In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger foretells a story about a young boy’s metamorphosis from immaturity to unsure manhood. The story begins with Holden Caulfield, 16, who has failed numerous classes at Pencey prep school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania and where he is soon to be expelled. Holden later decides to go to New York, where he hopes to escape his many troubles. Throughout the story, J,D. Salinger gives insight on Holden Caulfield’s thoughts, experiences, and frustrations in his world. Holden does not like experiencing things that trouble him, but he seemingly always speaks about them in his mind. In doing so, he essentially isolates himself from reality and creating his own world inside his mind. One of Holden’s main problem …show more content…
Being unable to not get over his death, he clings onto every little thought, memory, and knowledge of Allie as he reminisces about him in his mind. For example, Holden struggles to find something to say for Stradlater’s task, “The thing was, I couldn’t think of a room or a house or anything to describe the way Stradlater said he had to have. I’m not too crazy about describing rooms and houses anyways. So what I did, I wrote about my brother Allie’s baseball mitt.” (49). From this quote, it seems as if Holden has lost sight of the world which then results into him being unable to comprehend or execute certain or simple activities. Holden also refers back to Allie as some sort of safe route because he does not know what else to do. Struggling to let go of Allie, Holden faces trouble in adapting to society, as he judges everyone he sees. When Allie died, Holden immensely expresses his emotions with actions, “ I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddamn windows with my fist, just for the hell of it. I even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was already broken… It was a very stupid thing to do, I’ll admit but I hardly didn’t even know I was doing it and you didn’t know Allie. My hand still hurts me once in a while…” (50). In this quote, we can see the impact Allie has had upon Holden’s life. Holden’s reaction shows us that he deeply …show more content…
In Holden’s case, he does not have any close friends, nor is he close to anyone. A big portion of this is because Holden purposely reserves himself, keeping his expressions locked to himself, and only living in his mind where he finds it safe. For instance, “The first thing I did when I got off at Penn Station, I went into this phone booth. I felt like giving somebody a buzz. I left my bag right outside so that I could watch them, but as soon as I was inside, I couldn’t think of anybody to call up.” From this passage, Holden’s lonesome and loneliness is exhibited. This is the aftermath of Holden isolating himself from others, he does not see anyone else to relate to. Having no one to turn to, his character adapts to the loneliness and is dominated by it. On the contrary, Holden shares to us his interests of a certain kind of interaction he yearns for, “While I was changing my shirt, I damn near gave my kid sister Phoebe a buzz. I certainly felt like talking to her on the phone… But I couldn’t take a chance on giving her a buzz… I thought of maybe hanging up if my parents answered, but that wouldn’t worked, either.” (87.) The only time where Holden wants to interact and converse with someone, is with young people, all sharing the same persona, innocence. Holden mentions him hanging up if he encounters his parents on the phone, and that this same feeling is intertwined
In J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in The Rye Salinger writes about the main character Holden Caulfield and his life. Holden is a teenager who comes from a wealthy family, he loves his family and lives very happy until the death of his brother Allie. After his brother died Holden becomes troubled, being kicked out of school again and again developing a negative view of the world. Holden throughout the book shows anger,denial, and acceptance over the loss of his brother.
When Allie was alive, his company comforts Holden because of how friendly and happy he was around him. When he dies, Holden does not know how to react, and could not hurt a particular person, so he hurt himself: ”I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it” (39). Because he was so hurt by the death of his brother, Holden releases his frustration physically rather than verbally. Also, he talks to Allie in order to feel less depressive after the prostitute, Sunny, leaves. Holden has not yet found a resolution to comfort him because he is so familiar with telling Allie how he feels.
Allie, Holden's young brother who died several years earlier, was a major symbol throughout the story. When Holden remembers incidents from his past involving Allie, his attitude changes, such as when he writes the composition about Allie's baseball glove or when Holden broke his hand after punching all of the windows after Allie died. "I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it". (39) He feels that Allie was one of the few people who were not phony in a world full of phonies. More importantly, Allie represents the innocence and childhood that Holden strives to find throughout his three-day journey. In Holden's opinion, Allie represents the purity that Holden looks for in the world. Holden admits that he admires Allie more than he admires Jesus, and even prays to Allie at one point, rather than Jesus. Allie is Holden's role model, whom he judges the rest of the world according to. When Allie dies, it creates turbulence in Holden's life.
Catcher in the Rye is one of the most famous books in American literature. Written by J. D. Salinger, it captures the epitome of adolescence through Salinger’s infamous anti-hero, Holden Caulfield. Holden Caulfield learns about himself and his negative tendencies, and realizes that if he does not do something to change his perspective, he may end up like his acquaintance James Castle whom he met at Elkton Hills. Holden tries to find help to mend his outlook on life through Mr. Antolini so he does not end up like James, who did not want to face the problems he created for himself. This is proven by the similarities between James Castle and Holden, Mr. Antolini’s willingness to try and help Holden, and Holden’s future being forecasted by James.
