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J.D. Salinger the catcher in the rye analysis
J. D. Salinger essay
J.D. Salinger the catcher in the rye analysis
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This essay outlines how J.D. Salinger creates a unique person in Holden Caulfield as he strives to find his place in the world as he moves from childhood to adulthood.. Holden narrates this story from the first person in flashback recounting events that happened to him over a two day span the previous year around Christmas. He narrates this story from some sort of mental hospital or institution. This is a clue as to how this journey affected him. This essay discusses how Holden views himself as he is his growing up, affected by interaction with other characters and how he is affected by loss of innocence moving from childhood to adulthood. Holden often shares his dreams (good and bad) of what he would like to do as he moves from childhood One crucial conversation is with the taxi driver regarding the ducks in Central Park. The conversation seems trivial, of no real significance. However, for Holden it has great importance. His concern about where do the ducks go in the winter seems to deal with the question that young people have about what their direction is in life. The cab driver, Horwitz, responds to an irritating question from Holden: “If you was a fish, Mother Nature’d take care of you, wouldn’t she? Right? You don’t think them fish just die when it gets to be winter, do ya? (Salinger 83) The answer is clear to Holden. Everything will survive the winter, no matter if it’s a duck or a fish. However, this does not give Holden a guarantee of protection from what he fears most-becoming a phony or more importantly, having no choice to become phony in order to These two places are easily accessible by Holden day and night by catching a train to and from New York City to Pennsylvania. It was easy for Holden to move back and forth. Holden viewed Pencey Prep as phony and was very critical of it. He points out the school’s fake advertisements and student body. “They advertise in about a thousand magazines, always showing some hot shot guy on a horse jumping over a fence. Like as if all you ever did Pencey was play polo all the time. I never even once saw a horse anywhere near the place.”(Salinger 2) The setting of New York City is where Holden witnesses what it is to be an adult and does not want any part of it. It has its innocent places for kids like the museum, but mostly it is a corrupt and phony world that Holden needs to protect others from. This is especially true when he is talking to Sally about New York “ Boy, do I hate it," I said. "But it isn't just that. It's everything. I hate living in New York and all. Taxicabs, and Madison avenue buses, with the drivers and all always yelling at you to get out at the rear door, and being introduced to phony guys that call the Lunts angels, and going up and down in elevators when you just want to go outside, and guys fitting your pants all the time at Brooks, and people always–" (Salinger 41-55) Holden’s hatred for both these settings reinforce the ideal that he does
from sharing some of his views on society and the war. At the time of
It takes many experiences in order for an immature child to become a responsible, well-rounded adult. In J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger’s main character Holden Caulfield matures throughout the course of the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Holden is a juvenile young man. However, through his experiences, Holden is able to learn, and is finally able to become somewhat mature by the end of the novel. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield’s story represents a coming of age for all young adults.
Holden believes he can act like a grown up but is not ready to accept the responsibilities that come with being a grown up. After escaping the social normality happening at Pencey he runs off to New York City, on a mission to escape his responsibilities and feel like a kid again. “I don’t give a damn, except that I get bored sometimes when people tell me to act my age. Sometimes I act a lot older than I am - I really do - but people never notice it.”( Salinger 15). Holden explains he could care less, yet he then states he cares sometimes. By stating
Holden’s endless journey begins when he received the call when he is expelled from Pencey Prep because of his low grades. Holden starts out as a college student that is damaged deep down his heart. The world before his journey was full of phonies as he commented, “Also at the threshold, the initiate will encounter a helper” (Ariane Publications 9). The helper usually leads the main character into the essential path before any accomplishments. In this condition, Holden’s former History teacher Mr. Spencer takes the role. He asks Holden,” Do you feel absolutely no concern for your future, boy?” (Salinger 20). He warns Holden about the difficulties that are waiting for him ahead but also pushed Holden forward to the journey. Even though Holden did refuse the journey by lingering at school after he got the expel letter. Nevertheless, the talk with Mr. Spencer may have aff...
Due to J.D Salinger’s personal and relatable narrative treatment, Catcher in the Rye continues to engage audiences, even 64 years after it was first published. The way the book deals with alienation and disillusionment in regards to Holden’s past trauma - through the closeness of first person narration and conversational writing among other techniques - creates a personal connection to Holden’s character and helps adolescents relate his troubles to their own.
In J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is seen by some critics a a drop out student destined for failure in life, but I see him as a symbol of an adolescent who struggles to adapt to the reality of adulthood.
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.
He wonders where they go, so he asks the taxi driver, “….. do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets frozen all over?”(Salinger 67). Throughout the novel, Holden wonders whether the ducks are taken away to a zoo or if they are left to fly away and fend for themselves. Holden revisits the question of the ducks when he doesn’t know if he should return home or learn to live on his own. Each time the ducks appear in the novel, Holden’s maturity has expanded a bit more and the ducks symbolize his process of learning how to deal with his fear of becoming an adult. The ducks in the pond is similar to
However his use of colloquial language helps the reader to realize that Holden is still quite young and has a childish and immature view of life. You can see how immature he is because even though he is sixteen he still made a snowball and tried to get on a bus without realizing that the bus driver would make him throw it out. “The snow was very good for packing. I didn’t throw it at anything,” Holden then complains, “But he wouldn’t believe me. People never believe you.”
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.
In a rather symbolic way, this also ties back in with needing the answer to his isitent question on the whereabouts of the ducks in Central Park. It also contributes to Holden’s deterioration because he, in a way, views himself as the ducks and only wants to be able to know who will help him, what happens to him next, or where he goes from here. Holden never gets the answer that he wants and constantly asks himself and others about it because he wants to know what will happen to them and
Holden Caulfield experiences the archetypal hero's journey within J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. Holden’s journey from childhood to maturity contains a departure, initiation and trials, and an archetypal return. Holden is reluctant to embrace his maturity but comes to accept his maturity and leaves behind the phase he is currently trying to remain in, childhood.
Holden wants to be told that someone helps the ducks and the fish through the winter. Holden wants help during his teenage years, but his mother is still grieving over the death of his brother so she is, “nervous as hell” (206). Holden needs to open up to his parents the same way the fish open their pores for nature to provide for
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.
Jerome David Salinger’s only novel, The Catcher in the Rye, is based on the life events shaping main character, Holden Caulfield, into the troubled teen that is telling the story in 1950. The theme of the story is one of emotional disconnection felt by the alienated teenagers of this time period. The quote, “ I didn’t know anyone there that was splendid and clear thinking and all” (Salinger 4) sets the tone that Holden cannot find a connection with anyone around him and that he is on a lonely endeavor in pursuit of identity, acceptance and legitimacy. The trials and failures that Holden faces on his journey to find himself in total shed light on Holden’s archenemy, himself.