Throughout Catcher in the Rye, a novel by J.D. Salinger, the main character, Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from school because he failed almost all of his classes. Some may see Holden as a failure since he got expelled from school but I believe he is not a failure and that getting expelled is due to personal reasons. If you were to look up the definition of a failure you will find that failure is a lack of success. People may take different views of success. For Holden, he may define success as simply passing one or two classes at school. Others view success as getting an A in every class, always doing your homework and showing up to class every day. The view of failure and success varies from person to person.
After failing all but one class at Pencey Prep, Holden was kicked out of school. Holden wasn’t worried that he got expelled, he was just worried to tell his parents. Being nervous to tell his parents about being expelled shows that Holden cared enough to make his parents proud. By definition, both Holden’s parents and his siblings were successful. Holden’s poor performance at school was most likely caused by the death of his brother Allie, who died of leukemia. Holden hadn’t learned how to deal with this traumatic event which, in turn, caused him to fail classes.
The article, “A New Focus on the ‘Post; in Post-Traumatic Stress” by David Dobbs, talks about trauma as a whole and how some react to it. Dobbs writes, “Both culturally and medically, we have long seen it as arising from a single, identifiable disruption. You witness a shattering event, or fall victim to it-and as the poet Walter de la Mare put it, ‘the human brain works slowly: first the blow, hours afterward the bruise.” Holden experienced trauma ex...
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... be a failure. Holden was able to pass one class which shows that if Holden was to apply himself and care about school he would be successful. Holden has the support of his parents and family to help him succeed, but in the end its really up to him. Holden makes this more difficult in school and social situations because he can't accept guidance from others and doesn’t trust anyone but himself to make decisions. If Holden would be able to take guidance from others and learn from his mistakes, he would be much more successful.
Holden can’t be considered a failure at all. Yes, he has been expelled from school but that was most likely due to lingering grief over the death of his brother. If Holden sets his mind to a goal and gets proper treatment for dealing with the death of his brother, he will be able to go to a school and be very successful if he applies himself.
To conclude, Holden try’s desperately on holding on to his innocents. Triggered by the loss of his brother, Holden makes it his mission to protect kids from there inevitable maturity, sealing them from phony’s and. When he realised that he could not achieve the qoel of saving all children from growing up Holden has a nervous breakdown. He dosint understand the proses of life ad he can’t pick to stay a child for ever when in reality growing up is inevitable. ‘’We've let the blade of our innocence dull over time, and it's only in innocence that you find any kind of magic, any kind of courage.”
The 1940's were a time of nationalism. Men had to have an appearance of a tough attitude. They were never allowed to let their real feelings show. One of the major reasons Holden becomes depressed is the death of his brother Allie. He described is brother as being nothing but perfect. He keeps this guilt locked up inside him because he blames his death on himself. A memory that haunts him is when he excluded his brother from a b-b gun game. Another memory that he held on to and was never able to forgive himself for was when Allie asked Holden to go bike riding and he didn't go. Holden did not have a good relationship with his Mother or Father. He needed them the most right after the death of Allie. However, we see Holden crying out help and attention when he threw a baseball through the window and broke it and still nobody talked to him. His older brother went off to Hollywood. The only one he adores is his younger sister Phoebe. He is able to talk to her and he thought she understood him.
Holden lacks the essential ability to motivate himself, which he needs to survive in the 'real' world. He continues to be kicked out of every school he attends because he fails to apply himself, his simple reasoning being 'How do you know what you're going to do till you do it? The answer is, you don't' (213). Everybody else in his life tries to encourage him to care about school and his grades but it doesn?t make any difference. From the start of the novel Holden?s history teacher at Pencey tells him ?I?d like to put some sense in that head of yours, boy. I?m trying to help you. I?m trying to help you, if I can? (14). But the fact of the matter is he can?t help him, Holden has to help himself. The drive to succeed has to come from within him, ?I mean you can?t hardly ever do something just because somebody wants you to? (185). In order for Holden to succeed he has to want it for himself. The only problem being Holden is unable to will him into doing anything he is not genuinely interested in, therefore missing out on further knowledge he could acquire that would truly entice him. Holden gives up on school because he fears if ...
