Sample Reading Response Journal Post

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth” (Salinger 1).

This quote displays Holden Caulfield’s intentions with his story. He doesn’t want to give you his entire background, but would rather just begin in media res — in the middle of things — and pick up from a certain point in his life. We see that Holden is willing to talk about his life, but not to necessarily address his past directly. He wants us to hear his story, but this passage gives the reader a clue that we might also have to read between the lines a bit to get the whole picture. It also displays J.D. Salinger’s desire to break away from the “old guard” of novelists. When Holden talks about “that David Copperfield kind of crap,” he’s referring to the Charles Dickens novel of the same name. Salinger, implicitly, is saying that The Catcher in the Rye will be a different kind of novel, one that tries to tell a story more true to contemporary life. Indeed, reading on, we see that Holden drops us into his story quite quickly, and we learn about his past and history through subtle references as the book unfolds. The book does, to me, feel more contemporary in its voice than a Dickens novel, largely due to Holden’s conversational tone and the spirit of intimacy he immediately creates with the reader. We are invited in, and this passage is that invitation — hesitant, but present nonetheless.

[so, here you have an example of a proper Reading Response journal. open with a quotation, citing it properly in MLA format. then, write about what in the passage strikes you as interesting and important. you'll want to reference diction, style, voice, tone, imagery -- literary devices that may be present. ~250 words, not including the quotation.]