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Persuasive essay techniques higher english
Holden caulfield the heros journey
Persuasive essay techniques higher english
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It takes a lot of courage to grow up. At a young age, adolescence seems like it is full of endless opportunities. In reality, growing up is much different than what childhood implies. Taking on new responsibilities and facing new challenges are all part of transitioning from being a child to an adult. As Peter Pan once mentioned, “I’ll never grow up, I’ll never grow up!” Set on the same mindset as this children’s character, Holden also fears growing up and facing reality. He is threatened by taking on new responsibilities and is not ready to face new hardships ahead. Holden is fixated on the idea that childhood lasts forever, and is wedged between staying a child and being an adult. In Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger uses symbolism in order …show more content…
Late one Saturday night, Holden drives a cab around New York City. Holden has just returned from a visit to Ernie’s Bar and is feeling even more lonely and depressed. Holden asks the cab driver if he knows anything about “the ducks that swim around” (Salinger 81) in the pond near Central Park Lagoon. He wonders where they reside to “in the springtime” and “where they go in the wintertime” (Salinger 81) as well. The ducks are symbolic to show change, one of Holden’s many fears in life. Just like the ducks leave every winter and come back every spring, Holden is terrified of this idea of change and transitioning from one point to another. The pond itself is used as a metaphor and is “partly frozen and partly not frozen” (Salinger 154). The pond transitions from one state to another, just as Holden transitions between childhood and adolescence. Holden is curious about change and references the ducks to show his own transition as …show more content…
He has decided to return home to his family and younger sister after being kicked out of Pencey School. He sneaks into his old apartment late at night to visit his sister, Phoebe, while his parents are out. Holden mentioned to Phoebe that he was “standing on the edge of some crazy cliff” (Salinger 173). He told her how he had to “catch everybody if they start to fall off the cliff” (Salinger 173). Holden thought he was crazy, but he knew he had to “catch them” (Salinger 173). He called himself “The Catcher in the Rye” (Salinger 173). Not only is the title of the novel revealed in this section, but he reveals that he has a side of innocence. Holden views himself as someone who protects childhood. He discusses how he would prefer living in his old world rather than facing the real one. Holden shows that a lot of life is imaginary, focusing mainly on the innocence of childhood and never growing
In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, cannot accept that he must move out of childhood and into adulthood. One of Holden’s most important major problems is his lack of maturity. 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.
So, to conclude, I contend that Holden’s version of the poem sums up his deepest desire which is to preserve the innocence and purity of childhood. Things that don’t change give’s him a sense of comfort and security. What Holden eventually realizes is his powerlessness, and that growing
In the novel The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger,Holden the main character tries to take on adult and mature situations but finds himself in reality not getting very far. Holden Caulfield who goes to Pencey has failed four out of five classes and gets the notice that he is being expelled from the school. He leaves the school and goes out and tries to adventure into the real world. Holden takes on many challenges and obstacles throughout the book . Although Holden wants to be independent many people perceive Holden in numerous different ways to his actions and feelings. Faith and Stradlater both perceive Holden as irritating, when in reality he tries to distract himself from being depressed. For example when Holden was in the phone
Growing up is not easy. The desire to slow down or stop the process is not unusual for adolescents. Resisting adulthood causes those who try to run away from it to eventually come to terms with the reality of life: everyone has to grow up, and fighting against it makes it much harder to accept in the end. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield often tries to resist the process of maturity in an effort to avoid the complicated life he might face as an adult, making him an unusual protagonist for a bildungsroman; this struggle, however, opens Holden’s eyes to the reality and inevitability of growing up, helping him realize that innocence does not last forever. Holden’s preference of a simplistic lifestyle is evident throughout the novel, but stands out especially when he visits the Museum of Natural History.
The transition from a teen to an adult is one of the major steps in life. This major transition can be really scary. Some people are so scared of becoming an adult, that they try to keep their inner child alive. One person in the book The Catcher in the Rye is Holden Caulfield, Holden is the main character in the novel written by J.D. Salinger. A prominent theme in his novel, The Catcher in the Rye is the painfulness of growing up. As this theme is going on through the novel, Salinger weaves in symbols that Holden happens to use and talk about throughout the novel.