Holden a character in “The Catcher in the Rye” would not have been a role model if he lived today. Although the times were different and a lot of things slipped through the cracks his actions would not have been acceptable today. By the facts above it is proof how Holden’s action or personality should not be followed. People in todays day and age want to do well in life not fail out of four schools and have no friends. People even if they did try they could not do some of the stuff that Holden did because society protects kids a lot more than in the past. Holden is not a good role model yet a bad one that should be shown for that fact.
The origins of Holden’s disillusionment and the reason that it all started is the death of his younger brother which he was very fond of and admired, Allie, three years ago. The death of Allie is very significant in Holden’s mind since it is an event which he remembers quite clearly at multiple occasions during the book. For example, when Holden is writing a descriptive composition for his roommate Stradlater, he decides to write about Allie’s baseball mitt since it is the only thing on his mind. “My brother Allie had this left-handed fielder’s mitt. He was
In J.D. Salinger’s controversial 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, the main character is Holden Caulfield. When the story begins Holden at age sixteen, due to his poor grades is kicked out of Pencey Prep, a boys’ school in Pennsylvania. This being the third school he has been expelled from, he is in no hurry to face his parents. Holden travels to New York for several days to cope with his disappointments. As James Lundquist explains, “Holden is so full of despair and loneliness that he is literally nauseated most of the time.” In this novel, Holden, a lonely and confused teenager, attempts to find love and direction in his life. Holden’s story is realistic because many adolescent’s face similar challenges.
From the protagonists’ point of view, the adult world Holden and Franny are entering and living in is a very superficial place. Holden who is sixteen years of age is going through a time of crisis where he is almost forced to become an adult. This concept is the very thing that makes Holden afraid, causing him to misbehave at school. His latest school, Pencey Prep, expels Holden due to his failing grades. When asked for the reason of his lack of academic enthusiasm, Holden simply states that he is not interested in anything. In every school he has attended, Holden has managed to find different reasons not to care and possibly even hate the institutions.
In the beginning of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is an immature teenager. Holden gets kicked out of his school, Pencey Prep, for failing four out of five of his classes. He says, “They kicked me out. I wasn’t supposed to come back after Christmas vacation … I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself and all” (Salinger 4). Holden does not yet realize the severity of his actions. He does not comprehend that when he does not apply himself, he does not do well. This could partly be due to the fact that when he gets kicked out of one school, he knows that his family will just pay for him to be allowed into another boarding school. Part of the irony in Holden’s story is that physically, he looks mature, but mentally, he is still very much a child: “I act quite young for my age, sometimes. I was sixteen then, and I’m seventeen now … I’m six foot two and a half and I have gray hair ” (9). There is no middle ground, adolescence, for Holden. He can only be an adult, physically, or a child, mentally. Holden’s history teacher, Mr. Spencer, tries to appeal to him by using a metaphor: “Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules” (8). Holden then reflects on this to hims...
He complains about his school, saying that it is just like any other school and uses language that makes him sound very obnoxious. Holden seems to focus on girls quite a bit, just like any other teenage boy. He seems to focus on one girl in particular, a girl named Jane. We soon learn that Holden’s personality is not your average personality. Holden does seem to have some friends but he does not fall into many peer groups with the type of personality he has. Holden isn’t able to read social cues like most teenagers learn to do. For this reason, he seems to play around a lot in the wrong situations. Even his friends have matured enough to recognise that Holden needs to ‘grow up’. Holden’s resistance to emerging adulthood is the cause of many of the problems he is faced with during the
Holden Caulfield is a 16 year old adolescent male, who has been reffered for a psychological assessment to determine his intellectual and emotional status. Holden was enrolled into Pency Prep School. Despite his positive grades in English, he was falling behind in the system for his other subjects and was unerolled from Pency. Holden has a history of poor academic performances whilst at school. Despite his attendance to private schools, he has failed to apply himself and failed to succeed academically. The contributing factors may include learning problems and complex family dynamics.
