In the movie, The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the main antagonist, Ego the Living Planet, wanted to destroy life across the universe after searching for life and then being disappointed with what he found. He felt that alien life had no meaning and thought it would be better off being eradicated. Eventually, he is shown the error of his beliefs from his son, Star-Lord, and tells him that life is about accepting people for who they are. Three people that also share this belief, except wanting to kill all life, are Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye, Christopher McCandless from the biography film Into the Wild, and myself from my life. One quote from The Catcher in the Rye that describes all these people is from Mr. Antolini when he tells Holden, “Among other …show more content…
things, you are not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior…… You’ll learn from them-- if you want to.
Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn from you”. This quote pertains to Holden, Chris, and myself because all three of us initially hated people’s behavior, but eventually came to realize the goodness of people.
The words, “Among other things, you are not the first person who was ever confused and and frightened and even sickened by human behavior”, pertains to Holden, Chris, and I because we were disgusted with human behavior and needs. First, in The Catcher in the Rye, Holden hated everyone in his life. He thought Ackley was too annoying, Ernie was too fake, Sally was too dumb, and many other terrible things about other people. This hatred for other people and his idea of people being phony can be shown when Holden exclaims to the reader, “‘One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That’s all. They were coming in the goddam window. For instance, they had this headmaster, Mr. Haas, that was the phoniest bastard I ever met in my life. Ten times
worse than old Thurmer. On Sundays, for instance, old Haas went around shaking hands with everybody’s parents when they drove up to school. He’d be charming as hell and all. Except if some boy had little old funny-looking parents. You should’ve seen the way he did with my roommate’s parents.”’ (Salinger, ) Holden does not like people who act “phony” but, rather people who show their true selves. This quote also pertains to Chris in Into the Wild because, like Holden, he hates the human nature. “So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. .” This quote talks about how Chris view’s the world in his eyes. He sees it as a place where people will not be happy about their lives and yet not do anything about it. Both people feel as if people are just phony and do nothing to change their lives. This type of behavior just sickens them to the core and makes them hate humanity.
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
“Isolation is the sum total of wretchedness to man.” (Thomas Carlyle). In the story Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, this coming of age book tells of the teen troubles experienced by the main character Holden Caulfield. After Holden gets expelled from his school Pencey Prep, Holden leaves school a couple days early to explore New York City. In his travels he experiences isolation from friends at school, feeling disconnected from his family, as he tries understand these periods angst he finds some peace.
In J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye, the cyclical symbols of the broken record and the carousel imply that Holden will ultimately be unable to avoid adulthood.
There are many symbols in The Catcher and the Rye that stand out to the reader, but the one that stood out the most to me is alcohol. Alcohol represents how Holden was in a very bad place both physically and mentally. He was very depressed because everything around him seemed to be crashing down. Aside from that, alcohol seems to be what Holden turns to every now and then throughout the book because it takes his mind off of everything he thinks about like Ally, Jane Gallagher, being kicked out of high school, etc. Another thing is it gives him an escape from reality. Alcohol contributes to the reader’s understanding of the novel because when he drinks he goes through all of his emotions, which helps the reader understand his problems that he
He disregards most people because he thinks they are ‘phonies’ - materialistic, shallow and insincere people. To Holden, almost anyone who falls under that category is a phony and isn’t someone he wants to spend time with. However, because of Holden’s trauma, the reader can’t quite trust him. He sees the world through so many layers of protection, he is an unreliable narrator.
“Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is about a teenage boy struggling to get through the emotional ups and downs of life. He leaves readers with this quote at the very end of the book as a warning. He says this to prevent everyone from experiencing the lack of emotional support he felt for so long. Holden Caulfield feels as though sharing details from his life with others opens up the possibility of emotional endangerment and depression leading to self alienation to protect himself from being disappointed and heartbroken when the bond is broken.
At first glance, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye simply tells the story of Holden Caulfield, who is often characterized as annoying and whiny by the people around him. The anti-hero frequently speaks on impulse, making quick and often inaccurate observations of others. Holden’s immature and overly critical attitude turns off those he encounters, who are displeased with how callow he is. However, what these characters fail to understand is that there is actually a sort of sophistication behind Holden’s reasoning. In fact, throughout the novel, Holden disguises his maturity through outward displays of childishness.
“Inside every cynic is a disappointed idealist.” This quote by George Carlin perfectly outlines the reasons why many people are bitter toward the world in their everyday lives. While cynicism is justified for those who have had a tough life, countless people become exceedingly pessimistic because life didn’t meet their expectations.. An example of this would be Holden Caulfield from J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye”. Salinger does an admirable job of portraying how Holden’s attitude leads to a massive downward spiral. When a person holds too high of standards for the world around them, it can lead to an unrelenting undue criticism of people around them and even hypocrisy.
Holden alienates himself by believing he is better than everybody else. Every time Holden meets or talks about someone he is judgemental. Even when he is talking about someone he spends time with, he cannot help but ridicule them, “I never even once saw him [Ackley] brush his teeth....he had a lot of pimples. Not just on his forehead or his chin, like most guys, but all over his whole face. And not only that, he had a terrible personality. He was also sort of a nasty guy. I wasn't too crazy about him, to tell you the truth.”(Salinger,14 ). Ackley is probably the closest thing to a friend Holden has. Yet he criticizes him is a very nitpicky way, convincing himself he does not like
The Catcher in the rye , a novel by J.D Salinger is about a young teenage boy named Holden who has been kicked out of his current school and leaves earlier than he is supposed to because of a fight with a student. He decides to explore New York before going straight home . During his exploration he has encounters with prostitutes , teachers , nuns , an old girlfriend , and his sister. During his time in New York , the theme alienation for self protection and numbness caught my attention.
drunk. A good example of this is one of the many bar scenes when he gets quite
The form of diction used in The Catcher in the Rye is a topic on which many people are strongly opinionated. Because the narrator speaks solely in the vernacular, the novel is ripe with vulgar language. Most of this language is used to characterize Holden, the protagonist and narrator, as a typical American teenager living in the late 1940s or early 1950s, but some of it is utilized to convey Salinger’s theme of innocence versus corruption. When Holden is walking through his sister Phoebe’s school, he sees a scrawl on the wall saying “Fuck you.” He imagines the writing was etched by “some perverty bum that’d sneaked in the school late at night to take a leak or something” (260-61). Again in the museum, Holden encounters another such sign. Both the school and the museum are places he identifies with his childhood, but they have been perverted by the corruption of the world. He is concerned for the children who will inevitably see these signs and be told what they mean by “some dirty kid…all cockeyed, naturally” (260), spoiling the children’s innocence. This is just one more step towards adulthood and corruption. He is disgusted by the people in the world, saying “You can’t ever find a place that’s nice and peaceful, because there isn’t any. You think there is, but once you get there, when you’re not looking, somebody’ll sneak up and write ‘Fuck yo...
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.
J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye depicts a short span in the life of a
*Hassan was crying because of the shame he felt after the encounter with the soldier who said he had slep with his mother at some point.