More handpicked essays just for you.
The catcher in the rye cultural context
The Catcher in the Rye Symbols, Motifs and Themes
Social media affecting people physically and emotionally
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Over just the past decade technology has drastically changed the way people interact with others, with everyone owning computers and smartphones. That’s just the past ten years imagine the changes over the half century. In the Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, a teenager named Holden from the 1940s, gets kicked out of his boarding school, and goes to New York in search of happiness in the world. Although the book is the “Great American High School Novel”, some writers, like Jessica Roake, believe it is no longer relevant to teens today. While others, like the author of “Here's What 'The Catcher In The Rye' Can Teach You About Life”, thinks that it can still teach life lessons to teens today. In spite of The Catcher in the Rye’s success …show more content…
over the past half century, it is unfortunately no longer relevant to teens today due to the change in time period, from 1940 to today. The adult interaction with in the story demonstrates how adults treat teens differently today. When Holden is returning to his hotel room the elevator assistant offers Holden a prostitute. After Holden left the bar, Holden returned to the hotel and the elevator operator asks him if Holden was “Innarested in a little tail t’night”(Salinger 91). Today if someone offered a teen a prostitute they would go to jail showing the change in laws and courtesy of adults. Later Fung 2 when Holden meets with Mr.
Antolini his teacher from three schools ago, and Mr. Antolini offers Holden a cigarette. It is weird that Holden is meeting one of his teachers from so long ago and sleeping at his house. It was also very normal that everyone smoked in the 1940s. Many changes in laws have changed the way adults and young teens live their lives, today you can’t smoke until you are eighteen. The way teens socialize with adults today is completely different from how they acted sixty years ago.
The way Holden acts shows how he is not an average teen. He is separated from his parents while at his boarding school and gets kicked out due to his poor grades. When talking with Mr. Spencer, Holden says he failed four out of his five classes, but did not have to do much work in English class. Holden is not relevant to teens if he does not act like a teen, for many teens care about their grades, so they may graduate and move on in life. Whereas Holden is very lazy and does not have any guidance in his life from any guardians or parents. Holden also has problems making friends and meeting new people. Although Source II states that “You’re not alone in your frustrations” regarding Holden, it contridicts the point that Holden does not have any friends or family besides his sister which he does not talk to until later in story. Holden does not have the greatest person skills, and most teens have lots of friends and can relate to others pretty easy which is totally different
from Holden. The Catcher in the Rye illustrates that it is not relevant to teens today because it is outdated. The way adults treated Holden is totally different from today, and Holden is also not your normal teen. This book has opened many people’s eyes of all ages from different time Fung 3 periods, but since it is not relevant anymore we must find alternatives to match up against this book. Jessica Roake thinks it is only “a book for cool school teachers,” and suggests the new novel Black Swan Green by David Mitchell inspired by J.D. Salinger. Despite the fact that The Catcher in the Rye can never be repeated, we need something that teens of today can better comprehend and relate to.
Throughout the novel Holden resembles characteristics of an adult. An example of Holden being an adult is staying in a hotel by himself, underage and often goes out to drink. He goes to clubs to drink his problems away. In the
J.D Salinger gives his personal vision of the world successfully through his persona Holden Caulfield in the ‘Catcher in the Rye’. Caulfield struggles with the background of New York to portray Salinger’s theme – you must live the world as it is, not as you would like it to be. There by exposing Salinger’s vision on the world.
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 childhood was far from ideal, with Allie dying, his dysfunctional parents and the revelation that he had some “perverty” stuff happen to him when he was a kid. Due to this, he isn't ready to step into adulthood and leave his childhood behind. This is why Holden is mostly alienated from adults and connects more to the innocence of children like the girl at the park and his sister, Phoebe. However, Holden is disillusioned with both adulthood and childhood. He already knows how it feels to be an adult; drinking alcohol, being independent, living by himself and caring for Phoebe, but isn’t ready to immerse himself in it.
The first and most obvious characteristic found in most teens, including Holden, would be the desire for independence. Throughout the novel, Holden is not once found wishing to have his parents help in any way. He has practically lived his entire life in dorms at prestigious schools, and has learned quite well how to be on his own. This tendency of teenagers took place in even in ancient history, where the freshly developed teen opts to leave the cave and hunt for is own food. Every teenager tries, in his or her own way, to be independent. Instead of admitting to ones parents of a wrongful deed, the teen tries covering up the mistake or avoiding it in hopes that they won't get in any trouble. They feel that they have enough intelligence to think through a problem without going to their parents for assistance. When Holden hears the news that he has been expelled from Pency, he concludes that his parents would not know of this for a few days. Therefore, he would wait from Saturday all the way to Wednesday, let his parents "get it and thoroughly digest it", and then face the consequences, which will more than likely be less severe after his parents calmed down. He states on page fifty-one, "I didn't want to be around when they first got it. My mother gets very hysterical. She's not too bad after she gets something thoroughly digested, though." In taking the independent route, Holden does not look for sympathy or help from either of his parents.
Protected by a cocoon of naiveté, Holden Caulfield, the principal character in the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, therapeutically relates his lonely 24 hour stay in downtown New York city, experiencing the "phony" adult world while dealing with the death of his innocent younger brother. Through this well-developed teenage character, JD Salinger, uses simple language and dialogue to outline many of the complex underlying problems haunting adolescents. With a unique beginning and ending, and an original look at our new society, The Catcher in the Rye is understood and appreciated on multiple levels of comprehension. The book provides new insights and a fresh view of the world in which adolescents live.
