sentences in Catcher in the Rye
Wei Tan
1. "In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my
parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything
pretty personal about them. "
What does the two hemorrhage apiece mean? Does he mean his parents will so
upset or angry that they will bleed? Why two?
2.
"I mean that's all I told D.B. about, and he's my brother and all. "
What does the "and all" mean? I cannot find anything in my dictionary.
Thanks.
In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second
place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything
pretty personal about them.
--
Wei Tan
Graduate Student
Department of Biomedical Engineering
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, 90089
Tony Cooper
"Wei Tan" <wei...@usc.edu> wrote in message news:ah7in3$52c$1...@usc.edu...
> I am reading the Catcher in the Rye. Two sentences make me confused:
>
> 1. "In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place,
my
> parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything
> pretty personal about them. "
>
> What does the two hemorrhage apiece mean? Does he mean his parents
will so
> upset or angry that they will bleed? Why two?
>
> 2.
> "I mean that's all I told D.B. about, and he's my brother and all. "
>
> What does the "and all" mean? I cannot find anything in my dictionary.
Conversational English does not always translate to what the words mean.
Having a hemorrhage is pure slang to mean "become very upset". No blood
involved. Having multiple hemorrhages is hyperbole. All he's saying is
that his parents would be very angry and upset if Holden discussed their
personal lives with strangers.
"And all" is also just a slang expression. It doesn't mean anything
specific. Holden just means that D.B. is his brother, and all that
being his brother encompasses.
Remember, in reading "Catcher", that the book is about a teenager
growing up in the 1950s. Some of the slang will be dated and not
familiar to you if your vocabulary doesn't date that far back. Some of
the terms will be from popular music of the times. Holden might say
"groovy", for example, where a teenager today would say "cool" and spell
it "kewl".
--
Tony Cooper aka: Tony_Co...@Yahoo.com
Provider of Jots & Tittles
Wei Tan
Wei
"Tony Cooper" <tony_co...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:ah7sih$qh3oi$1...@ID-113505.news.dfncis.de...
Pan
>I am reading the Catcher in the Rye. Two sentences make me confused:
>
>1. "In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my
>parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything
>pretty personal about them. "
>
>What does the two hemorrhage apiece mean? Does he mean his parents will so
>upset or angry that they will bleed?
Yes.
> Why two?
That's how much it would shock or upset them. Two hemorrhages' worth,
not one.
>2.
>"I mean that's all I told D.B. about, and he's my brother and all. "
>
>What does the "and all" mean?
Compare "after all," but you can also think of it as just a way to
lengthen the sentence without adding real meaning, as in "he's my
brother, y'know" ("y'know" = "you know").
> I cannot find anything in my dictionary.
You won't find such colloquialisms in the dictionary, and they're not
readily definable, anyway.
Mixchael
To reply by email, please take out the TRASH (so to speak). Personal messages only, please!
AlbertPeasemarch
> I am reading the Catcher in the Rye. Two sentences make me confused:
>
> 1. "In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my
> parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything
> pretty personal about them. "
>
> What does the two hemorrhage apiece mean? Does he mean his parents will so
> upset or angry that they will bleed? Why two?
This is not to be taken literally. The narrator is exaggarating. It is
just his colourful way of saying that his parents will be extremely
annoyed.
> 2.
> "I mean that's all I told D.B. about, and he's my brother and all. "
>
> What does the "and all" mean? I cannot find anything in my dictionary.
>
"And all" is very colloquial so it won't be in the dictionary. It just
means "et cetera" or "and all the things that go with his being my
brother". People say similar things, like "and that" and "and the rest
of it", in everyday speech.
You don't usually see these expressions in print, but Salinger wrote
Catcher In The Rye in the colloquial voice of a chatty narrator: the
two sentences you quote are good examples of the style.
Albert Peasemarch.
Steve Hayes
>I am reading the Catcher in the Rye. Two sentences make me confused:
>
>1. "In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my
>parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything
>pretty personal about them. "
>
>What does the two hemorrhage apiece mean? Does he mean his parents will so
>upset or angry that they will bleed? Why two?
Not necessarily that they would bleed, but that they would be very angre.
Sometimes strong emotion does cause people to burst a blood vessel. Two
because it's more than one.
>
>2.
>"I mean that's all I told D.B. about, and he's my brother and all. "
>
>What does the "and all" mean? I cannot find anything in my dictionary.
Just teenage slang from the time. If you like you can expand it to read "and
all that that implies", the implication being that he would tell him more
because he was his brother.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/steve.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk