Tuesday, January 20, 2015

ALL THAT DAVID COPPERFIELD KIND OF CRAP

Like anybody else I always thought that David Copperfield was the one and only, famous magician or illusionist or whatever else he did.. Apparently it is also the title of a novel by Charles Dickens.

The first line of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye is this:

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." 

"Now that you've read some Dickens, what do you think Salinger means by "all that David Copperfield kind of crap"?  (If it helps, look up David Copperfield and compare with what you already know about Great Expectations.)  What distinguishes Dickens' style, and what statement is Salinger trying to make by distancing his protagonist from Dickens?

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