It is a short story. And in this story have found the archetype of Pheobe.

Just think how the cohesiveness of Europe was changed by these two wars? Think of the families and Men and the women and children. Who benefited? GM did. DB did. America did. Wall street did. Bankers like the Bush's family did.

Is corruption new to American politic. No. But exposing it is dangerous business. I think this is why Salinger was a recluse.

So in The Lost Pheobe we not only have a dead Phoebe but also a cliff. Is the dead Phoebe those that died in WW1. Did twenty years later create the condition for "Like father like son"...recipe?

In The Fourth Turning: What the Cycles of History Tell Us about America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny the authors discuss what makes generations behave the way they do.

I was not interested in war before i read The Catcher In The Rye.

So in thinking more about The Catcher and The Lost Phoebe. Holden or GM doesn't want to save children, he wants to use them before they go over the cliff. The society that was between the wars was somewhat insane. They were part of the roaring twenties trying to escape the insanity of war. Band they were the ones that raised the next generation to go to war.

Hope is not a strategy! But too often this is what our politicians and the United Nations hold out for us. And like a siren song we listen and are driven, yes driven by design, over the cliff.

I am also reading How Britain Initiated both World Wars . This is interesting because from Salinger saying that DB (Deschutes Bank) was driving a Jaguar (a British car) and living in Hollywood.

If you have been following all the Fake News that has been permeating our media then you can believe that our history has also been tampered with. Has been adulterated and tweaked especially so we will think and respond in a particular way.


Cosmic Arcata | 207 comments Mod
Phoebe

I believe that Pheobe is a literary reference to the short story The Lost Pheobe by Theodore Dreiser.

Pheobe represents:
The Lost Generation is the generation that came of age during World War I. Demographers William Strauss and Neil Howe outlined their Strauss–Howe generational theory using 1883–1900 as birth years for this generation. The term was coined by Gertrude Stein and popularized by Ernest Hemingway, who used it as one of two contrasting epigraphs for his novel The Sun Also Rises. Hemingway credits the phrase to Gertrude Stein, who was then his mentor and patron.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_...


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