Moving from school to school, as he cannot seem to thrive in any one place, Holden is mesmerized by the ducks of the Central Park lagoon. He even asks a cab driver, “Well, you know the ducks that swim around in it? In the springtime and all? Do you happen to know where they go in the wintertime, by any chance?” (Salinger 91) Holden’s repeated mention of his question of the ducks gives insight into his thoughts. It shows genuine innocence through spirit of inquiry. Holden’s curiosity of the Central Park ducks also portrays a parallel between the ducks and himself. Holden looks to the ducks, as he may see personal habits of his reflected in them. The ducks themselves never change, though their environment does, just as Holden never changes, as seen through his repeated expulsions from academies, but his environment
Holden wants to shelter children from the adult world (Chen). In Chapter 16, the catcher in the rye finally appears. This is also a symbol for what Holden would like to be when he grows older. He pictures a group of many kids playing in a field of rye, where it is his job to catch them from falling off the cliff. This shows Holden’s love for childhood and his need to preserve it in any way he can. According to Alsen, “The way Holden explains why he wants to be the catcher in the rye shows the kindness and unselfishness of his character. However, the surreal nature of the metaphor also reveals his unwillingness to face the real life choices he needs to make now that he is approaching adulthood.” By the end of the book, Holden realizes in order for kids to grow, there can’t be protection from all of potential harm. “He therefore gives up his dream of being the catcher in the rye and is ready to make a realistic choice of what he wants to do with his life” (Alsen). Holden’s dream world, that doesn’t involve change, is unrealistic. He is terrified by the unpredictable changes of the adult world, but there is no way for Holden to avoid the experiences and changes that the
in all but one of his subjects. He does not like to talk about his
He begins to tell his story while undergoing treatment in a mental hospital. Holden starts his narrative on a Saturday at the Pencey prep school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. This is the fourth school that Holden is expelled from due to not meeting academic requirements. Since Holden is not scheduled to return home until Wednesday, he decides to stay in Manhattan for three days without telling his parents. While living on his own, Holden tries to retain his innocence as he witnesses the vulgar and repulsing actions of adults in the real world. Holden’s attributes make him susceptible to this level of explicitness. In, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden’s attempt to protect himself from the adult world, to stop himself from growing up, and to preserve purity are all characteristics that develop the theme of
He often wonders about the ducks in central park and where they go in the winter. Holden asks a cab driver, “does somebody come around in a truck or something and take them away, or do they fly away by themselves - go south or something?” (107). Just like the ducks must somehow escape winter, Holden must escape the pressure he feels as he struggles with his independence. Should he fly south and escape his life, or get provided for by his parents?
When Holden arrives in New York his burning question to the cab driver is ‘where do the ducks go in winter’ (2). Demonstrating that Holden is on a journey. He thinks if he finds out where the ducks go, he thinks he ought to find an answer to where he ought to go. Meaning that Holden is lost. Later on in the book Salinger mentions the ducks again to another taxi driver this time the ducks ‘[are] frozen right in one position for the whole winter‘ (82). This is when Holden has no companion on his trip in New York. Even the taxi driver does not agree to have a drink with him. Therefore he is staying right where he is like the ducks. One last time in the book Salinger mentions the ducks again, ‘It [is] partly frozen and partly not frozen, ... [I had been walking all over the lake and] damn near fell in once, I didn’t see a single duck’ (154). Everything is phoniness to him, nothing helps him so the ducks are his only reliance for change. The lagoon itself is a mirror metaphor for the world as Holden sees it because as Holden is saying what it is, is ‘Partly frozen, partly not frozen‘ (40). The pond is in transition between the two states, just as he is in transition between childhood and adulthood and he sits down and thinks about suicide because he
J. D. Salinger’s novel, Catcher in the Rye explores the ambiguity of the adult world Holden must eventually learn to accept. Throughout the novel, Holden resists the society grownups represent, coloring his childlike dreams with innocence and naivety. He only wants to protect those he loves, but he cannot do it the way he desires. As he watches Phoebe on the carousel, he begins to understand certain aspects of truth. He writes:
Which is the kind of world he wants to live in. Holden expresses his desire to preserve the innocence of others when his sister Phoebe tells Holden that he doesn't like anything, and that he has no ambitions of what he wants to be when he is older. Holden then explains that he wants to be the catcher in the rye. He says that he imagines little children playing on top of a hill and that his job is to protect children from falling of the hill. This symbolizes catching children from losing their innocence and falling into the adult world. Holden tells Phoebe, “I know it crazy, but that is the only thing I’d like to be” (172). This unrealistic desire is contributes to why Holden is struggling to transition from adolescence to adulthood. Critics of the novel have said Holden would like to suspend time stating, “Holden's desire to protect children shows his desire for suspending time, for inhabiting a space of young people conserved endlessly” (Yahya 3). Not letting go of childhood memories or accepting the harsh realities of adulthood are damaging when transitioning from
In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden’s vision of nature of childhood and adulthood are not as separate as Holden believes them to be. Holden tries to battle through the pressures of adulthood while staying in his childish frame of mind. He feels that if he acts childish, he can go back to that. He also feels the need to be an adult and do his own thing. Holden is at war with himself trying to see what he really is- a child or an adult. Although, Holden thinks he is being an adult by drinking and smoking, he is actually becoming more childish.
In the book, Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger depicts the theme of difficulty when facing adulthood and moving on from childhood through Holden's thoughts about the pond’s frozen state. After meeting up with an old friend, Holden leaves a bar drunk to go find the pond that holds the ducks in Central Park. He wondered about this pond before, but this is the first time Salinger portrays him actually seeing it. Salinger writes, “Then, finally, I found it. What it was, it was partly frozen and partly not frozen. But I didn’t see any ducks around”(171). Holden has asked questions about the pond and how the ducks in it futures relate to his own. After searching for a long time, Holden wants answers to guide his future. Holden describes the pond to