Book Review- Catcher in the Rye

On the day that we were going through the R and R exercise, where the censored books were mentioned, The Catcher in the Rye was among them. I had recently borrowed the book, recommended by my sister. Curious to why it was banned, I began to read it. Slowly I understood the novel. It was about teenage rebellion! No wonder it was banned in some countries. It was about how a boy, Holden, flunked out of school, and had to deal with living in hotels and motels as he was afraid to go home. He goes out with girls, partied, got drunk and met up with old friends. In the end, he could not resist not seeing his little sister, his favourite person in the world, to tell her he was running away forever. His sister, also loving him very much, wants to go with him, but he does not allow her to go with him. Finally, the little sister manages to persuade Holden not to run away from home.

Holden’s attitude maintains from the beginning to the end of the novel showing no signs of maturation. He feels that he is smarter and more mature than adults, but in my opinion, he is much less mature. He is very emotional and sensitive, and is easily able to see through a person, and that person’s motives. Holden admires kids’ attributes that he struggles to find in adults, like innocence, kindness, spontaneity, and generosity. Overall, I really enjoy the book, though I admit it did spark some form of rebellion from me. It was interesting, and gave a new perspective of adults to me from a rebellious teenagers view.

Merchant of Venice- Character(Shylock)

The way that Shylock is crafted by Shakespeare is very complicated, probably the most complicated among the characters according to my opinion. We see him as the antagonist mostly, wanting to use justice in his favour to get revenge on someone. On the other hand we also get to see the world through Shakespeare's empathy of the Jewish society, of how alien it must have been to working in a Christian community. It also showed how he was abused and prejudiced against in the Christian community. Although we see that he is very bad to the Christian community himself, giving them stereotypes and having such a bad opinion of them, we must admit that the way the Christians treat him could have a part for that. On the other hand, we cannot blame the Christian community for their actions, Shylock's actions of money loaning and his thinking is completely different from the Christians, thus gaining the bullying.

In the end though, Shakespeare brought out sympathy for Shylock in the last few scenes. It showed his bitterness at the Christian community. How much he was bullied, and how much he had wanted revenge. He also showed his bitterness for losing his daughter, but more than that, his money and honour.

Overall, I disliked Shylock's character but at the same time, felt sympathy for his loss and his bitterness. He shows how much he has feelings and how he had been hurt by the Christians. He also highlights the anti-Semitism that was found in those times.

Merchant of Venice- Character(Portia)

Portia is a witty, strong-willed,resourceful, resolute and romantic. But she is also someone who has biasses for others that she does not like. This is most evidently shown in her suitors, where she finds faults in everyone, and even judges the Moroccan by his skin colour. She sees through and summarises all her suitors and from there she chooses which one she likes and which she doesnt. This shows how much she looks at first impressions, and how she draws conclusions from those first impressions.

Her most important words are from her speech on mercy. She shows how much she thinks, as a Christian, that mercy is important, and how it should season justice. On the contrary though, she did not give Shylock the mercy that she talked to him about. Instead, she shows him no mercy and the speech is a bait for him to be tricked. This shows that she might have meant what she talked about in mercy, but she is so prejudiced, that she dislikes Shylock as Bassanio dislikes him, thus not giving Shylock any mercy. Though, another way to look at it is that she cares for Bassanio and knows that Shylock would get in the way of his happiness.

Overall, I enjoyed her character. The irony of how she is a boy acting as a girl acting as a boy in the court is a great addition to the comedy that is MOV. Furthermore, her character is so intelligent and witty, and how she tricks other to get what she wants is also something that I found fascinating. Again, like all other characters, she might not be a perfect character, but someone with flaws, but her attitudes and actions are a good addition to the play which I enjoyed.

Merchant of Venice- Character(Bassanio)

Bassanio is a character who is a spendthrift and also cares a lot about worth. He married Portia partly out of her wealth, but at the same time, we must admit he does have feelings for her. He saw Portia as a prize, a magnificent prize he wanted to win. He also has a very strong friendship with Antonio, and knows to repay him due to Antonio's kindness towards him. He defends Antonio dearly when Shylock wants to kill Antonio, claiming he was more important than Portia.

But he is also seen as a brave and handsome person, somewhat the hero of the story, and is also seen very romantic as he tries to court Portia. He is also someone humble, modest and respectful. We see this in the casket scene, where he used his intelligence to pick the right casket. Instead of showing arrogance of winning Portia, he instead shows modesty.

Overall, he is someone that i enjoyed in the book. Although he does not have very good traits, he is someone who is very active and carefree, as opposed to Antonio. He is a risk taker, as he would with Antonio's money, which shows his adventurous attitude. He also cares too much about worth and wealth, thinking that he would only be good if he had wealth. He cares too much about worth and too little on what lies under. He feels that without money, he would not be important, thus he spends money so extravagantly. His bright attitude towards everything is very appealing to the viewer, and since MOV is a comedy, fits it very well.

Merchant of Venice- Character(Antonio)

Antonio is a moody, serious, and sad man, yet very helpful, especially to his best friend, Bassanio. Throughout Merchant of Venice, he is seen as the very sad man who is troubled, as seen in the first scene, "In sooth, I know not why I am so sad" and also how he is the one that is always in trouble, how his ships sink and how he has to pay the bond to Shylock. The first scene, where he is troubled, also shows how much Bassanio means to him, and how their friendship is very close.

The fact that Antonio agrees to help Bassanio with the bond, also shows his devotion and unselfishness, a very generous man who would help those who could not pay Shylock's heavy interest. Furthermore, he is also prejudiced. This is shown when the normally composed Antonio loses patience with Shylock, and expresses his racism. Shylock also shows that Antonio is not actually the kind man we thought at the start, but actually a racist bully.

Antonio is one of the characters that i enjoyed more. Not only is he the merchant of Venice, hence the play's name, but i also like his calm attitude towards everything. When the trial is happening and Shylock wants to kill him, he does not defend himself, while letting his friends try to defend him. Some might feel that he does not fight for his rights, but I feel that he is actually one that believes that justice is right, and it is important. This is a trait of him I quite admire.

Self Experimenters

Self-experimentation is a scientific method used to test and do experiments on oneself. It is a method that has been used since the start of Science. In current times, these self-experimenters are portrayed as mad scientists, trying to give themselves evil super powers. But in reality, they have a great contribution to the scientific world!

Self-experimentation has been long accepted as a form of science. Even famous scientists such as Isaac Newton have used this method. He nearly burned his cornea as he stared at the sun, thinking it was the only way to understanding illusions.

Self-experimentation is also being seen on the internet. Ad hoc scientist would buy the newest pills or any form of products publicized, and then log into forums and compare their findings with other investigators. This would help to let others know of the effectiveness of these products.

Honestly, I find that this is a good way to lead the future. Although one must admit that this self-experimentation is dangerous to the person that is self-experimenting, it is also seen that there are a lot of advantages.

This method is indeed very dangerous. We can see this as Walter Reed, and a few of his junior doctors, tried to prove that yellow fever was transmitted through mosquitoes. They allowed mosquitoes to feast on their bodies, and in the end, 2 of them died in a week, while most of the rest had serious illnesses.

On the other hand, this can have advantages as it could come to prove things that people would not have believed. Using the same example as above, the people then did not believe that mosquitoes were the result of yellow fever, and rejected Dr Reed's idea. Only after the experiment, did the people believed it, which might have led to many saved lives. This method could be used as a form of persuasion, where no scientific evidence is actually present. Sort of like the method of "trial and error" in math.

Bassanio:http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002848380680&sk=wall

Shylock:http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002824710767

Antonio:http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002877660607