When Holden attempts to make connections with other people in the city but is unsuccessful, Salinger shows that he focuses too much on what society expects from him rather than what he wants. While Holden walks through the city and pond in the park, he notices ducks. He later takes a cab and while talking with Horwitz the cab driver Holden asks him, “The ducks. Do you know, by any chance? I mean does somebody come around in a truck or something and take them away, or do they fly away by themselves – go south or something?’Old Horwitz turned all the way around and looked at me …‘How the hell should I know a stupid thing like that?’‘Well, don't get sore about it,’ I said. He was sore about it or something. ‘Who's sore? Nobody's sore.' …show more content…
Holden goes to visit his English teacher Mr. Spencer before he leaves for New York. Holden feels sentimental at the beginning of the visit and he goes to visit on his own accord. “I was beginning to sort of hate him. ‘Your essay, shall we say, ends there’ he said in this very sarcastic voice. You wouldn’t think such an old guy would be so sarcastic and all. ‘However, you dropped me a little note, at the bottom of the page.’ ‘I know I did,’ I said. I said it very fast because I wanted him to stop before he started reading that out loud. But you couldn't stop him. He was as hot as a firecracker” (Salinger 12). This is one of the first experiences in the novel that Holden describes. Salinger’s use of a first person narrator shows what Holden is thinking and his thoughts directly explain his dislike for Mr. Spencer. This is a direct way to demonstrate what Holden thinks and clearly displays his bias. Holden then describes Mr. Spencer as “sarcastic” but before he visits Mr. Spencer, Holden describes him as a nice person. Holden’s inconclusiveness displays his indecisive and quickly changing manner. Holden describes Mr. Spencer as being as “hot as a firecracker” which demonstrates Holden’s discomfort and desire to leave Mr. Spencer's home. Toward the end of the novel, Holden visits another one of his teachers, Mr. Antolini. …show more content…
At the end of the novel, Edna ends her life while she is successful. Edna’s past troubles are behind her and, “She was not thinking of these things when she walked down to the beach. The water of the Gulf stretched out before her, gleaming with the million lights of the sun. The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in the abysses of solitude” (Chopin 189). While Edna walks along the coast, Chopin uses the words “these things” to describe Edna’s past troubles, as they are now irrelevant. Their trivial nature is highlighted with the use of “these” instead of directly naming the issues which signifies Edna’s success in life because she has few worries about her decisions. The water of the gulf symbolizes a fresh and clean start for Edna, so she chooses to go to the Gulf. The light also symbolizes and conveys the idea of new things, like a new day, and the narrator describes the scene as having millions of lights which magnifies and exemplifies Edna’s new life. Edna’s change and struggle with change is described as “the human will is often deeply circumscribed by the inseparability of the lives of men and women from the natural and social worlds they inhabit. The naturalistic novel... frequently introduces determinism as a thread among a complex of themes, whatever the
J.D Salinger gives his personal vision of the world successfully through his persona Holden Caulfield in the ‘Catcher in the Rye’. Caulfield struggles with the background of New York to portray Salinger’s theme – you must live the world as it is, not as you would like it to be. There by exposing Salinger’s vision on the world.
Since Holden was isolated from his family, in order to not get hurt again he tries to find hypocrisy in people to stop himself from trusting others. Holden feels isolated after being sent to a boarding school that “was full of phonies” by his parents (Salinger 90). Salinger’s message to the audience with this quote is that when
“Inside every cynic is a disappointed idealist.” This quote by George Carlin perfectly outlines the reasons why many people are bitter toward the world in their everyday lives. While cynicism is justified for those who have had a tough life, countless people become exceedingly pessimistic because life didn’t meet their expectations.. An example of this would be Holden Caulfield from J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye”. Salinger does an admirable job of portraying how Holden’s attitude leads to a massive downward spiral. When a person holds too high of standards for the world around them, it can lead to an unrelenting undue criticism of people around them and even hypocrisy.
1) This quote is an example of an allusion because Holden is referring to the book, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Moreover, it doesn't describe it in detail, its just a brief comment.
Published in 1951, J. D. Salinger's debut novel, The Catcher in the Rye, was one of the most controversial novels of its time. The book received many criticisms, good and bad. While Smith felt the book should be "read more than once" (13), Goodman said the "book is disappointing" (21). All eight of the critics had both good and bad impressions of the work. Overall, the book did not reflect Salinger's ability due to the excessive vulgarity used and the monotony that Holden imposed upon the reader.
