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Conflicts in the catcher in the rye
J. D. Salinger’s the catcher in the rye essay
The catcher in the rye analysis
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Summary
"The Catcher in the Rye" is a story of a young sixteen year old boy named Holden Caulfield. Holden is telling this story in first person. Holden is a student of Pency Prep an all boys school in Pennsylvania. The book starts in a rest home in California. Holden flashback to four days before the beginning of Christmas vacation. Holden is going to pay a visit to Mr. Spencer, his history teacher. Mr.Spencer is sick in bed suffering from the grippe. While there Mr.Spencer talks to Holden about his poor grade on his last examination paper.
That Saturday Holden and his friend Mal Brossard, who is on the wrestling team , go to see a movie. They invite Ackley out of sympathy because he never does anything Saturday night. After the boys finnish playing pinball. Holden goes back to his room to write a composition for his roommate Stradler. When Stradler comes back from his date with Jane Grallagher, a girl that Holden has a crush on, he doesn't like the composition. Holden and Stradler argue, then Holden punishes Stradler. Holden loses the fight. Holden goes to Ackleys room to talk, but Ackley doesn't want to talk so Holden leaves to look for Mal Bossard. Holden starts to pack his bags after he decids not to look for Borssard. He walks to the train station because it is too late for a taxi. While there he cleans off the blood from the fight with some snow. He catches a train to New York. On the train he meets a woman who is the mother of one of his classmates. Holden is attracted to the women so he starts to lie about himself. When he arrives in New York he get a room in the Edmont Hotel. Holden is thinking of staying in the hotel until Wednesday when he can go home.
It is still Saturday night and Holden is bored so he goes to the club in the hotel. The waiter will not serve him alcohol. At the next table there are three women who are giggling at him. Holden asks the ladies to dance. Holden find out that the ladies are from Seattle, Washington. After the ladies leave the club Holden gets bored because there are no drinks are and no girls, so he leave. In the lobby he sits down in a chair and thinks about Jane Gallagher.
Holden checked into the Edmont Hotel in Manhattan, where he hired a young prostitute named Sunny. This scene depicts Holden’s struggle with confused adolescence. Holden thought that sleeping with a prostitute would make him a man. However, when he was confronted with the burgeoning sexual situation, he yielded. After all, he is still just a child. “The trouble was, I just didn’t want to do it. I felt more depressed than
Holden just got on the train and he sat in the front by himself. But another lady came on the train and sat right next to him even though there were plenty of other seats. Holden and her started talking about her son who also went to Pencey. Holden said " It really took everybody quite a long time to get to know him. He's a funny guy. A strange guy in lots of ways---- know what I mean? " (63). Holden was not afraid to talk to this women who he did not know. He really opened up to her and told her the truth about what he thought of her son. This shows how comfortable he was around her. Later on in the story Holden just woke up and was laying in his bed in the hotel with nothing to do. So Holden decides to call his old friend Sally Hayes. Without saying much to her before, Holden says " I was wondering if your busy today. It's Sunday, but there's always one or two matinees going on Sunday. Benefits and that stuff. Would you care to go? " (118). Holden was was not afraid to ask her out. This reveals how comfortable he was talking with her and he opened himself up to her. Later on in the book, readers find another reason why Holden shows his true self to
Holden returns to school and goes to his bedroom in the dorm. In his room quietly reading, his neighbor Robert Ackley came in. Holden describes him as a pimply, insecure, annoying boy with a bad dental hygiene. When Holden’s roommate Stradlater who was “madly in love with himself” (27) arrived home after the football game, Ackley abruptly left. Stradlater tells him that he has a date with a friend of his, Jane Gallagher. Jane is someone that Holden really cares for and because he knows the way Stradlater is, Holden became worried for her. “It just drove me stark raving mad when I thought about her and Stradlater parked somewhere in that fat-assed Ed Banky’s car”. (48) Holden became depressed and lonely, so out of the blue Holden decides to pack his things and leave for New York a few days earlier. On the train to New York, Holden meets the mother of one of his schoolmates. Not wanting to tell his whole life story, he told her his name was “Rudolf Schmidt”, the name of th...
