Nick

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. I think that this quote somehow affects me and has really been stuck in my mind but I don’t know if I follow it. He told me, “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had." He didn’t say any more, I always kept wondering why he didn’t tell anything else or if this applied if people had more advantages then me; but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I’m inclined to reserve all judgments against people that have had less advantages then me, and I try to reserve judgment to people that have had more advantages them me in life, like more wealthier people than me and people that think that their higher than me just because of my economic state. The people that are the ones that are judging you for your economic state, or how you dress, where you live, and how your house looks house looks like. The people that judge you by comparing their life to my life and finding out that they have had more things than us, this are the people in the world that have had more advantages then me, they are the small percent. Still like I said I try to reserve judgment but it is them who make me want to judge them for what they do. 

The American Dream

The American dream now is different than how it was before in the time of Gatsby yet it still has some similarities, before the American dream was to have a good economic sense, to have a family, and to succeed in life. In the article I found it says that “there are two American dreams, but one of those is far nobler than the other”. He said that one American dream was just “graduate high school and college, get a high-paying job and a house in the best neighborhood, marry, have children and have all my friends looking at me wishing they were me”. She said that the other dream was not self centered like this one, the other one focused on “individual achievement, it looked to future generations and had the aim of furthering them.” So one dream is to make you succeed, but the other one is making yourself succeed and also thinking of the generations after you. The speaker in the article also says that what’s wrong with the first one is that it’s to self centered and that’s it was kind of different before because before the parents were looking to toward further generations because they wanted an American dream so they could help their families later on.

Link to the website: http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2012/01/17/american-dream-may-be-missing-point-teen-speaker-says/

Holden's Red Hunting Hat

I think Holden’s red hat means more than just a red hunting hat. For him I don’t think it’s just worth a “buck”. I also don’t think it is used for hunting, so that the dear can’t spot you I think it means something else. I think the red hunting hat symbolizes Holden himself or what he wants to do, his motive. What the red hunting hat symbolizes is Holden hunting for phonies like Ackley and Stradlatter. He is trying to find people that look like something great but are not what they look like. For example one of Holden’s phonies is Stradlatter. He says that Stradlatter looks great on the outside, but he is really a “secret slob” who has these bad manners. Like Holden says that he always uses the same razor and never cleans it. I think this is kind of ironic because I think Holden is a phony himself. So I think the red hunting hat does mean that he is searching for the phonies in the world, and the color blinds them and the phonies do not know that Holden is the hunter, but i do not know what he wants to do to phonies if he ever "captures" them.