First, he goes to Mr. Spencer, his history teacher, who provides advice for his life and his future and even says “I’m trying to help you, if I can” (Salinger, 18). Because Mr. Spencer gives realistic advice to Holden to prepare him for his future even though it is not obligated, Mr. Spencer can be considered a mentor for Holden. Before Holden packs and leaves, he says “I was sort of crying” and “then I yelled at the top of my goddam voice, ‘Sleep tight, ya morons!’” (Salinger, 59). Although he becomes emotional when he realizes the company he is going to miss by leaving Pencey, he still acts immaturely as a result of an adolescent pitfall called invulnerability, when adolescents makes decisions without proper regard for their consequences (Adolescent Pitfalls). Holden finally leaves to take a train and reveals his love for riding trains at night (Salinger, 60). He is setting out on an adult journey by leaving Pencey, but he is still grasping to child interests by usually becoming excited to ride trains. Concluding sentence
Holden often shares his dreams (good and bad) of what he would like to do as he moves from childhood to adulthood. Other characters that he interacts with also influence his self-image. One crucial conversation is with the taxi driver regarding the ducks in Central Park. The conversation seems trivial, with no real significance.
After spending some time at Mr. Spencer, his history teacher's house and getting lectured regarding his poor efforts in school, Holden fabricates a story to leave his teacher’s house without seeming rude. On his way to his dormitory at Pencey, Holden claims that he is an exceptional liar, and would lie even about the most insignificant facts, such as where he is going. He then goes into detail about whom his dormitory is named after, and how much of a phony the man is.
Earlier in the novel, Holden talks about the museum he often visited as a child.
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
Protected by a cocoon of naiveté, Holden Caulfield, the principal character in the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, therapeutically relates his lonely 24 hour stay in downtown New York city, experiencing the "phony" adult world while dealing with the death of his innocent younger brother. Through this well-developed teenage character, JD Salinger, uses simple language and dialogue to outline many of the complex underlying problems haunting adolescents. With a unique beginning and ending, and an original look at our new society, The Catcher in the Rye is understood and appreciated on multiple levels of comprehension. The book provides new insights and a fresh view of the world in which adolescents live.
From the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the youthful protagonist Holden Caufield, employs the word “phony” to describe the behavior of a number of characters including Mr. Spencer and Ossenburger, however it is not them who are“phony”, it is the young main character. First, Mr. Spencer, Holden’s ex- history teacher, is not described as phony, but according to the adolescent, his choice of words are. Secondly, according to our main character, Ossenburger is not the generous philanthropist he portrays himself to be, but rather a greedy undertaker. Lastly, the protagonist could quite possibly be the authentic phony. All in all, the main character’s use to describe many other characters in the book is with the single word phony, when in fact the word phony would be the most probable word to describe the lead character.
Some people feel all alone in this world, with no direction to follow but their empty loneliness. The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D Salinger, follows a sixteen-year-old boy, Holden Caulfield, who despises society and calls everyone a “phony.” Holden can be seen as a delinquent who smokes tobacco, drinks alcohol, and gets expelled from a prestigious boarding school. This coming-of-age book follows the themes of isolation, innocence, and corrupted maturity which is influenced from the author's life and modernism, and is shown through the setting, symbolism, and diction.
While Holden was attending Pencey Prep, he formed a relationship with his history teacher, Old Mr. Spencer. Mr. Spencer was really the only teacher that Holden liked. While Holden was getting ready to go into Mr. Spencer?s bedroom, he said, ?His door was open, but I sort of knocked on it anyway, just to be polite and all.? (7). This showed his respect for Mr. Spencer and his privacy. It also showed that Holden had manners but had enough of a friendship with Old Spencer to talk with him in his own home. However, Holden felt a little uncomfortable with the situation when he actually saw Mr. Spencer, started talking to him, and felt a lecture coming on. Holden often thought about Mr. Spencer. While walking to Mr. Spencer?s room, Holden thought, ?? If you thought about him too much, you wondered what the heck he was still living for?. But if you thought about him just enough and not too much, you could figure it out that he wasn?t doing too bad for himself.? (2-3). Holden saw Mr. Spencer as childlike and helpless which made it easier for him to form a relationship with an adult.
Jerome David Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is a truly unique novel in terms of writing style. The story is told in a second person narrative style by a character named Holden Caulfield, and is written loosely in a fashion known as 'stream of consciousness writing'.