A Letter from Holden from Catcher in the Rye Dear Holden, Hi mate, what’s gone wrong with you? I can’t believe this has happened to you. You were fine when I left, after Allie dying and all. You know when I last saw you I was with Rachel (The English Actress). Well I proposed to her and she said yes. I am organising our honeymoon and the wedding so I am a bit tied up at the moment. So that is why I am writing a letter and not coming down to see you in person. In your previous letter, on a few occasions, you seemed to talk as if you were a different person. I wanna give you some advice. It will be easier if I tell you how I would have acted, or how you should have acted, just to help you. I remember you told me about that guy, Stradlater, and he was going on a date with Jane. He asked you to do an essay for him. I wouldn’t have done it for him; you have got your own life, try living it brother. Why didn’t you tell him you didn’t want to do it for him? If he was an alright guy he would have stayed at the school and written it himself. He was walking all over you and he only did it because you did not have anything better to do, because you were getting kicked out of Pencey in a few days. The thing with you is that you just can’t help yourself. Stradlater started talking for ages about Jane Gallagher and his date with her and you were stunned by this information. So when you stopped talking he just asked you. “Will you do it for me then?” and you gave in to him. It didn’t take any persuasion. Nothing. Later on in your letter, you talked about meeting this pimp, Maurice, in a lift. He asked you if you wanted to have some fun that night. Why? Why did you say yes? You don’t have to have a prostitute to have a good time. They are for sick, old perverts, not a sixteen-year-old, Holden. When the girl turned up, you should have just given her the money and made her leave. You didn’t even have to talk to her. She had her own life and she either wanted to have sex or go back to sleep. When that pimp came back because you didn’t give the girl enough money you should have just given the money to him. In your description he sounded huge, so I would have given him it.
Immaturity of Holden in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye 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.
Nineteen million American adults suffer from a major case of depression (Web MD). That is a staggering one in every fifteen people (2 in our classroom alone). Holden Caulfield is clearly one of those people. Depression is a disease that leads to death but is also preventable. Psychology, stressful events, and prescription drugs are causes of depression. Stressful events brought on Holden’s depression. Holden has been trying to withstand losing a brother, living with careless parents, and not having many friends. The Catcher in the Rye is a book that takes us through the frazzled life of Holden Caulfield, who appears to be just a regular teen. But by hearing his thoughts and through heart-wrenching events in the book, the reader learns that Holden is not the innocent boy that he once appeared. In his book, The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger shows that Holden’s depression is not only affecting him, but also the people around him through Sally, Phoebe, and Sunny.
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 Holden Gets Influenced Everyone gets influenced by someone, even heroes do. The Catcher in the Rye, a novel written by J. D. Salinger, talks about Holden Caulfield, a 16 year old boy that is trying to live through his problems. Holden tries to learn from his experiences as well as from the ones of others. He goes through many hard times, but he always takes them as a chance to imagine how it could have ended if he had done something about them or what cold had happened if he was not so “yellow”.
break her heart. But for them it didn't really work out well. If they would of
up to him. If you want something that is not up to you and do not get
him to use things in his home by saying what he wanted done e.g. if he
Many young people often find themselves struggling to find their own identity and place in society. This search for self worth often leaves these young people feeling lonely and isolated because they are unsure of themselves. Holden Caulfield, J.D. Salinger's main character in the book The Catcher In the Rye, is young man on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. One contributor to this breakdown, is the loneliness that Holden experiences. His loneliness is apparent through many ways including: his lack of friends, his longing for his dead brother, and the way he attempts to gain acceptance from others.
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.
even though he wants to do the same thing, he has to try and do it
We were both excited and probably a little nervous to see him again, so my friend turned into the driveway. We each had wide grins on our faces, while we debated whether or not to actually get down and ring his doorbell. I don't know what we were afraid of, but the conversation for about a minute, went along the lines of, "No you go. No you go . . . ."
should have lost her temper and didn’t. For instance, when I was around 12 years old I was bored
the front of the trailer park. I asked the babysitter could I go she said, “NO!”
asked him if he could change it and he said no. He also knew that they
At first, he probably was encouraged by my words of approval after him playing the piano. But after telling him so many times to create a music video, I am guessing his positive reaction gave way to slight annoyance. It wasn’t until I resorted to “bribery” that he finally gave in.