Week #3

I Have read 69 pages of "Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters." I will Begin reading, "Nine Stories" shortly.

After the scene in the Limo (see Blog 2) The party decides to retire to a conveinence store. The Weather is scolding hot, and a marching band is blocking the limo from advancing through the intersection. Upon exiting they realize that one of their own group, the "Elderly man [who was] staring fixedly straight in front of him," is a deaf-mute. Because of his condition he is oblivious to everything that has happened so far in the book. He knows nothing of the Disaterous wedding, the bickering about the groom (Buddy's brother), or the noisy marching band. The convienience store around the corner is closed. Buddy then gets a "sense of Isolation and lonliness more overwhelming than I've felt all day."

The group retires to Buddy's Apartment, where they drink Tom Collins. Buddy gets drunk since he mixed his own drink with some extra shots of gin, however, to avoid being a crummy host, tries his best to hold it in. He Feels better once he is at his apartment.

Alot happens in this part of the book. As the conversation in the limo progresses, The Matron of Honer begins to Turn on him. This change of attitude makes him nervous. However, a number of times Buddy mentions the Old Man, who is stationary the entire time. "No one's indifference has ever been such a confort to me."

This scene is similar to the scene in "Catcher" where Holden Finds himself in an old wax museum he visited on several field trips when he was a kid. Holden Mentions, "The best thing in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move. . . . Nobody’d be different."

This is one of the themes I will Talk about in my Essay; Salinger writes about finding comfort in stationary things amoungst a ever-changing world.