Why Catcher in the Rye (Part 2)

“The best thing…in that museum was that everything stayed right where is was. Nobody’d move. You could go there a hundred thousand times...nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you. Not that you’d be so much older or anything. It wouldn't be that exactly. You’d just be different, that’s all...Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. I know it's impossible, but it's too bad anyway” (Salinger 135-136).

My favorite passage in The Catcher in the Rye is when Holden talks about a history museum. He went on school field trips to it when he was younger. Salinger does a tremendous job of putting the reader into the scene. His strong details and childlike view on this museum are so genuine and sweet.

This passage is the greatest mirror in the book that I believe people can identify with.

We all have things in our lives that we would like to stay the same. When we are feeling happy, we’d like to stay happy. As parents, we’d like our children to stay young. When you are apart of a team or group, you don't want the season to end. This is the main theme of the book; trying to keep the wonderful, pure, innocent things the way they are.

As Holden ends his long, beautiful, ramble, he gives us this last thought (it's kinda long, but stick with me).

"You'd just be different, that's all. You'd have an overcoat this time. Or the kid that was your partner in line last time had got scarlet fever and you'd have a new partner... or you'd heard your mother and father having a terrific fight in the bathroom. Or you'd just passed by one of those puddles in the street with gasoline rainbows in them. I mean you'd be different in some way- I cant explain what I mean. And even if I could, I'm not sure I'd feel like it" (Salinger 158)

But he is explaining it! And what do all of those things have to do with anything? I don't know but wow is Salinger a great writer. I can see all of it in an observant, childlike way. I find it beautiful. I love tangents because they give a glimpse to what we think about, even subconsciously.  Holden does this a lot and it tells us so much about him and makes us care about him more. It's vulnerability at it's best.

Holden has a younger sister named Phoebe and he gets on this tangent when thinking about how she is probably going on the same field trips, seeing the same things he saw when he was her age. That's very comforting to him; even though his youth cannot stay or be gone back to, other kids are experiencing it and keeping it in the present.

God I love this book. If you have not read it, I strongly encourage it. Or, you could just read this part of the book; it does not give anything away and can stand alone. It's toward the end of chapter 16.

-Kayla

"Pandora's Promise"

Along with the documentary that I watched for my paper, I also watched the 2013 documentary "Pandora's Promise".

My dad is a nuclear Engineer, so when I read the summary and watched the trailer it interested me. I have grown up having nothing but positive thoughts about nuclear power because it is my family's source of income. But growing up, in science classes I started to hear the negative accusations and effect of nuclear power plants.

After I read about the documentary on the list Dr. Kyburz's list and watched the trailer I showed it to my dad and he asked if I wanted to watch it with him. I few nights later we watched the documentary. It was kinda weird for me in the beginning watching it with him because there were a lots of nasty things said as the film opened. The nuclear industry is my dad's lively hood, this career of over 25 years and how he supports his family and, in the moment, I kinda regretted having him watch it. 

The documentary then went onto discuss the common misconceptions of nuclear energy and give facts to them being untrue. They also included explanation of the the real and valid danger of nuclear energy, explaining how it can go wrong, but also the procedures plants and the NRC have to keep the public safe at all costs. There was a lot of information about the formation of nuclear power and how it works. I knew most of this stuff just by talking to my dad over the years. 

There was one scene that really stood out to me; when discussing how nuclear is the only large threat to the coal plants, they showed articles promoting solar power THAT WERE FUNDED BY THE COAL PLANT COMPANIES! That was something my dad pointed out after too. It's crazy because they know that things like wind and solar alternative energies will not keep you with the public's demand for power by themselves. On days when it is not super windy or sunny then the coal plants will have to fill the demand.   

The topic comes up in any discussion about Nuclear Power; they explained the disaster at Chernobyl Power plant in Russia in 1986. Anti nuclear activists will yell about millions of people and babies dying because of this event, but the documentary provided evidence and records of not one person dying due to overexposure of radiation in or around the area of the disaster. 

This came as a surprise to me because I always assumed that everyone is the area was killed. Then the documentary said that 20% of people around the world will get cancer in their lifetime and many will die. Obviously people in Russia and in Japan after their nuclear malfunction in 2012 will freak out when they get cancer and blame it on the nuclear plant, when humans will get cancer and die of it anyway, nuclear plants or not. 

I really liked the documentary and I encourage others to watch it. There was a lot that I did not know and there was a lot explained that added to my knowledge of nuclear power. (I also got to spend time with my dad while I watched it, which does not happen too often). 

Kayla Audrey  

Documentary Review

I watched the "My Kid Could Paint That" Documentary, directed by Amir Bar-Lev . As an art student I really enjoyed it and found it  inspiring. I do a lot of realism, what you see is what you get, art. I like architecture and shoes and faces; I have never even tried my hand abstract art.

Marla's story is so sweet. She was only three when she started painting and sold her first painting for $250. I loved the one picture of her sitting on the dinning room table in her diaper painting. I loved the home videos of her painting, not only to see how she creates her work, but to see this very small person painting on a huge canvas! It's adorable seeing her choosing her paint color and brushes and creating. 

Abstract art to me has always been a little intimidating because I can never imagine how to begin. Where on the canvas? What color? And an even bigger question to me, when can you tell when the piece is complete? When I create my art I like to visualize it. Some people can visualize abstract; I am not one of those people.

