Man's Entire Personality Just the Books He Read in College

Plus, The Catcher in the Rye and that annoying study website Shmoop

Hello, readers.

Today we visit the age-old literary question: Is it a metaphor or symbol?

If you are on social media, by now you probably have seen the image of an eagle screaming to the heavens while in a dumpster. The photo originated on Mastodon, and was posted by the user @hunnahh. It has since gone viral and wound up on every other social media site like Threads, IG, and Tik Tok.

If you've never seen it, here you go.

As you can see, @hunnahh calls it "the most fitting image to send us into 2025.”

So, would you say that this is a metaphor or symbol?

When I taught Honors freshmen (students who by Junior year would take the AP test Literature and Composition) even they would get confused from time to time. And these were the smart kids.

But does the difference ultimately matter? According to the AP test, yes. Both are examples of figurative language, and both use words (but in this case an image) to convey abstract meaning or significant meaning in a non-literal way.

However, metaphors compare two things directly, while symbolism uses objects or characters to represent ideas.

To help my students with their confusion, I would show them the poem “Dreams” by Langston Hughes.

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

The bird and a barren field represent the consequences of a loss of dreams. It’s about as simple and clear as you can get.

Symbolism, on the other hand, is not so clean.

Since symbols are more subject to interpretation, it can be difficult to know what meaning the author might be trying to convey.

The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock in The Great Gatsby is probably the best place to start.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning——

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

It’s a complex passage, but I think the explanation is pretty straightforward. The color green is used throughout the novel to reinforce the theme of money and materialism. The green light represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams while also signaling his personal belief that he should pursue this lifestyle that he assumes would make Daisy fall in love with him. He’s not so deluded either; up until Myrtle’s death, it seems like Gatsby has achieved his dream.

So then is hunnahh's dumpster eagle a metaphor or symbol? Well, if he had directly stated that the eagle is our country and the dumpster represents our current state of affairs, then yes, I would say metaphor. But I'm not sure that would be entirely accurate.

The country is currently in a very strong place economically. Inflation has cooled dramatically since 2022 and the employment rate is at an all-time high of 60% (a majority of US citizens are employed).

However, in the last few years, our values have slipped. While we still demonstrate military superiority and leadership in international organizations, medical costs are increasing and insurance companies can refuse paying for care or void plans whenever they want. We claim to care and defend human rights, yet we helped fund Israel's war against Hamas/Palestine. Since 2023, we have given 17.9 billion in military aid.

But are we currently a starved and/or terrified eagle trapped in a dumpster, screaming into heaven? In the last few days of the Biden administration, probably not.

So then does the eagle in a dumpster represent some larger, abstract idea? Perhaps our country is currently in crisis mode, and all we have to do is fly out of the dumpster. We had a chance this last election cycle, and we decided to fly right back into it.

So maybe we are stuck in the dumpster and when the garbage truck comes, it will take us without warning and we will be transported by a garbage man who will bring us down a very dark road where ultimately we will be refused, dumped, and forgotten.

I hope not.

Whichever it is, it certainly is a fitting image.

Anyways…

Our top story is about the guy who’s entire personality is the books he read in college.

We also hear from some high school students about their thoughts on the The Catcher in the Rye and their attempt to get some answers from the study website Shmoop.

Enjoy this while you still can.

High school readers agree...

Students in Mr. Solomon's 10th grade English class don't agree on everything, but they have finally come to consensus.

In discussing their whole-class read, J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, students agree they might actually enjoy to book if it wasn't for the narrator commenting on everything every two seconds.

"He's so tiresome," said one student. "If only he shut the fuck up."

"All he does is rant about the same things over and over," added one.

"He's a whiny little bitch," commented another.

Mr. Solomon tried to get the students to calm down and focus on objective critiques of the work, but the class couldn't be stopped.

"He's so misogynistic. He should eat shit."

" Yeah, he should just kill himself...that would actually improve the novel," added a student who never even speaks.

Mr. Solomon just sat down at his desk, somewhat satisfied that at least his students were talking about the reading.

"A win’s a win," he yelled over the roar of his angry students.

These mf book analyses got jokes and shit.

A student looking to cram for a test about a book he didn't read is wondering if this really is a homework help website for literature or a place for bad comedians to test out new, unfunny material.

I can't tell, but is this a study guide for 'A Tale of Two Cities' or a pitch for a new NBC comedy series? My grade is on the line and you're here out trying to be cool and make this "fun?"

Whatever, but riffing in the middle of a sentence analyzing what the symbol actually means isn't helpful. I need answers now, you sons of bitches!

That yellow "USED" sticker tho…

A local man who graduated from a state college in 2005 has based his whole personality around the books he was forced to buy enrolled in undergrad survey courses.

The sad news broke while the man was on a date with a woman his mom set him up with. When asked what he reads, the man answered with "An Introduction to Formal Philosophy" and 'The Four Pillars of Geometry."

When asked if he reads anything for fun, like something that isn't a textbook, the man answered with Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' and some random book called 'Selected Poems.'

The woman probably won't be coming up to his fourth floor studio apartment for coffee.