the words aren't coming to me very easily today, so i am going to type like david levithan's will grayson. that's right, he uses no capitalization unless he's very ANGRY or trying to prove a point. hmm... that's actually kind of interesting to me.
do you ever think that authors have reasons for typing things the way they do? speaking as an aspiring author, it is my experience that they do. wow, shocking right? not really. did you ever wonder why the teenage prostitute in catcher in the rye was wearing green? (ac, this is for you) i learned in my sophomore english class that this is because of the madonna/whore dichotomy.
the madonna/whore dichotomy is basically a stereotype for women. it says that either a woman is a madonna, meaning that she is innocent and young and takes care of others, or she is a whore, i'm figuring you know what this means.
back to the catcher in the rye. she wears a red coat symbolizing the fact that she is whoring herself out, as red is characteristically for adulterers and whores (seen in the SCARLET letter). but underneath this red coat is a green dress. green is a very innocent color. this means that even though she does whore herself out, she's actually a madonna! i believe that salinger is telling us with this girl that we can't judge people by their outward appearances.
i bet you didn't catch that when you read the novel, unless you read it for school like i did. if you know of any other instances in which the author is trying to tell you something, aka symbolism, comment it!
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