Due Friday, Feb.

26

Ah, _____________! Ah, humanity!

Thesis Novel #3: Text-Marking / Note-Taking Guidelines for 2nd Reading

1. As you re-read the novel, underline or use post-it notes to annotate with the
purpose of tracing character development, conflicts and resolutions. Any
authorial commentary that seems relevant might be marked as well. Focus on
passages that could be “evidence” or reflective of or contributing to the slogan
“Ah, ___________! Ah, humanity!” (with a main character filling in the blank
above.)

For example, what passages from the novel Catcher in the Rye would reflect the slogan
“Ah, Holden! Ah, humanity!”

2. Use a dialectical journal in order to record significant passages and your thoughts
about these passages and their relationship to the slogan “Ah, ___________! Ah,
Humanity!” It is in this dialectical journal that you are testing out your theory
about the novel and what it seems to be saying about humanity through this
character. Be open to changing the character or re-reading to find better passages
to support your argument.

For example:

Passage
But what did worry me was the part
about how I woke up and found him
patting me on the head and all. I mean I
wondered if just maybe I was wrong
about thinking he was making a flitty
pass at me. I wondered if maybe he just
liked to pat guys on the head when
they’re asleep….I mean I started thinking
that even if he was a flit he certainly’d
been very nice to me.
Page 194-195
Meaning
This seems to be one of those moments
where Holden almost breaks out of his
paranoid, judgmental mode. He always
seems to jump to the worst or wrong
conclusions about people—usually the people
who are trying to help him—so he winds up
pushing them away from him. He keeps
isolating himself from others, and this makes
him even more depressed. Another way he
isolates himself is to believe that he is better
than other people—that way he doesn’t have
to accept the fact that he is only human and
therefore vulnerable, fragile, and lovable.

This is our problem as people and our failing

as “humanity”—we believe ourselves
unlovable and unworthy and then it becomes
a self-fulfilling prophecy. We look around
and see that humanity and humans are cruel
and mean and we begin to hate humanity, but
we lose because we fail to see the side of
humanity that is kind and loving (like Mr.
Antolini.)