TEOPE, Anton

2017-00567

Eng 11 THV

Diagnostic Test (225 Words)

Feb 22, 2022

Life is Bad

A short intro on my experience with literature and how it shaped my mindset

The Catcher and the Rye was a reading in my early high school days. I can barely remember the story now

but what I remember was the hardships the main character went through and that many of those hardships were what

many face in our world today. I guess the lesson or impact this had on me was the concept that life doesn’t always

have a happy ending and things may not go your way despite you trying. If I remember correctly, many issues and

problems were present in the protagonist’s life like how he struggled with depression and drugs, a common problem

many face in our society. I guess as a kid from a family with financial stability and without (as far as I am aware)

problems such as those mentioned, it was a different kind of lesson to learn. I normally read fantasy books at the

time or watched movies where the hero always beats the forces of evil but its books like the Catcher and the Rye that

show that sometimes the things we face in life doesn’t always have a happy end. All things considered, I was never

really a person who always expected my ideal outcome to come true but reading like this probably helped in

acknowledging and accepting it to a greater degree, allowing me to better handle failure.