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The catcher in the rye essay about characters
Literary analysis for the catcher in rye
Literary analysis for the catcher in rye
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Whether it be survival, greed, or love, the question of what drives human behavior is a hotly debated subject. It really is. Prominent in popular culture, themes of the driving force behind human behavior ranges from modern shows like House of Cards and The Walking Dead to classic novels such as Animal Farm and Romeo and Juliet. Trust me, you’d know if you saw ‘em. Phony entertainment meant to make some goddam idiots think they’re something special. However, the idea that a person’s worldview determines said person’s behavior is a less controversial topic. Words like controversial, they kill me. Long words that some goddam student uses to sound smart when they could just say some other word. Written by J.D Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye …show more content…
In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield suggests a cynical worldview is driven by judgement of himself through other people, which prevents Holden from creating genuine relationships. Holden’s interactions with strangers suggest his judgement of strangers facilitates his cynical worldview. For example, when he meets the woman with the son attending Pencey Prep, Mrs. Morrow, he judges her for leaving her bag “right out in the middle of the aisle,” (Salinger, 80) in spite of the fact that the train car is empty other than Holden and the woman. His first impression of this woman immediately conjures a negative reaction within Holden, causing Holden to make up a string of lies about himself. Holden, …show more content…
For example, Holden describes dialogue as, “the phoniest conversation you ever heard in your life” (Salinger, 188). Ironically, the conversation which Holden detests is about people both them know, with which Holden frequently converses about with people he knows. At first glance, Holden is merely contradicting himself, but, looking closer, it is easy to tell that Holden uses other people to judge himself. Jane’s friend is polite to Holden, yet Holden despises him because he sees himself in that young man; a boy at a play all alone, who runs into someone he knows certainly mirrors Holden’s experience in New York. Additionally, while Holden commonly tells the reader, “if you want to know the truth,” (Salinger, 4) Holden, shortly thereafter, calls himself, “the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life” (Salinger, 26). Holden once again contradicts himself, this time to the reader instead of a character. The reader learns that Holden may have been altering the events of the novel to manipulate the opinion of the reader, just like he does to the people he meets throughout his adventures in New
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
In the novel, Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield is an example of a prosaic rich adolescent boy,with a pedestrian set of problems, but a psychoanalysis reveals that Holden has a plethora of atypical internal conflicts. Internal conflicts that other students at Pencey, such as Stradlater and Ackley, would not normally experience.
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.
A story of tragedy, despair, and sex, Holden guides us through a series of nights in the Novel, The Catcher in the Rye. This book of teenage angst is narrated through the eyes of Holden Caulfield. Holden, a confused and depressed teenager, who tells his story in such a way that makes him look as if he were always in the right even when he is actually in the wrong. For this specific reason, it is commonly believed that Holden cannot be a reliable source for narration throughout “The Catcher and the Rye” and many believe to think that he is biased in some cases towards people who have his approval and himself. This essay will support these theses and go more in depth with the analysis of error within the corruption of narration throughout Salinger’s,
J.D. Salinger presents Holden Caulfield as a confused and distressed adolescent. Holden is a normal teenager who needs to find a sense of belonging. All though Holden’s obsession with “phonies” overpowers him. Dan Wakefield comments, “The things that Holden finds so deeply repulsive are things he calls “phony”- and the “phoniness” in every instance is the absence of love, and , often the substitution of pretense for love.” Holden was expelled from Pencey Prep School not because he is stupid, but because he just is not interested. His attitude toward Pencey is everyone there is a phony. Pencey makes Holden feel lonely and isolated because he had very few friends. Holden’s feeling of alienation is seen when he doesn’t attend the biggest football game of the year. His comments on the game: “It was the last game of the year and you were supposed to commit suicide or something if old Pencey didn’t win” (2, Ch. 1). This also hints to Holden’s obsession with death. Holden can’t find a since of belonging in the school because of all the so-called phonies. Holden speaks of Pencey’s headmaster as being a phony. Holden says that on visitation day the headmaster will pay no attention to the corny-looking parents. Holden portrays his not being interested by saying, “all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to buy a goddam Cadillac someday, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses”(131, Ch. 17). Holden does not care for school or money. He just wants everyone to be sincere and honest.
In Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden Caulfield, undergoes a challenge to face the world around him. He constantly faces social issues throughout the novel, such as insecurities, loneliness, and uncertainty. One of the main issues he faces is “Caulfield constantly feels as if he is being surrounded by his enemies. (Huber and Ledbetter 254)” Accordingly, this leads to his self-isolation because he views everyone in society as a phony just going through life as a fake. Thus, what he perceives as fake is really the normal world around him. Bickmore and Youngblood state, “An honest hypocrite, Holden is the very essence . . . of adolescence. (253)” Because of his negative perception towards life, he feels insecure about himself around others. Thus, Holden Caulfield is a hypocritical adolescent who isolates himself to feed off of his negativity.
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.
