After many years of ideas coming and going, one that seems to stay the same is the thoughts of tennagers. In the book The Catcher In The Rye written by J.D Salinger many can still relate to Holden’s story even after a 76 year difference. While exploring the city around him Holden takes the time to try to find himself on a deeper level and try to grasp how growing up really makes him feel. Given the fact that everyone is unique in among themselves the need for self satisfaction is always current meaning many run from the true responsibilities that come with age. 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 …show more content…
that he can act grown up and is capable of handling important tasks tells readers that he must choose not to care as a fear of growing up. Being a teenager is a time to find yourself, a time for growing up and taking responsibility; Holden seems to believe if he disconnects from himself he will never have to grow up. In current day many new responsibilities come with age, many teenagers find growing up a true accomplishment, yet still attempt to maintain youth by disregarding and abandoning the responsibilities. Holden believes he can achieve the best of both worlds, being treated like an adult while still having no responsibilities. Holden views Mr. Spencer as someone he can confide in, but after he visits him he leaves in annoyance and belief that he is just as fake. “Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.” “Yes, sir. I know it is. I know it.” Game, my ass.
Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, all right—I’ll admit that”(Salinger 8). Holden is expressing his beliefs that life is a game he can cheat through. He knows that with becoming more mature means taking responsibility and applying the brain in school; though after failing out of 3 other schools before it is obvious Holden does not believe in changing his ways and applying himself. In current time many kids still fail out of school (Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone, found from dosomething.org), having no desire to go back and change their ways because they believe they are still kids and should not be held accountable for their mistakes. Modern time teenagers can relate to Holden and believe it is not his fault he can not learn from all the
phonies. Holden is conflicted he really wants to grow up but does not know and understand how to do that. He attempts to act like an adult for a night and hit the bar “ "Do I look like I'm under twenty-one?" "I'm sorry, sir, but we have our—" "Okay, okay," I say. I figured the hell with it. "Bring me a Coke." He started to go away, but I called him back. "Can'tcha stick a little rum in it or something?" I asked him. I asked him very nicely and all. "I can't sit in a corny place like this cold sober. Can'tcha stick a little rum in it or something?" ( Salinger 70). He attempts to order a drink believing he looks older than he is. Holden has the mindset he looks like an adult therefore he will be treated like one. But once the bartender declines his attempt at proving his maturity Holden becomes upset and reality hits him again. Holden makes many advances in the book to become an adult but each time it ends up a fail, giving him a sense that he should just remain a child still. 21st century teenagers believe that engaging in adult behavior will make them feel more and more like an adult, yet many still do not want to give up their youth years. The transition into a teenager to a young adult is complex and takes a deep understanding of oneself to grasp the concept that with the joy of being an adult comes with uncensored duties. On the run from his duties Holden attempts to get a taste of adulthood, but after coming out with a disgusted and no interest to take responsibility for himself; causing him to fluctuate between taking part in childish and adult behavior. The relevance and relation to holden is still veyr much accurate as there are still tennagers who struggle with understanding the transition to adulthood. Changes can be scary and as a part of human nature it makes sense to try to escape them by running. Whether it is abandoning responsibilities or rebelling against the grain it can lead to the understanding that growing up is a part of life.
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. Holden also has a negative perspective of life that makes things seem worse than they really are. In addition to Holden’s problems he is unable to accept the death of his brother at a young age. Holden’s immaturity, negative mentality, and inability to face reality hold him back from moving into adulthood.
In J.D. Sallinger's Catcher in the Rye, is based on the sullen life of Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old teen-ager is trying to find his sense of direction. Holden, a growing adult, cannot accept the responsibilities of an adult. Eventually realizing that there is no way to avoid the adult life, he can only but accept this alternative lifestyle. What Holden describes the adult world as a sinful, corrupted life, he avoids it for three important reasons: His hatred towards phonies and liars, unable to accept adult responsibilities, and thirdly to enshrine his childhood youth.
This book is a good book. "What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by. I mean I've left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse. ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 1
Books that have shaped America are slowly starting to disappear. Many of the previous social norms have fallen out of fashion, and because of this reason numerous books are beginning to become banned. Blasphemy, racism, sex, and violence are all ethical reasons for books to be censored.
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.
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.
J.D Salinger in the Catcher in the Rye said “The mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one”. This quote means a mature man wants to help others while an immature man is all about himself. Holden is self-centered person . He is an immature boy ,who doesn't like change and kept stating that mature people are phonies.
