Illustrator - SOPHIA CHRONOPOULOS

Illustrator - SOPHIA CHRONOPOULOS

Researcher - Little Shirley Beans

The record, "Little Shirley Beans", is symbolic of childhood and the sense of innocence of which Holden is afraid to let go. Fittingly, the song is "about a little kid that wouldn't go out of the house because two of her front teeth were out and she was ashamed to". Like Holden, the little girl in the song is afraid of the changes that accompany growing older, in her case, the loss of her baby teeth. Holden pays five dollars for the record, which is a lot of money. Symbolically, he would pay dearly to be able to avoid the reality of growing up (Chapter 16).

When the record breaks "into about fifty pieces", it represents the dissolution of Holden's dream of being able to avoid entering the world of adulthood. Holden had tried to protect his dream of childhood and innocence, keeping it carefully "in a big envelope and all", but despite his best efforts, the record still shatters. This indicates that, try as he might, Holden is going to be forced to let go of the past and face the future, leaving the security of childhood behind (Chapter 20).

found from: http://www.enotes.com/catcher-in-the-rye/q-and-a/what-significance-quot-little-shirley-beans-quot-41123

I researched this because it was the music Holden was discussing. With the details on top about how Holden wants to keep his childhood forever it help explains why he acts certain ways.

The question directed towards you guys is, what part of your childhood do you think was the hardest to let go?

Literary Luminary

"Look, I said. Here's my idea. How would you like to get the hell out of here? Here's my idea. I know this guy down in Greenwich Village that we can borrow his car for a couple of weeks. He used to go to the same school I did and he still owes me ten bucks. What we could do is, tomorrow morning we could drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont, and all around there see. It's beautiful as hell up there. It really is. I was getting excited as hell the more I thought of it, and I sort of reached over and took old Sally's goddam hand. What a goddam fool I was." pg. 132

I chose this passage because Holden is just extremely excited. I didn't fully understand why he was so excited, but he was and I think that Sally was kind of freaking out because he is never like this. He also doesn't really like Sally ad I was surprised that he was even mentioning something like this to Sally.

Literary Luminary

"You should see her. You never saw a little kid so pretty and smart in your whole life. She's really smart. I mean she's had all A's ever since she started school. As a matter of fact, I'm the only dumb one in the family. My brother D.B.'s a writer and all, and my brother Allie, the one that died, that I told you about, was a wizard." pg. 67

The only thing that Holden really loves, and will do anything for is his family. He loves them so much. When he talks about Phoebe, he gets so happy and excited and the same thing with Allie and D.B. Even though Allie has passed, and D.B. doesn't live with them anymore, he still talks about them so much. I truly think that he would do anything for Phoebe because he loves her so much.

Literary Luminary

"...I can even see how it might be quite a lot of fun, in a crumby way, and if you were both sort of drunk and all, to get a girl and squirt water or something all over each other's face. The thing is, I don't like the idea. It stinks, if you analyze it. I think if you don't really like a girl, you shouldn't horse around with her at all, and if you do like her, then you're supposed to like her face and if you like her face, you ought to be careful about doing crumby stuff to it, like squirting water all over it. It's really too bad that so much crumby stuff is a lot of fun sometimes." pg. 62

I chose this passage because again, this is another side to Holden. To me, the way that he acts I think that he would be all for doing things with girls and not caring about their feelings. I think that he would be the main person to do "crumby" things with girls because of the attitude that he has about everything.

Literary Luminary

"When I was all set to go, when I had my bags and all, I stood for a while next to the stairs and took a last look down the goddam corridor, I was sort of crying. I don't know why. I put my red hunting hat on, and turned the peak around to the back, the way I liked it, and then I yelled at the top of my goddam voice, 'Sleep tight, ya morons!' I'll bet I woke up every bastard on the whole floor. Then I got the hell out. Some stupid guy had thrown peanut shells all over the stairs, and I damn near broke my crazy neck." pg. 52

I chose this passage because Holden said he was sort of crying. When reading this part, I had to read it again because I was shocked that Holden actually said he was sort of crying. Holden is a person that never shows any emotion besides anger, and here he is showing signs of remorse, but then obviously goes back to his old self of hating everything.