It is immediately obvious that Holden is a peculiar boy with an irregular thought-process. He seeks companionship, yet avoids those places where he may find it, such as the football game at Pencey Prep; “… I remember around three o’clock that afternoon I was standing way the hell up on top of Thomsen Hill. You could see the whole field from there, and you could see the two teams bashing each other all over the place…You could hear them all yelling.” From this we see that Holden is an observer of interactions rather than a partaker in any form. Yet this self-imposed isolation can be pitied as we see time and time again that Holden craves companionship for any kind. We see that he often jumps into situations in the hopes of having some kind of interaction, without actually thinking of the consequences; “The first thing I did when I got off at Penn Station, I went into this phone booth. I felt like giving somebody a buzz… but as soon as I was inside I couldn’t think of anybody to call up.” It is clear that Holden has alienated himself from those he considers “phony” and “crumby”. It is interesting to note that this sense of isolation and failed connections is countered by the manner in which Holden speaks. Holden speaks as though addressing an audience and ends the novel with a warning about telling a story to
He now does not have to deal with the “phonies” he complains about at school. Holden’s attitude immediately changes when he faces his “Tests” upon his arrival in New York. He begins to feel uneasy claiming that New York is “terrible when somebody laughs on the street very late at night. You can hear it for miles. It makes you feel lonesome and depressed” (Salinger, 81). Holden goes on to struggle with himself by being judgmental “I was surrounded by jerks. I’m not kidding. At this other tiny table, right to my left, practically on top of me, there was this funny-looking guy and this funny-looking girl” (Salinger, 85) and feeling miserable “Depressed and all. I almost wished I was dead” (Salinger, 90). Holden’s view of the charlatan at the bar and Holden’s helplessness in the city reflects on Adler’s Undercompensation theory. Holden feels lost and his experiences dissuade which “includes a demand for help, leads to a lack of courage and a fear of life” (Adler). This propels Holden to be insecure about himself and exacerbates his problems regarding his own life. What propels him to become the image of a tragic hero is that he cannot overcome his insecurities. As psychoanalyst Eric Fromm says, “The task we must set for ourselves is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity” (Fromm). Holden is unable to tolerate his insecurities and begins to experience an emotional breakdown
Holden and Lucy are both very judgmental of the people around them. They both take first impressions very seriously, for a person’s first impression is the deciding factor of Lucy and Holden’s opinions of them. For example, Lucy is very sensitive of how people address where she is from. When guests at a party claim to have had fun when he had been to the “islands” she decides, “not to like them just on that basis,” (Kincaid, 65). This sudden decision demonstrates how easily she judges and dismisses people. Likewise, Holden is very quick to pass judgment on the people around him. When Sally, Holden’s date, speaks with a boy from Andover he immediately categorizes him as a “phony”. Holden uses this term many times throughout the book. His judgment
In the book, The Catcher in The Rye, Holden is portrayed as a misfit who doesn’t want to be introduced to the horrors of the adult world. He fails all of his classes except for English at Pencey and is being kicked out of the school. He then decides to lay low in New York City while his parents digest him being kicked out . In addition, he experiences many adventures and learns about himself along the way. Holden refuses responsibilities and avoids the consequences of his actions, his problems, and remains like this throughout the whole book.
Holden has a severe inferiority complex; in his mind, the people he comes across are either phony or a genuine person; there’s no middle ground or gray area. Holden constantly labels others and avoids the fact that if he saw himself in public, he would probably deem himself phony. Holden even describes himself as the “most terrific liar” (Salinger, 19). Holden fails to accept that by deeming himself a liar, he must be a phony as well. Thus, he sees himself as the exception, harshly judges everyone else, and fails to connect to the reality that everyone else’s life is just as complicated as his. When Holden leaves Pencey, he yells “see ya, ya morons,” and he turns his back on society and disses it as if he were better than everyone else (Salinger, 52). Furthermore, as Holden leaves, he wears an unusual hunting hat to signify his difference from the norm and isolate himself. The novel commences with Holden standing atop a hill while everyone else is having fun at a football game. In this example, Holden likely saw himself as superior to everyone else, when in actuality, he was locking himself in a lonely tower. This paradox reoccurs throughout the book, Holden believes that in being different he is socially higher than everyone else when, in reality, he is causing himself to be
To be an American is to be hopeful, grateful and able to pursue one’s own dreams and achieve happiness with hard work and determination without being persecuted. It is to be an individual governed by natural rights stated in the Bill of Rights. Holden the troubled boy in J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye does not embody those American ideals. He is troubled by uncertainty about the world at seventeen years of age and is bleak, and innocent about people, things, around him. Holden is not an American at heart because he doesn’t put in effort and determination nor is he hopeful or grateful.
While Holden Caulfield years for companionship and care, at the same time he wants to be by himself. This leads to problems where Holden decides to meet up with people who he doesn’t like out of desperation, then bashes the person in their presence. The people near Holden aren’t a desirable person per say, and Holden aspires to be with people he is unable too. Holden would rather stay away from people to keep himself safe from the hurt they can cause them. Holden can’t stand the company he has because they aren't real, he cares about them too much, or they aren't there.
Holden attacks various weaknesses in the 50's society. He criticizes nearly everything that he observes, and refuses to pull punches. Often Holden uses his brilliant talent of observation to discover the true motives behind the people he calls "phony." Through his observations the reader can interpret Salinger's view of the 1950's culture. Holden's perceptions of paranoia, conformity, and the consumer culture convey Salinger's views.