Journal #1- The catcher in the rye

Over the first three chapters, I learned  a lot about Holden's personality and his relationship with others.  In some ways, he and I are actually quite alike.  Holden "could shoot the old bull to old Spencer and think about those ducks at the same time." (p.13)  Just like him, I daze off and daydream about something else during school or when someone's talking to me, but still manage to be able to understand what's going on.  As well, I can relate Mr. Spencer with a couple of my teachers.  Holden observed that Mr. Spencer "felt pretty lousy about failing <him>" (p.12)  I can tell that a couple of my teachers feel pretty bad too when failing or giving a bad mark for their students' work and some will even give the opportunity for students to redo their work.  I also learned that although Holden doesn't do well at school, he still likes to maintain a healthy relationship between him and his teachers, for example Mr. Spencer.  Mr. Spencer had "written <Holden> this note asking <him> to stop by and say good-by before vacation started"  (p.7) and Holden says that he "didn't have to do all that" for he would have "come over to say good-by anyway." (p.7)  This shows that Holden and Mr. Spencer value each other as good friends and before Holden would leave for good, they would want to say a friendly good-bye first.