One of the journalists that covered Marla's story, Elizabeth Cohen, made an amazing comment at the end of the documentary. She said, 

 "The whole story is really about grownups. She's just a little girl painting in her house"

Ahhh I loved that quote because it's so true. If you take away all of the money and the news articles and all of the speculation, you just have a girl who loves to paint-and paints very well. She's also four years old and has way more success than almost any other artist alive. All artists are waiting for their big break and for the public to acknowledge their work. Marla had the art work in a frenzy for her work, and I think had a lot of artists, who have been working for years and years, very jealous. She's a four year old, doing abstract art. She has not been practicing for years and she really has not  sacrificed anything, other than her privacy during the end of the documentary, and she's doing it for fun. People are coming to her and paying thousands of dollars. Who wouldn't be jealous of her? 

Even though I am not an abstract artist, I would like to try a piece or two this semester. Maybe I will post them to my blog, if I like how they turn out. 

-Kayla Audrey 

2018 

Active vs. Passive Voice and how they can work together

Yesterday in class we talked in class about using the active voice in our exploratory papers-

In The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger uses 

the Passive voice as a tool

In a few the author John Green's YouTube videos, he explains the effect on the story Salinger created by giving Holden Caulfield a very passive voice.

The example John pulls from the book is in the first chapter-

"The reason I was standing way up on Thompson Hill,instead of down at the game, was because I'd just gotten back from New York with the fencing team" (Salinger 5). 

First of all, what does the passive voice do anyway? It takes the character away from the action or situation they are describing. This is not popular in a lot of fiction writing because of the distance it causes, but Salinger uses it beautifully in his character. (He sculpted his characters and thought of them also as real people, so they come across having real human qualities even through the black and white text on a page)

Next question you have, what was going on at the time Holden said this, and why should we care? He was not simply getting back from New York with the fencing team, they had to go home because they were forced to forfeit the game; Holden, the manager of the team, forgot the equipment on the subway when they got off. Everyone hated him. Because this book is told in a flashback, he had to use the passive voice, create that distance, just to make talking about his mistake bearable. Holden also uses this voice when explaining why he was getting kicked out of boarding school, fo the third time.

But then Holden uses the active voice, and present tense language when talking about his dead brother, Allie.

"He's dead now" (Salinger 43). 

"The dead do not stop being dead" John Green reminds us. There is no way of getting around that, no matter if you use a passive or active voice; nothing can bring them back. And while Holden may not want to feel the pain of making his team have to forfeit the game, he feels Allie's pain and he wants us to know it. Holden didn't even get to go to the funeral because he was in the hospital for punching out the windows in their garage, getting no closure. There is so much sadness in that and you just feel it. 

I use the passive voice a lot in my personal writing. I've been doing it for years, mostly starting when I became depressed in about 6th grade, I had never known about it to notice it, my brain did it on it's own. There was a clear shift in my writing that I find fascinating. I think that is why I like Catcher so much; Holden's dialogue mimics my own and that was and still is calming to me. It's good to know that we are not alone in our thoughts and habits. It makes them seem less harmful and absolutely bearable.

Thanks for reading,

-Kayla Audrey

I Got A New Job!!!

For a year and a half I have worked retail at the Kohl's in Joliet. I have learned a lot, especially in regards to my Marketing major, but there are many things I don't like about the job. About two months ago a friend of mine told me about an opening at this painting place in Plainfield and suggested I give then a call. I called and got an interview a few days later. I was very nervous for the interview because, in creating my portfolio of all my best works, I realized that I do not paint a whole lot, and most of my experience is with oil paints.

In my interview I met the owner, saw their location and met the artist that was leaving because she had just graduated and was starting her professional job. They really liked me and I actually got hired right at the interview! I was so excited!

Now I have been in training and the past two Saturdays have gotten to teach two children's painting classes. At their location they have four different kinds of classes; adult painting classes, wooden board classes, wine glass painting classes, and children painting classes. It's such a fun environment to work in and something that I enjoy doing so much. When I was in high school I helped choreograph my old middle school's swing choir, so I have some experience teaching and have always loved teaching.

If any of you would like to come and paint, all you have to do is sign up online at www.somuchfunpaintandsip.com It is okay if you are not over 21, there are lots of teens and adults that just come to paint and create!

- Kayla Audrey
November 2017

My Favorite Art to Create

As an art student here at Lewis I am in a few different art classes and it is encouraged to try as many mediums as possible. But here is my favorite type of art to create... 

I call them my Room Drawings

This was the first room I drew in 2014

I drew this kitchen/ dinning room scene last Christmas break

I love drawing realistic, very detailed rooms. It's fun and one of my favorite things to do. Sometimes I make the rooms up in my head and draw them. Sometimes I will go somewhere and will find myself in a random room that I just have to draw. I always like places a little cluttered or what I like to call "Lived- in". I am not very good at drawing people (yet?) so I draw the rooms as if everyone has just left. 

I drew this restaurant this past March. 

Room drawings never take long to create. I did the one above in about an hour and a half before my 9 am class last semester. I don't have a specific time of the day I like to draw; 

I draw whenever I am inspired.  

Drawing of a coffee shop on the cruise I went on in 2015.

This was one of my favorite drawing to do on location. When we arrived on the cruise ship I thought the coffee shop was just adorable and knew I had to draw it. During one of our days at sea, while my family was at the pool, I sat in the lounge across from the shop and drew it for a few hours. Other vacationers would stop and ask me about the drawing and to watch me draw. 

My favorite room drawing done in early 2015

While it is not the best drawing I have done, it's my favorite. I love all the details and its "i-Spy" feeling. I enjoy creating art that someone can look at for a long time; something you could come back to a few times and see something different each time. 

Room drawing I did in January 2017

I don't like to draw a room and then color it in; I think that looks like a coloring book and that's not what I am going for. What I have been doing lately on my drawings to add some color is to put a watercolor wash on it and then draw on top of it. 

Let me know what you think :-)
- Kayla Audrey

Bottles:: video project

Bottles video

November 2017
-Kayla