Sullivan's, "Catcher In The Rye". Holden struggles to receive sound academic grades in his expensive private school. Now of course, nobody would like to fail school and get expelled. The same goes for Holden Caulfield, Holden is on the verge of getting expelled from his school. If Holden were to fail one more class he would get expelled. In chapter 2, Holden reads the letter he has sent to his teacher out loud, it states,"Dear Mr.Spencer, That is all I know about the Egyptians. I just can't seem to get interested in them...it is all right if you flunk me, I am going to fail anyways". Holden hoped his teacher would not have failed him, considering the letter he just wrote. If Holden would have realized what he wrote and how his teacher would reply, he would have never sent out the letter because Holden hoped that the letter might help him pass his English test. If Holden were to consider this, Holden would have given more effort into his essay than focus on the letter he
“I decided what I'd really do, I'd get the hell out of Pencey-- right that same night and all. I mean not wait till Wednesday or anything. I just didn't want to hang around any more. It made me too sad and lonesome” (66). This proves that when Holden feels he doesn't belong in a place, he leaves. In this case, he feels alienated in his own school, Pencey. As he is leaving Holden says he was “sort of crying” (68). We infer that he is crying because of the reason he is leaving Pencey in the first place, which is because he feels like he doesn’t fit in. Right before Holden leaves, Holden yells out “Sleep tight, ya morons!” (68). The irony of him doing this is that things like that are the reasons why people stay away from Holden and as a result of that he feels isolated and
Holden's idealism is first brought forth when he describes his life at Pency Prep. It is full of phonies, morons and bastards. His roommate, Stradlater, " was at least a pretty friendly guy, It was partly a phony kind of friendly..." (26) and his other roommate, Ackley is "a very nosy bastard" (33). Holden can't stand to be around either one of them for a very long time. Later, he gets into a fight with Stradlater over his date with Jane. Holden is upset because he thinks that Stradlater "gave her the time" and that he doesn't care about her; 'the reason he didn't care was because he was a goddam stupid moron. All morons hate it when you call them a moron' (44). Holden not only sees his roommates as phonies and bastards, but he also sees his headmaster at Pency Prep as a "phony slob" (3). This type of person is exactly what Holden doesn't want to be. He strives to be a mature adult; caring, compassionate, and sensitive.
Holden Caulfield can be analyzed through his thoughts, actions and circumstances which surround his everyday life. Holden acts like a careless teenager. Holden has been to several prep-schools, all of which he got kicked out of for failing classes. After being kicked out of the latest, Pency Prep, he went off to New York on his own. Holden seems to have a motivation problem which apparently affects his reasoning. The basis of his reasoning comes from his thoughts. Holden thinks the world is full of a bunch of phonies. All his toughs about people he meets are negative. The only good thoughts he has are about his sister Phoebe and his dead brother Alley. Holden, perhaps, wishes that everyone, including himself, should be like his brother and sister. That is to be intelligent, real and loving. Holden’s problem is with his heart. It was broken when his brother died. Now Holden goes around the world as his fake self, wearing his mask. Holden is looking for love, peace and understanding. He is scared to love because he is afraid he might lose it like he did with his brother. That is the reason for Holden's love of the museum, he feels safe because it never changes it always stays the same. Holden is troubled with the pain of death, it effects every aspect of his life causing him to not care about the future, himself or anyone, except Phoebe and Alley.
It is evident that Holden Caufield has specific moments where he can recall and apply them wherever he is in life. His unleashing of children and their ability to explore the world without assistance has helped him transition to the real adult world. His fascination with ducks has made him realize that nothing is ever permanent and no one can always be there for when ever one falls. Lastly, the passing of a loved one can be times of despair but learning to grow and fight the internal struggle can help bring ease. Holden has really transformed from an egoistic individual to a genuine gentleman, he has grown from his experiences and is able to tolerate more pain. The reality has struck Holden no matter how distorted the outside world is to him, maturing is inevitable and using these moments will always be something for him to live for.