The major problem in the book is how Holden, the main character, is dealing with growing up. He is not sure if he wants to become an adult or still be a child. It appears that he wants to still be a child in the beginning of the novel by saying that adults are phonies and by judging people by their appearance rather than their personality. He first shows this when he is writing about the Pencey Prep headmaster’s daughter. He thinks, “She probably knew what a phony slob he was” (3). This demonstrates that he thinks that this adult is a phony, along with many others. Holden does not want to grow up and become an adult, so he deals with that by saying that all adults are phonies and is trying to not face the reality of becoming older. In the end, Holden finds himself and decides that he was grateful for his protection for a little while, but knew that he was going to grow up anyways. He then proves that while he is watching his younger sister ride the carousel and it starts to rain. His favorite red hunting hat then shows more symbolic meaning when, “My hunting hat gave me quite a lot of protection, in a way, but I got soaked anyway. I didn’t care, though. I felt so damn happy...” (213). This proves that Holden is embracing growing older than trying to run and hide from the fact. The hunting hat protected him from the fact of growing up, and the rain made him realize that he was aging. The hat saved him for a little bit, but then he got soaked. This then helped him realize that you have to grow up eventually, and Holden was happy while this was happening. He solved his problem by facing the reality of aging and expects it while still being happy as he was when he was a kid.
J. D. Salinger's notable and esteemed novel, Catcher in the Rye, reflects the hypercritical views of a troubled teenager, Holden Caulfield, towards everyone around him and society itself. This character has a distinguished vision of a world where morality, principles, intelligence, purity, and naivety should override money, sex, and power, but clearly in the world he inhabits these qualities have been exiled. Holder desperately clings to and regards innocence as one of the most important virtues a person can have. However, he son becomes a misfit since society is corrupted and he yearns for companionship, any kind of connection with another to feel whole and understood again. Ironically, despite his persistent belittling and denouncing of others, he does not apply the same critical and harsh views on himself.
Innocence lies within everyone in at least one point in their lives, but as reality consumes them, that purity begins to vanish slowly as they learn new experiences. In the coming of age novel set in the nineteen-forties, J.D Salinger writes about a sixteen-year-old boy named Holden Caulfield who stands between a road that separates childhood from adulthood and is confused about which path to take. On a three-day trip in New York away from his family and fellow peers at school, Holden encounters many situations in which lead him to think twice about who he wants to become and how he wants to guide others who are in the same situation he is in. In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger utilizes symbolism, vivid imagery, and slangy diction to expose Holden’s struggle to preserve the innocence of the people that he loves while alienating himself from the adult world he calls “phony.”
Holden cannot accept the loss of innocence as a step into the growing up process. The ones that he loves most, are those who are younger to him, they are innocent, and untouched by society’s truths. Holden says, “…I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around-nobody big. I mean – except me.
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.
From the protagonists’ point of view, the adult world Holden and Franny are entering and living in is a very superficial place. Holden who is sixteen years of age is going through a time of crisis where he is almost forced to become an adult. This concept is the very thing that makes Holden afraid, causing him to misbehave at school. His latest school, Pencey Prep, expels Holden due to his failing grades. When asked for the reason of his lack of academic enthusiasm, Holden simply states that he is not interested in anything. In every school he has attended, Holden has managed to find different reasons not to care and possibly even hate the institutions.
In the beginning of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is an immature teenager. Holden gets kicked out of his school, Pencey Prep, for failing four out of five of his classes. He says, “They kicked me out. I wasn’t supposed to come back after Christmas vacation … I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself and all” (Salinger 4). Holden does not yet realize the severity of his actions. He does not comprehend that when he does not apply himself, he does not do well. This could partly be due to the fact that when he gets kicked out of one school, he knows that his family will just pay for him to be allowed into another boarding school. Part of the irony in Holden’s story is that physically, he looks mature, but mentally, he is still very much a child: “I act quite young for my age, sometimes. I was sixteen then, and I’m seventeen now … I’m six foot two and a half and I have gray hair ” (9). There is no middle ground, adolescence, for Holden. He can only be an adult, physically, or a child, mentally. Holden’s history teacher, Mr. Spencer, tries to appeal to him by using a metaphor: “Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules” (8). Holden then reflects on this to hims...
There is a singular event that unites every single human being on the planet, growing up. Not everyone can say it was pleasant, but no one can deny that it took place. The transition between childhood innocence and adulthood is long and confusing; often forcing one to seek out the answers to questions that likely have no definitive answer. During the process, the adult world seems inviting and free, but only when we are on the brink of entering this cruel, unjust society can the ignorant bliss of childhood be truly recognized. Catcher in the Rye explores the intimidating complexities associated with adulthood and how baffling it seems to the naïve teenage mind. Through the main protagonist, Holden Caulfield, J.D. Salinger captures the confusion of a teenager when faced with the challenge of adapting to an adult society.