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.
Holden also has a negative perspective of life that makes things seem worse than they really are. In addition to Holden’s problems he is unable to accept the death of his brother at a young age. Holden’s immaturity, negative mentality, and inability to face reality hold him back from moving into adulthood. Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child.
The inevitable cannot be avoided. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is trying to avoid maturity. He does not want to leave the familiarity of school for the cold world of adults. He purposely does not study so he will not pass his classes and graduate. After he fails out of Pencey, Holden knows that his parents will not give him another chance to fail at another school. They will leave him on the doorstep of maturity. In an effort to stop this from happening, Holden leaves Pencey before hi...
Holden does not try at all in school. Holden also said he was flunking four out of his five classes. The only reason he was passing English is because he is learning the same concepts as the ones he learned at the last school he flunked out of. The same night he talked to Mr. Spencer, he also got into a fight over a girl with his roommate, Stradlater. After this fight, Holden packed up his most valuable belongings and headed into the city.
Ultimately, Holden Caulfield’s decisions were incredibly based on his yearning for innocence in life when it is slowly fading away from the world. The audience feels sympathy towards Holden because they know Holden’s past years have been traumatizing with his brother’s death and his moving of schools. The audience knows now that Holden’s alienation is because he does not want to lose his or anyone’s innocence. Thus, the overall lesson is that one cannot prevent another person to do what they want to do, and if they fall, let them.
Holden Caulfield is a very intelligent teenager, but doesn’t apply himself to school. Holden dropped out of four schools, one of them being Pencey Preparatory School. Holden did not fail out because he wasn’t smart enough. Holden is smart. He constantly reads books, but could not pass anything other than English. In fact, one of his favorite teachers at Whooton, Mr. Antolini, told Holden, “You’re a student- whether the idea appeals to you or not. You’re in love with knowledge…” (pg. 189) He fail...
It sad to say but there is just no hope for Holden Caulfield. Catcher in the Rye was truly a story of despair and even Holden was aware of that. There were never really any happy times for Holden and if there was it never lasted. I would suggest that Holden goes back to the drawing board and comes up with a better purpose for his life other then his unrealistic idea of saving all children from losing their innocence. The idea is just completely unrealistic. The Catcher in the Rye showed a sequence of unfortunate events that I wouldn’t wish any teenager to go through. Sadly this is what happens to a lot of teenagers like Holden but luckily Holden didn’t turn to suicide like many do. Holden needs to realize that having meaning comes from within and maybe if he changed his attitude towards life and to those around him life would get better.
In the beginning of the story Holden is watching the Friday night football game from a hill. He had just gotten back from a fencing match that had to be cut short in New York because the captain of the fencing team, which happened to be Holden, left all of the equipment on the subway. Needless to say it was a long trip home for Holden. After all of this has happened Holden gets back only to learn that he has been released from Pency and placed on academic probation. Holden was not stupid by any means but if he did not desire to learn what was being taught he refused to try. The professors on the other hand did not agree with Holden’s reasoning. Therefore, he was failing all but one of his classes. Holden had a friend that was a teacher at Pency. He was probably the only person that halfway understood him. The only problem was that Mr. Spencer was old and senile and did not have much pull with in the school board, which meant he did not serve as much help in Holden’s current situation. Mr. Spencer was always trying to prepare Holden for life. Holden rarely listened but felt obligated to say good-bye to him because he had tried to understand him, which is more than most people had ever done for him. Holden went to visit Mr. Spencer before he left. Holden was a prime example of a spoiled little rich kid who had everything but acted as though he had nothing. He had no real friends to rely on, only other spoiled rich kids who were never deprived of anything. This time was different though. This was not the first time that Holden was removed from a school. Holden always knew there was always another boarding school that would be happy to accept him and his money. This time he was not going to just sit back and wait for the next school to pick him up, he was going to enjoy himself while he could.
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.
Holden struggles with himself mightily and cannot fulfill his responsibilities. One of Holden’s struggles is that he has a bad attitude towards everyone. For example, at the school he goes to, he hates his roommates and his teachers. In addition to not liking anyone, Holden
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
Although Holden can be described as a realistic, cynical teenager, he can also be categorized as straightforward. This is one of Holden’s strengths, he sees the truth for what it really is, not how he wants it to be. For example, Holden describes his old school, Pencey Prep, saying, “I didn’t know anyone there that was splendid and clear-thinking at all.” (Salinger 3) Pencey Prep had claimed that they had the capability to “mold” young men, but Holden could see right through it. Holden’s straightforward characteristic also leads him to be independent and self-reliant, which are also Holden’s strengths.
“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 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 ...
Also he is a smoker which is very bad considering he was just getting over a horrible sickness. Although Holden’s actions were very inappropriate being a kid, if he was an adult back then that would have been normal for him to be going out every night and smoking. Holden’s academics are very present in the first few chapters when he explains how his high school career has gone so far. He has failed out of many schools. Well.