Connecting to Holden.

This whole quote is basically saying that it's better to do things your own way, then to follow what someone else is doing. I think that this fits to Holden perfectly because that's what he's doing through out the whole book. Holden really refuses to conform to how everyone around him does things. He has such a different mind set than everyone else, and you can even connect this back to the first conversation that we had, he refuses to play the game so to speak. Most guys around him have the same game when it comes to getting with girls. They all kind of neck and flirt around a little, until a girl says no or stop or something, and usually the guys don't stop and persuade her into doing things, but with Holden he stops. He talks about it on pg. 92 when he says "The trouble with me is, I stop. Most guys don't. I can't help it. You never know whether they really want you to stop or whether they're just scared as hell or whether they're telling you to stop so that if you do go through with it the blame'll be on you, not them." I think that's why he wouldn't do anything with Sunny when she came to his room because it's like the quote says "Better in death in the fulfillment of one's own law," - it's better to do it your own way, then do it the wrong way, or to do it the way that someone else is doing.

So I've been listening to this band Gotye for the past few days, and I found this verse that I felt really connected to Catcher in the Rye. It's from their song Eyes Wide Open.

Some people offered up answers
We made out like we heard
They were only words
They didn't add up
To a change in the way we were living
And the saddest thing
Is all of it could have been avoided

I think that this relates to one of the very first chapters that we read where him and Mr. Spencer had a talk. This song is actually talking about suicide. But I feel that it relates to Holden situation because Mr. Spencer cares so much about Holden and he's trying to hard at the beginning to try and convince him that he's got to get his life together. I think that Holden knows that he has to get his life together, or that he should be trying to I just think it's like he doesn't really care enough to apply himself or care enough about himself to learn how to apply himself. And the last part relates to him too, because he could've avoided being kicked out all of the schools that he attended. I think that if he had, had the proper help and learned how to deal with all of the issues and traumatic experiences that he went through as a kid, then he could've avoided ending up this way.