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Character analysis of holden caulfield
Holden caulfield character study
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Some people turn out differently than people would expect if they knew their family background. Holden Caufield in Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger comes from a “good” family but struggles with himself and his relationship with others. Jeannette Walls in her autobiography, The Glass Castle, grows up in a very different family, but makes a good life for herself. Both Holden Caufield and Jeannette Walls broke away from their family customs to make their own life. 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 …show more content…
One of her earliest memories came from when she was three years old. Jeannette had to go to the hospital because she burned herself cooking hot dogs. Her parents didn’t like hospitals, so for that reason after a few weeks they came and took her away. Jeannette and her family were constantly moving from place to place, sometimes staying no more than one night somewhere. Her father always lied to them saying that they had to keep moving because he was wanted by the FBI. Jeannette’s mother never took much interest in Jeannette or her siblings, because the mother didn’t want them and thought that they were bothersome and in the way. As she got older, Jeannette and her siblings made their own life, even as their parents became homeless. Jeannette and her older sister Lori decide to run away from their family in Virginia and go start a new life in New York City. However, after a few months, the rest of the family moves to New York and settles down. While in the City, Jeannette gets a job as a reporter, which was her life goal, and one day on her way to an event she sees her mother rummaging around in a dumpster. While the rest of the family gets along, Maureen, the youngest of the family goes insane and stabs their
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.
Holden alienates himself by believing he is better than everybody else. Every time Holden meets or talks about someone he is judgemental. Even when he is talking about someone he spends time with, he cannot help but ridicule them, “I never even once saw him [Ackley] brush his teeth....he had a lot of pimples. Not just on his forehead or his chin, like most guys, but all over his whole face. And not only that, he had a terrible personality. He was also sort of a nasty guy. I wasn't too crazy about him, to tell you the truth.”(Salinger,14 ). Ackley is probably the closest thing to a friend Holden has. Yet he criticizes him is a very nitpicky way, convincing himself he does not like
The thought of her brothers still being in her former home environment in Maine hurt her. She tried to think of a way to get at least one of her brothers, the sickly one, to come and be with her. She knew that her extended family was financially able to take in another child, and if she showed responsibility, there would be no problem (Wilson, 40). She found a vacant store, furnished it, and turned it into a school for children (Thinkquest, 5). At the age of seventeen, her grandmother sent her a correspondence, and requested her to come back to Boston with her brother (Thinkquest, 6).
that he is trying to hide his true identity. He does not want people to know who he really is or that he was kicked out of his fourth school. Holden is always using fake names and tries speaking in a tone to persuade someone to think a cretin way. He does this when he talks to women. While he is talking to the psychiatrist he explains peoples reactions to his lies like they really believe him, when it is very possible that he is a horrible liar and they are looking at him with a “what are you talking a bout?” expression. Holden often lies to the point where he is lying to him self.
In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist, Holden Caulfield is portrayed as a brave individual. Throughout the novel, Holden struggles to find his way in a world which he feels he doesn’t belong. In order to protect himself, he shows contempt towards others and remains in constant isolation. Holden is brave through the aspect of his uniqueness and individuality. He tries to connect with other individuals, but is prevented as a result of his protective bitterness. Furthermore, Holden struggles with the issues of growing up and dealing with the death of his brother. As he ages, he sees the superficiality, hypocrisy, pretension, and the shallowness of the world around him. In order to combat this, Holden tries to resist
Holden is always saying “Phony” or putting someone down. He Makes all the schools he went to sound like they are the worst in the world but he wasn't willing to try. When he is at the club everyone else is having a good time and holden is sitting alone saying that everyone there's a bunch of tools. This is important because he is always complaining about something and he acts like it's because of one thing but throughout the book the same events keep recurring with him being negative. It's not society's fault that holden walked to a club and got all depressed because he saw people having fun. The quote “Social
Everyone finds it difficult to fit in with society’s expectations at some point, although in the novel The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger, the main character, Holden Caulfield, finds it more difficult than most. Salinger's novel is about a boy coming of age, grieving over his dead younger brother, and learning how to accept the corrupt world around him. Through the characterization of Holden Caulfield, JD salinger develops the theme that the world we live in is corrupt and full of conformists.
