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The catcher in the rye 4 character essay
Character analysis holden catcher in the rye
Analyzing characters from the catcher in the rye
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For a child to learn and grow, he or she has to confront the world rather than staying away from it. Instead of letting a child earn, some adults want to protect a child’s purity from becoming tainted. Some adults desire to shelter children from facing corruption in order to preserve innocence. In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist, Holden Caulfield faces the dilemma of wanting to protect children. Holden Caulfield desires to protect innocence because of his experience with corruption.
Holden experiences the corruption of adulthood first though D.B., Stradlater and Maurice. His brother, D.B. was his role model because he was enchanted by D.B.’s winsome stories, but D.B. grew up and became corrupted. D.B. left Holden and
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his innocence behind to Hollywood. As one might see as following aspirations, Holden views this as betrayal because his brother is in Hollywood “being a prostitute” (Salinger 4) to gain fame and fortune rather than telling stories and never changing. Moreover, even though his roommate, Stradlater, is the same age as Holden, Stradlater is trying to be an adult by doing adult things and Holden sees him as a corruptor towards innocence. Holden know that he is capable of corrupting innocence because Stradlater is “one of the few boys at Pencey Prep who actually succeeded in ‘giving the time’ to girls that he dates” (Freedman). Then, he encounters Maurice who is corrupt to the core. Maurice solicits a prostitute who is a similar age to Holden who is also a minor. Sex and prostitution reappears again to Holden, first as D.B. being a prostitute, and then Sunny, the prostitute sent from Maurice. Holden sees sex as corrupt because it takes away innocence. He denotes his brother as a prostitute because he became an adult, and Sunny who is a real prostitute is corrupted because she takes away people’s innocence. In addition to sex, money turns people corrupt. Maurice is driven by greed and when Holden’s time with Sunny is up, Maurice comes for payment. He tells Holden, “It’s ten bucks chief. I told ya that. Ten bucks for a throw, fifften bucks till noon” (salinger 132), but Holden was deceived since Maurice lied about the price and increased it. Holden gets beaten up by the corrupt nature of greed and the corruptor wins against him. Corruption also coincides with his hatred of phoniness, stemming from corruption. Holden despises phonies, who he believes are pretentious or sanctimonious because they are not being true to their beliefs. Mr. Spencer, Holden’s history teacher tells Holden that “life is a game” (Salinger 12), but Holden does not care because he sees Mr. Spencer as a sanctimonious adult who is pretending to show concern for him. Furthermore, Ernie is a talented pianist but Holden “ [swears] to God, if [he] were a piano…[he would] play in the goddam closet” (Salinger 110) which leads Holden to believe innocence, like talent, should be kept in a closet closed from corruption. He thinks that playing for others is wasting talent because Ernie plays for attention and shows off instead of cherishing it. Furthermore, Ossenburger is pretentious because he “[Gives] Pencey a pile of money and they named [a] wing after him” (Salinger 22). Ossenburger does not gives money to the school because he appreciates it, but to flaunt his money and get a wing named after him to be remembered and gain people’s adoration. Holden abhors this because Ossenburger is corrupted by the thought of “money buys everything” and he gains people’s attention by pretending to love the school. Holden hates phonies because they pretend to care, but truly they just want people’s attention or make themselves seem as if they are good, moral humans. Salinger incorporates symbolism to represent Holden’s desire to main innocence. First, the record that Holden bought broke and that “can be understood to represent the fallen. Significantly, Holden picks up these broken pieces and gives them to Pheobe despite thier condition. Phoebe responds [that she is saving them]...[which parallels] the fallen girl...to merit the same treatment.”(Takeuchi). The broken record symbolizes how fragile innocence against corruption and even though it is shattered beyond repair he “ took the pieces out of the envelope and put them in [his] coat pocket”(Salinger 199) in order to hold on to the remnants of innocence and save them. Furthermore, Holden inquires about the ducks and the taxi driver replies that the fish “don't go no place. They stay right where they are, the fish. Right in the goddam lake”(Salinger 109) versus the ducks that fly away. Holden’s sentiment toward children growing up and entering adulthood are the ducks and the fish stay frozen in ice representing how Holden wishes to encase innocence. Then, Holden “[has] [half a head of] gray hair...And yet [he] still act[s] sometimes like [he is] only about twelve”(Salinger 13). This shows that Holden tries to keep ahold of his own innocence, but is still growing up and thus, as he approaches adulthood, he starts to notice the corruption around him. The symbolism used demonstrates innocence is easily susceptible to corruption and Holden battles whether it is better to let innocence go than shelter it away. From his experiences with corruption, he realizes how he wants to preserve innocence becoming corrupted by adulthood.