Throughout the novel, Holden leaves hints insinuating that he is distancing himself from people and society through his actions and decisions. Holden shows his hate towards the adult world by mentioning “phoniness” throughout the book, insinuating that he will never be like this, even though it’s impossible. His constant failing at school evidences that he isn’t planning to have a common future by having a job like most people would. It was evidently explained that Holden doesn’t fit in because he doesn’t want to be part of humans’ corrupted society. Regardless of how one feels about society, it is evident that its flaws made a teenager retract from accepting humans’ adult world, and instead negated to be a part of it.
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.
Growing up and becoming mature can be an intimidating experience; it is difficult to let go of one’s childhood and embrace the adult world. For some people, this transition from youthfulness to maturity can be much more difficult than for others. These people often try to hold on to their childhood as long as they can. Unfortunately, life is not so simple. One cannot spend their entire life running from the responsibilities and hardships of adulthood because they will eventually have to accept the fact that they have a role in society that they must fulfill as a responsible, mature individual. The novel “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger follows the endeavours of Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old teenage boy who faces a point in his life where he must make the transition from childhood to adulthood. In an attempt to retain his own childhood, he begins hoping to stop other young children from growing up and losing their innocence as well. As indicated by the title, “The Catcher in the Rye” is a book that explores a theme involving the preservation of innocence, especially of children. It is a story about a boy who is far too hesitant to grow up, and feels the need to ensure that no one else around him has to grow up either. His own fear of maturity and growing up is what leads to Holden’s desire to become a “catcher in the rye” so he can save innocent children from becoming part of the “phoniness” of the adult world.
From the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the youthful protagonist Holden Caufield, employs the word “phony” to describe the behavior of a number of characters including Mr. Spencer and Ossenburger, however it is not them who are“phony”, it is the young main character. First, Mr. Spencer, Holden’s ex- history teacher, is not described as phony, but according to the adolescent, his choice of words are. Secondly, according to our main character, Ossenburger is not the generous philanthropist he portrays himself to be, but rather a greedy undertaker. Lastly, the protagonist could quite possibly be the authentic phony. All in all, the main character’s use to describe many other characters in the book is with the single word phony, when in fact the word phony would be the most probable word to describe the lead character.
He complains about his school, saying that it is just like any other school and uses language that makes him sound very obnoxious. Holden seems to focus on girls quite a bit, just like any other teenage boy. He seems to focus on one girl in particular, a girl named Jane. We soon learn that Holden’s personality is not your average personality. Holden does seem to have some friends but he does not fall into many peer groups with the type of personality he has. Holden isn’t able to read social cues like most teenagers learn to do. For this reason, he seems to play around a lot in the wrong situations. Even his friends have matured enough to recognise that Holden needs to ‘grow up’. Holden’s resistance to emerging adulthood is the cause of many of the problems he is faced with during the
The two worlds of childhood and adulthood are not as separate as Holden thinks they are. He cuts himself off from the rest of the world by judging others around him, mostly adults. In the book it says, “ What I liked about her, she didn’t give you a lot of horse manure about what a great guy her father was. She probably knew what a phony slob he was.” (Pg 3). The book starts off with him judging an adult that he barely knows. Holden is physically an adult, but in his mind, he is only a child. He can relate to a child better than he can with an
Some people feel all alone in this world, with no direction to follow but their empty loneliness. The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D Salinger, follows a sixteen-year-old boy, Holden Caulfield, who despises society and calls everyone a “phony.” Holden can be seen as a delinquent who smokes tobacco, drinks alcohol, and gets expelled from a prestigious boarding school. This coming-of-age book follows the themes of isolation, innocence, and corrupted maturity which is influenced from the author's life and modernism, and is shown through the setting, symbolism, and diction.
Upon introduction, Holden Caulfield gives the impression of being a textbook teenage boy. He argues that Pencey Prep, the all-boys academy at which he studied, is no greater than any other school and is “full of crooks.”(Salinger, 7) His harsh language only further argues that he is situated in an all-male environment and has no apparent filter for when swearing is inappropriate. Despite all of the indications that Holden is typical, it soon becomes evident that Holden’s personality does not conform to the teenage stereotype. Although he appears to have some friends, namely, his roommate, Stradlater, and ‘Ackley kid’, it is clear that he does not integrate well with his peer group. Holden’s inability to read social cues leaves him in the dust when all of his “friends” have matured enough to recognize his need for improvement. He is constantly making jokes out of everything without any thought as to how h...
He replies with talking about how he would want to be the catcher in the rye.“What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff- I mean if they're running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day…. That’s the only thing I’d really like to be.” (Salinger 173) .As Holden explains this made up job of being the catcher in the rye. He shows how he matured and wants to be responsible for the many lives of these children not looking where they are going. Holden has deep feelings where he wants to save the family’s of these children from the same greving and pain that he and his family had to go through. In this next quote, Salinger explains that one can not only mature by thinking like an adult, but doing adult activities. Holden while in the Lavender Room starts to explain how he is able to order an alcoholic beverage skill being underage. “I ordered a Scotch and soda, and told him not to mix it-I said it fast as hell, because if you hem and haw, they think you’re under twenty-one and won’t sell you any intoxicating liquor” (Salinger 69). Holden orders his drink very quickly because he is aware that if you order slowly one will not be sold any alcohol. Holden knowing this shows that he has experience ordering intoxication drinks and has been drinking for awhile. Because of his brothers recent death he matures and uses this alcohol to escape the stresses in his own life. It is demonstrated in the next quote that one will mature because of the grieving of a loved one and not only go to adult activities but start to think like one too. As Holden is stopping by Phoebe’s school to drop of a note for her, he notices that somebody has written obscene words on the wall of the school. When he sees this he can’t help getting very upset about it. “I saw something that drove me crazy.