Holden, before leaving for New York, attended a boarding school named Pencey Prep. He makes it clear that he thinks everyone, teachers and students alike, is a “phony.” At one point, his roommate Stradlater goes out with a girl who ends up being Jane Gallagher, a childhood friend and crush of Holden. In his eyes, this is a betrayal. Holden is annoyed
Holden has been to three different boarding schools before he attended Pencey. At Pencey, Holden was rooming with Stradlater, who Holden thought lived his life as a secret slob and a moran. Stradlater and Holden do not see eye to eye on most things. One Saturday night, Stradlater had plans to go on a date with Holden’s friend Jane. Jane was very close to Holden and Holden knew that Stradlater would try and put the moves on her just like he does on every other girl. After the date, Holden and Stradlater are talking and Stradlater ignores his questions. Their conversation gets heated and it results in Holden cutting up his face and then exiting his room and entering Ackley’s. Ackley, who is asleep, gets woken up by Holden and Holden asks if he can spend the night in his room. As they both lied in their beds, Holden asks Ackley, “‘What’s the routine on joining a monastery?’”(Salinger 50). After Ackley gets mad for Holden asking questions, Holden changes his mind about the monastery, “Aah, go back to sleep. I’m not gonna join one anyway. The kind of luck I have, I’d probably join one with all the wrong kind of monks in it. All stupid bastards. Or just bastards.” (Salinger 50). Holden believes that the world is full of bad, crumby people even in the places that have good people. Holden wants to get away from people like
Thesis statement: The relationship Holden and Blanche have between family and people in society leads them to an inner turmoil, which eventually results in their psychological breakdowns.
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.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is an enthralling and captivating novel about a boy and his struggle with life. The teenage boy ,Holden, is in turmoil with school, loneliness, and finding his place in the world. The author J.D. Salinger examines the many sides of behavior and moral dilemma of many characters throughout the novel. The author develops three distinct character types for Holden the confused and struggling teenage boy, Ackley, a peculiar boy without many friends, and Phoebe, a funny and kindhearted young girl.
In 1950 J.D. Salenger captures one of society’s tragedies, the breakdown of a teenager, when he wrote The Catcher In The Rye. Holden Caulfield, a fickle “man” is not even a man at all. His unnecessary urge to lie to avoid confrontation defeats manhood. Holden has not matured and is unable to deal with the responsibility of living on his owe. He childishly uses a hunter’s hat to disguise him self from others. The truth of his life is sad and soon leads to his being institutionalized. He tries to escape the truth with his criticisms. Knowing he will never meet his parents’ expectations, his only true friend is his eight-year-old sister Phoebe, to whom Holden tells that he really wants to be ‘the catcher in the rye”. Holden admits his only truth and shows that Phoebe is his only friend. Another form of escape for Holden is his acting, which he uses to excuse the past. Holden has tried to lie, hide, and blame his way through life; when he finds that it is not the answer he collapses.
For their date, they both went to go check out a play named The Lunts. When the first act was over, Holden and Sally went outside for a smoke. Holden was listening to all the people outside who were smoking too talking about the play. The way they were talking, Holden thought that they were all phonies. Sally was talking about the play to Holden until she saw some dude
This event exposes his unfounded view of the world, where his obsession with sex and egotistical attitude block rational thinking. Holden’s interactions with Mr. Antolini reveals Holden’s desperate need for guidance, while also exposing traumatic incidences of Holden’s past, which help us to understand Holden more fully as a person.
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 J.D. Salinger's brilliant coming-of-age novel, Holden Caulfield, a seventeen year old prep school adolescent relates his lonely, life-changing twenty-four hour stay in New York City as he experiences the phoniness of the adult world while attempting to deal with the death of his younger brother, an overwhelming compulsion to lie and troubling sexual experiences.
During one night, Holden stays awake to tell readers about the fight he had with Stradlater about Jane, an old friend of Holden’s. As a matter of fact, Holden stayed awake through seven more chapters, pondering and wo...
Holden tries to call Jane again but no one answers. Instead he calls a young man, Carl Luce who used to be his student advisor and meets him for a drink. In the past Luce used to talk openly so boys about sex but he gets irritated by Holden's childish behavior and remarks towards homosexual and Luce's Chinese girlfriend and