The people he is with give insight to why he wants to save innocence. First being, Jane, his childhood friend, whom he bases his innocence on. Holden cannot stop her from growing up, so throughout the book her fails to call her every time because he is afraid that the Jane he calls will not be the same anymore. Holden preserves her innocence by preserving his memories of her which he recalls and avoids seeing her without her innocence. Then, his younger sister Phoebe says how she is too young for the carousel , but because he wants to keep her from acknowledging that she is growing up so he tells he she is still young enough. Moreover, even though Phoebe tries to be mature, “ [when] Phoebe returns the hat to Holden…[He tries] to catch Phoebe”(Takeuchi) by telling her that she can have it since it represents a shield against corruption. Holden also protects the children as shown by, “ the [graffiti]...[that] appears on a wall at his sister's school, and ... to protect youngsters ... he is moved to erase it” (Shaw). Since he “thought how Phoebe and all the others would see it” (Salinger 260) he erases the obscene words from corrupting the children’s minds since the words graffitied are words that adults use and should not be shown to children. His experience with corruption compels him to protect and preserve …show more content…
innocence. Holden alienates himself from the people around him to protect his own innocence. His red hunting hat separates himself from the crowd so that the phoniness and the corruption will not approach him. The color red is known to be the first color babies’ see and the fact that babies first see red ties in with innocence in childhood and Holden uses the as a form of protecting his childhood innocence. Similar to his siblings, Allie and Phoebe, who both are redheads and children that still have their innocence. Moreover, he calls his hat a people shooting hat, which represents the people who he wants to shoot is the corrupted so he can rid the world of phoniness and corruption for a safe world where innocence will not be tainted. Furthermore, Holden comes up with the idea to run away with with Sally and “[that they] will stay in the cabin camps” (Salinger 171) shows that run away from the corrupted and the only reason he wants Sally with him is just for human contact with another person. Moreover, his encounter with Mr.Antolini, whom he put his trust into also “betrayed” him. “What [Mr.Antolini] was doing was...petting [him]” (Salinger 249), and Holden is shocked since his “Not-touching [rule includes] Mr. Antolini, [so when] Antolini touches Holden's head, he violates the "Don't touch" rule”(Takeuchi). The “no touch rule” is Holden’s method to avoid corruption by not having anyone become too close to him or touch him. So when Antolini touches him, he fears for the worst, and he runs away without rationalizing what happened. Holden is running away again from the problem without thinking clearly, and he thinks by alienating himself he preserves his innocence from being corrupted. He preserves innocence by running away and alienating himself from corruption. The symbolism represents innocence and Holden’s reasoning to wishing to protect innocence. In the lyrics of the song where he misunderstands the words as being a catcher in the rye. The catcher in the rye represents Holden wanting to catch children who personify innocence from falling over a cliff, which is associated as corruption. Holden “[has] to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff…[because] if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going [he has] to come out from somewhere and catch them” (Salinger 225) before they grow up and become corrupted. In addition, his younger brother, Allie died at a young age, and Holden refers to how he keeps his baseball mitt. A baseball mitt is used to catch baseballs but, Allie’s baseball caught and holds onto Allie’s innocence when he was alive. The death of Allie is Holden’s reason for wanting to protect innocence due to Allie’s death being metaphorically seen as the death of innocence, which parallels a child being sent to adulthood and losing its innocence from facing the world filled with corruption. He even does not want to destroy a snowball he made because he sees it as “‘too nice and white’ [so it] can be understood to suggest a pristine state undisturbed by any contact” (Takeuchi). The purity of a snowball relates to how he sees everything pure as easily broken and fragile, and if he throws the snowball, it will crumble as if becoming corrupted. Holden takes in his experience with corruption and determines that innocence is better off protected.
His fear of children growing up and facing the world drives him to shelter innocence as much as possible, but he is avoiding the problem of growing up instead of facing it. Holden , too, needs to let go of his innocence and face the world instead of having delusions of an ideal world that he wishes for. Antolini quotes Wilhelm Stekel “The mark of the mature 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” (Salinger 244) and Holden needs to mature by letting go of his innocence. Children cannot be sheltered from corruption to protect innocence. In order to mature, Children have to grow up and learn themselves that even though adulthood has a dark side, there is also a brighter
side.
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.