Holden Caulfield, portrayed in the J.D. Salinger novel Catcher in the Rye as an adolescent struggling to find his own identity, possesses many characteristics that easily link him to the typical teenager living today. The fact that the book was written many years ago clearly exemplifies the timeless nature of this work. Holden's actions are those that any teenager can clearly relate with. The desire for independence, the sexually related encounters, and the questioning of ones religion are issues that almost all teens have had or will have to deal with in their adolescent years. The novel and its main character's experiences can easily be related to and will forever link Holden with every member of society, because everyone in the world was or will be a teen sometime in their life.
The Catcher in the Rye told a story of Holden Caulfield and his struggle to find something pure in a world filled with “phonies” (Biography). It is arguable that some of Holden’s experiences could be comparitively autobiographical to Salinger’s real life. Much like J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield is a reserved character, attending Pencey Prep (Salinger, J.D.). Both Holden and Salinger were born and raised in Manhattan, and went to private schools in Pennsylvania. Another seemingly important characteristic between the two is that they were kicked out of numerous schools because of grades.
Lies, failure, depression, and loneliness are only some of the aspects that Holden Caulfield goes through in the novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger. Salinger reflects Holden’s character through his own childhood experiences. Salinger admitted in a 1953 interview that "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book.… [I]t was a great relief telling people about it” (Wikipedia). Thus, the book is somewhat the life story of J.D. Salinger as a reckless seventeen-year-old who lives in New York City and goes through awful hardships after his expulsion and departure from an elite prep school. Holden, the protagonist in this novel, is created as a depressed, cynical, and isolated character and he expresses this attitude through his dialogue, tone, and diction.
When Holden is at Radio City with Sally, he goes from admiring Sally, to wanting to run away with her, to being angry at her, all in just a few minutes. At times, Holden gets overexcited about some things, and right after that, he goes back to being depressed. Mr. Antolini sensed that there was something wrong with Holden when they met, so while he was giving advice to Holden about trying to achieve success in school, he gave a few subtle hints to avoiding suicide. Holden reaches his lowest point towards the end of the story. He sneaks into his own house to meet Phoebe, his younger sister. She gets frustrated with him for not being able to accept Allie’s death and criticizes him for not enjoying anything in life. After Holden’s parents return and he and Phoebe are crouching in her room, in the dark, something happens that surprises both of them. “Then, all of a sudden, I started to cry. I couldn’t help it. I did it so nobody could hear me, but I did it. I scared the hell out of old Phoebe when I started doing it, and she came over and tried to make me stop, but once you get started, you can’t just stop.” (233). That happens as a result of all of the stress and feelings of sorrow and depression that have been accumulating in Holden ever since Allie’s death. It could also be that Holden is starting to feel sorry for himself, needing help from his younger sister. This is
He is very judgmental and gets bothered very easily. He even complains when it is quiet, “Everybody was asleep or out or home for the weekend, and it was very, very quiet and depressing in the corridor” (66). Being so sensitive makes life hard for Holden. He notices these things especially when he is alone and then complains about these types of things depressing him. The quietness/emptiness bothers him even more when he has nothing to do, “The whole lobby was empty. It smelled like fifty million dead cigars. It really did. I wasn’t sleepy or anything, but I was feeling sort of lousy. Depressed and all. I almost wished I was dead” (118). If Holden had people in his life, he wouldn’t feel so alone and depressed. In addition, he makes himself even more depressed by thinking about the emptiness everywhere. Holden’s internal conflict of being depressed hinders him from his own
In the novel, Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield is an example of a prosaic rich adolescent boy,with a pedestrian set of problems, but a psychoanalysis reveals that Holden has a plethora of atypical internal conflicts. Internal conflicts that other students at Pencey, such as Stradlater and Ackley, would not normally experience.
Holden Caulfield, the teenage protagonist of Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, struggles with having to enter the adult world. Holden leaves school early and stays in New York by himself until he is ready to return home. Holden wants to be individual, yet he also wants to fit in and not grow up. The author uses symbolism to represent Holden’s internal struggle.
In the story, The Catcher In the Rye, we look at the world through the eyes of a cynical teenager, Holden caulfield, and are presented with an array of situations experienced by people in that generation. It also faces a problem many young people battle with in their daily lives, depression. The main aspects of the story are the juxtaposed themes of innocence and maturity, self ascertained by Holden, which are used to symbolize sincerity and phoniness respectively. We also go over the fact about how past experiences mold a person. In J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield’s behaviour, experiences and relationships with the people surrounding him play a significant role in impacting him to become the person he is portrayed
A successful writer shows what is going on rather than explaining what is going on. The book The Catcher in the Rye, is a story written by J.D. Salinger. Describing a count of a 17-year-old kid over the period of two or three days, explaining the events that occur. The book is written in a straightforward, engaging, as well as a simple to follow tone. There is also a handful of humor that is expressed throughout the novel. The character Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, is seen with an erratic and unreliable personality. The means of him dropping information so effortlessly is discomforting. Another trait Holden acquires is his repetitive manner, which in my interpretation an irritating quality that Holden demonstrates. Though this repetitive
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.
In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by: J.D. Salinger you hear the story of a boy named Holden, who attends Pencey prep in New York and takes seemingly random turns in his mind, actions, feelings, and just about everything. You will see Holden's struggle with his views and mis mind slowly shattering. While all this is going on you see some parts when Holden will think about something random that doesn't make sense. Holden hides something from his own mind, people around him and us by thinking and focusing on things he usually lets pass him on by.