She lived in Ocean Park, California before being relocated to Manzanar. Jeanne did not fully understand why she was being relocate until later in the story. Until this moment she was like any other American citizen and believed so herself. In this story Jeanne and her family were uprooted from their homes. She had to leave behind her friends and her home when she was relocated to Manzanar. When she arrives and when she leaves Jeanne and her family must rebuild their life. Some events affecting this character during the story is the climate and housing at Manzanar. In the summer the winds were hot carrying sand with risks of sandstorms. In the winters temperatures plummeted compared to those in the summer. The housing was first a small home made of simply planks of wood nailed together. There were holes and crevices where sand would be able to get through. Another event would be her father who had been sent to prison. When the moment the family waited months for had come Jeanne’s father was a beatdown old man who did not look the same. Her father would always drink alcohol and yell. He was not the same man he was before he left which was very confusing and troublesome for the family. During the course of the story Jeanne learns new skills and joins groups within the camp. One was a batton tossing group and the other, a catholic church. While in the camp she
Her family stayed three years at the camp. Jeanne did not enjoy living in these camps. The memories of the past still haunted her as she grew older. “Writing it has been a way of coming to terms with the impact these years have had on my entire life” (pg
Ever since she was a young girl. Jeannette had set high goals for herself. Since she was so advanced in school and genuinely enjoyed learning, it made sense that she would want to do big things with her life. Whether it was being a veterinarian or a geologist, her dreams extended far beyond her homes in little desert towns or Welch, West Virginia. However, because of her poverty-stricken home life, many people believed it didn’t seem likely that she would be so successful. One day, while living in Welch, Jeannette goes to the bar to drag her drunk father back home. A neighborhood man offers them a ride back to their house, and on the ride up he and Jeannette start a conversation about school. When Jeannette tells the man that she works so hard in school because of her dream careers, the man laughs saying, “for the daughter of the town drunk, you sure got big plans” (Walls 183). Immediately, Jeannette tells the man to stop the car and gets out, taking her father with her. This seems to be a defining moment in which Jeannette is first exposed to the idea that she is inferior to others. Although this man said what he did not mean to offend her, Jeannette is clearly very hurt by his comment. To the reader, it seems as if she had never thought that her family’s situation made her subordinate to those
Jeannette Walls was born into a poor family who often had to live homeless and without food. The environment in which she grew up in is what gave her the characteristics she possesses. One trait that describes Jeannette is that she is very adventurous. Since she was constantly exposed to new surroundings, she became curious of them. While she was homeless in the desert, she would play a game with her father called Monster Hunting. She grew to not be afraid of anything, since she could fight off these so called “monsters.” Also, Jeannette is very decisive. To get away from Welch, a poor town in West Virginia, she made sure that she would get enough money to move to New York. She did this by getting a job to save up money for a bus ticket and for college. Along with this, Jeannette is very ambitious. She worked very hard to get accepted into college by working for the school newspaper, since she wanted to become a journalist. On the other hand, Melba Patillo was born into a middle class family who lived in Lit...
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.
The way that people can view life can be based on their home life and the people they decide to surround themselves with. Holden Caulfield struggles to be happy with his life and the people around him. In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger Holden believes there is better for him beyond school and decides to run away and hide in New York until he is supposed to be home for christmas break. Holden struggles with some teenagers struggles that are common. Reading The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger there were many connections that I made such as having a strong love for a family member, being alone in the big world, and people that are close to you are constantly changing.
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 is an outlier of society, and tries to hide his own weaknesses with his angry thoughts. It is also implied that Holden is enrolled in an institution as he talks about doctor appointments towards the beginning of the book.