Catcher in the Rye was written at the end of the 1940s--our main character, Holden, is living in a world with clear expectations around social roles.
In class, we watched this video, Control Your Emotions, from a 1950 educational film.
By Friday, please watch this other video, Shy Guy. This one's from 1947. In a comment on this post, please respond to the video, commenting on values it portrays, and connections between the content of the film and the story of Catcher in the Rye so far...
I think that this film portrays the value placed on conformity in this time period. The father pushes his kid to observe the popular kids so that he will be popular. The main character wants to fit in with the kids at school and copies their social skills and clothing to attempt to conform. The main character uses his own skills and eventually makes friends with the other kids and is invited to their party. No emphasis was put on the kids that weren't popular. Upon desire and instruction of his father, the main character only looked at the kids that were popular. I believe this connects to, "The Catcher in the Rye" because it shows what kids were like in this time period. Although, Holden looks down upon this uniform behavior and drive for conformity and popularity, it was the social norm for the time period. Similar to the novel, the people aren't portrayed as phony in this video but in reality there is no way that everyone acted like this. As a result, I think that Holden was able to see through these conformity videos and is frustrated with the emphasis society puts on uniform behavior.
ReplyDeleteThis video portrays the values of fitting into a society. The main character in this film tries really hard to observe the other kids to see what he can do to become popular, just like them. The main character did not seem to look at or notice any kids besides the popular ones and therefore conformed to their ways. In the book, "Catcher in the Rye," Holden also has a desire to confirm to popularity. Therefore, I think Holden doesn't like how the society thinks uniform behavior is so important.
ReplyDeleteThe values shown in this video all revolve around the idea of thinking about others. If you help people, listen to them, and of course wear a sweater, you shouldn't have any trouble fitting in. The main thing that changed the kid's situation is when he could relate to the other kids, and he built up the courage to talk to them wanting to help them. Holden from Catcher in the Rye envies Stradlater for his popularity, especially with women, just as this kid envies the other boys who are popular even though all they seem to be doing is listening to each other. Though listening may not seem very important, it is key in thinking about and being considerate of others.
ReplyDeleteThe short film "Shy Guy" is about this kid trying to fit in with his new school. He takes his father's advice and looks for the most popular kids in school to be friends with. This was shown in schools to make sure that students wouldn't feel social awkward and made making friends seem easy. In "Catcher in the Rye" Holden is trying to connect with Ackely and Stradlater in the first few chapters, but is having a hard time with it other then the kid in "Shy Guy". The kid had it easier then Holden. All he did too fit in was stand by himself in the diner, then bumping into a conversation at the mixer. Holden on the other hand got into a fight with Straglater. In a perfect world, making friends are easy, but in reality making friends for Holden is hard.
ReplyDeleteThe instructional video about how not be a "shy guy" displays the conformity during the 1950s. When the boy feels excluded, his father encourages him so simply copy the popular kids. When observing the popular kids, the boy find that he just needs to listen and help others out. The video over simplifies the process of making friends to the point where is the fake. Holden, in "Catcher in the Rye" sees this phoniness every day at his prep school. Holden knows that he is somewhat left out and ostracized. However, unlike the boy in the film, Holden does not try to go out and socialize. I think that Holden does have a desire to have a social life, however, he is afraid to become too involved and end up as phony as everyone else. The boy in the video wants the lifestyle that the popular kids have. Holden wants it, but knows that having that life is great in appearance, but the reality of it is that he will become one of the fake kids that he hates.
ReplyDeleteThis video shows that fitting into society is valued and people will do anything to get accepted. The dad in the video tells Phil that he needs to watch what the popular people do if he wants to fit in. By doing this, Phil does not try to become accepted in an overpowering way. He sits back and watches peoples actions and reactions and learns from them and eventually he eases his way into a conversation and gets accepted by others. In Catcher in the Rye, Holden is already a good fit into society, as is Stradlater. But someone like Ackley is that socially awkward guy that does not know how to fit in correctly. So instead he says whatever is on his mind even if it is socially unacceptable.
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The video "Shy Guy" demonstrates how teenagers are faced with the conflict of how to fit in. The shy male thinks that no one cares what he contributes to the conversation because he does not try to conform. He feels as though he is alone in the world, an outsider to society. After watching others, he realizes that doing things for others plays a vital role in friendship. By being polite and willing to give his help, he is able to find friends that accept him and have similar interests. This video reveals that the people of the 1950's value conformity, friendship, and being kind to others. In addition, this instructional video had many similarities with the novel, "Catcher in the Rye". For instance, the shy male in this video watches popular people to see how they interact with others where as Holden in the novel "Catcher in the Rye" watches Stradlator interact with girls and other people. Holden knows that Stradlator is very conceited but he still envies him and tries to be his friend. On the contrary, Holden does not try to expand his friend group and socialize. He chooses to stay in his dorm rather than going out on the weekends to mixers.The video also reveals phoniness as to how teenagers are suppose to act in that time period and the novel reveals the phoniness Holden is surrounded by in his society.
ReplyDeleteThis videos shows that it was very important to fit into the society. Kids will do anything to be able to fit into a group. The video says that to fit in you need to watch the popular kids and see how they act, then you need to act like them you need to learn from the popular kids to eventually become one of them. By watching the popular kids Phil learns how to fit in and he was able to get into a conversation with them which lead to a friendship. In Catcher in the Rye, Ackley was the kid that did not fit into the society he was the awkward guy. Holden and Stradlater fit in just fine with the popular crowd. Ackley should watch what the other guys are doing to be able to learn from them about what is socially correct and what is not.
ReplyDeleteIn this film, Shy Guy I see the idea of trying to break down the barrier between people yourself to sort of break out of your shell. I see this in “the Catcher in the Rye” when Holden does the paper that Stradlater asks him to do. I see a connection among these two topics because they are doing something to promote themselves to a group of people who are “greater” than them. Also the idea of being alone is very relevant in this story as well as the film. Holden kept saying how alone he felt in laying in bed.
ReplyDeleteI thought that is was very interesting that the character in the Shy Guy was told by his dad to follow the most popular people and like the things they like. I can sort of see this in the “Cather in the Rye” when Holden acts jealous of Stradlater going on a date with Jane, who was his childhood friend. He wanted to have what the popular boy had in this situation.
Towards the end of the short film, I noticed that the shy guy had a lot of internal thoughts that were narrated, which reminds me so much of Holden because most of this thoughts are discovered through his narration.
This film shows the value of teenagers struggling to overcome fitting in. It shows how at first the "shy guy" wants to fit in, just like every normal teenager whether it was in the 50's or today. This is a great coming of age film because it also shows that if you are struggling, parents or guardians are always an option to go and talk to. They are their to help through the coming of age process since they have already been through it. An important value they also showed was to think of others. If youthink of others then others will think of you and that is a good way to make friends.
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