J. D. Salinger’s novel, Catcher in the Rye explores the ambiguity of the adult world Holden must eventually learn to accept. Throughout the novel, Holden resists the society grownups represent, coloring his childlike dreams with innocence and naivety. He only wants to protect those he loves, but he cannot do it the way he desires. As he watches Phoebe on the carousel, he begins to understand certain aspects of truth. He writes:
He is not innocent, but he is also not mature. Holden identifies with children, but they do not identify with him. “I passed by this playground and stopped and watched a couple of very tiny kids on a seesaw. One of them was sort of fat, and I put my hand on the skinny kid's end, to sort of even up the weight, but you could tell they didn't want me around, so I let them alone.”(81) In this example and others, Holden wants to be with the children, because he still sees himself as an innocent child. Although he is always reaching for a cigarette or drink, Holden has a difficult time accepting that he is no longer an innocent child. This is the foundation of Holden’s depression, which J.D salinger revales upfront. has a difficult time accepting he is no longer
The theme of The Catcher in the Rye is simple. J. D. Salinger uses this novel to draw a clear distinction between the purity of childhood and the wickedness attained when one reaches adulthood. Salinger uses multiple literary devices including diction, symbolism, tone, and even the title of the novel to drive home his ideas about the innocence of children and the corruption of the world.
In Holden's fight with Stradlater, his roommate, he reveals his moral ideals: he fears his roommate's sexual motives, and he values children for their sincerity and innocence, seeking to protect them from the phony adult society. Jane Gallagher and Allie, the younger brother of Holden who died at age 11, represent his everlasting symbols of goodness (Davis 317). A quote by Charles Kegel seems to adequately sum up the problems of Holden Caulfield: "Like Stephen Dedalus of James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Caulfield is in search of the Word. His problem is one of communication: as a teenager, he simply cannot get through to the adult world which surrounds him; as a sensitive teenager, he cannot get through others of his own age" (54). When critics consider the character of Holden Caulfield, many point to the novel's climactic scene, when Holden watches as Phoebe rides the Central Park carousel in the rain and his illusion of protecting the innocence of children is symbolically shattered.
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.
In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden’s outlook in life is either the innocence of childhood or the cruelty of adulthood. He believes that the innocence of childhood is very valuable and it should be protected from the cruelty and phoniness of the adult world. Therefore Holden has a desire and is compelled to protect a child’s innocence at all costs. This is revealed when Holden tells Phoebe that he wants to be the catcher in the rye. Holden says to Phoebe, “What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they’re ru...
We see during the novel that Holden wants to be able to protect innocence in the world, however by the end of the story he lets go of that desire. This is a point of growth for Holden. He finds that it is impossible and unnecessary to keep all the innocence in the world. While with Phoebe Holden says, “I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye...I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff...That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye” (173). In this moment Holden wants to be able to preserve all the youth and innocence in the world. He doesn’t accept that kids have to grow and change and that they can’t stay innocent forever. Later on in the story when Holden is with Phoebe at a carousel again he thinks, “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the golden ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them.” At the end of the novel Holden realizes and comes to terms with the fact that kids grow and lose their innocence. He moves from his want to be the “catcher in the rye” to...
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.
...oes want them to turn into “phonies.” Holden seeks for a peaceful and uncorrupt world but he cannot obtain that due to the actions of others. Despite Holden’s attitude and outlook on life, he is quite passionate. Although he is a firm pessimist, calling every person he comes across a “phony,” there is an alternate side to him. In his interaction with Phoebe and the other children in the book, he tries to protect them from the rest of society, since children are still naïve and pure. It is justifiable why Holden craves to preserve the innocence of others. For most of us, growing up, we begin to understand more. We start to look at life in a different perspective, different from the one we did when we were young, but as a person who has seen and experienced more in life.
This reveals Holden’s fantasy of an idealistic childhood and his role as the guardian of innocence. Preventing children from “going over the cliff” and losing their innocence is his way of vicariously protecting himself from growing up as well. Holden acknowledges that this is “crazy,” yet he cannot come up with a different lifestyle because he struggles to see the world for how it truly is, and fears not knowing what might happen next. Holden’s “catcher in the rye” fantasy reflects his innocence, his belief in a pure, uncorrupted youth, and his desire to protect it. This fantasy also represents his disconnection from reality, as he thinks he can stop the process of growing up, yet
In his novel Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger portrays childhood and adolescence as times graced by innocence when his protagonist, Holden Caulfield, is faced with the reality of becoming an adult. Holden’s desperation to maintain his innocence and the manner in which he critiques those he deems to have lost theirs, emphasizes his immaturity and ignorance while highlighting the importance the author places on childhood.
phonies and all he hates. By being in the stage where he is, he manages to avoid change, control his world with his own hands, yet. creates a paradox between what he is, and what he wants to be. Possibly the main reason why Holden doesn’t want to become an adult. is his perception of ”phoniness” and hypocrisy surrounding adult.
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.
To begin with, Holden’s love for the innocence and purity of childhood makes him very hesitant to transition into an adult life. Generally, he finds children to be straightforward, easygoing, and simply pure in every way. This is because they always say what they mean, and never try to set a false façade for...