Literary Writing Prompts

            44. In a literary work, a minor character, often known as a foil, possesses traits that emphasize, by contrast or comparison, the distinctive characteristics and qualities of the main character. For example, the ideas of behavior of the minor character might be used to highlight the weaknesses or strengths of the main character. Choose a novel in which a minor character serves as a foil to a main character. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the relationship between the minor character and the major character illuminates the meaning of the work.

               In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield, an eloquent and insightful teenager, befriends Robert Ackley. Everyone at Holden’s school, Pencey Prep, seems to hate Ackley, and Ackley hates all of them too. The companionship between Holden and Ackley started the night Holden was told he had flunked out of Pencey. “All of a sudden, Ackley barged back in again, through the damn shower curtains, as usual. For once in my stupid life, I was really glad to see him. He took my mind off the other stuff.” (pg.45) Ackley is the only guy at Pencey that Holden doesn’t call a “phony”.

                Ackley shows the compassionate side of Holden. Even though Holden describes Ackley as a sort of nasty guy with a terrible personality, He still enjoys being around him. Ackley’s peculiar ways comfort him and help him forget all of the negative things in his life. When Holden and his roommate, Stradlater, get into a fight, he automatically goes to Ackley’s room to escape.

                Holden has a very complex personality. Robert Ackley, for some reason, brings out his compassionate side. As Holden is leaving Pencey to go to New York, he shook Ackley’s hand and tells him “I just want to thank you for being such a goddam prince, that’s all. You’re acres, Ackley kid, you know that?” (66) Holden could see something in Ackley’s crude personality when all everyone else saw was a pest. He took the rudeness of Ackley as a joke to help him forget everything. He realized that out of anyone Ackley was the most human, like himself. And as Holden would say, that killed him.

42.    Select a line or so of poetry, or a moment or scene in a novel, epic poem, or play that you find especially memorable. Write an essay in which you identify the line or the passage, explain its relationship to the work in which it is found, and analyze the reasons for its effectiveness.

                In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield states, “I mean he’d keep telling you to unify and simplify all the time. Some things you can’t hardly ever simplify and unify something just because somebody wants you to.” (pg. 240) Holden is definitely not a simple person. Throughout the book you find out the many traits of Holden, and that a lot of the time he isn’t who he tries to portray. He tries to seem all tough a lot, but truly he is sensitive, with a good heart, and strong intellectual mind.

                Holden’s life in general is very complex. He’s ‘gotten the ax’ from Pencey as he would say, and he really can’t go home. Going home and telling his parents what happened probably would help simplify the issue, but that’s just not Holden’s style. He likes to try and make things more complex instead of simplifying. His overdramatic ways, and how he ‘horses around’ all the time. He just doesn’t like simple.

                Holden Caulfield is a digression.  He doesn’t fit into everyone’s “simple” world. He is unable to “simplify and unify”, but that’s just how he likes it, complicated.