It’s clear from the first chapter of Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye that Holden Caulfield isn’t exactly your stereotypical teenager. He's not only failed out of 4 schools, but at every school he attends, he leaves friendless. Holden often lies and deceives both new acquaintances and old friends. Despite these unusual tendencies, there's nothing inherently wrong with him; he's simply lonely. Throughout his teenage years, Holden has moved from one boarding school to another, which would make any teenager feel out of place and isolated. On top of being new, we know Holden is objectively thin and lanky. This is clear when he and Stradlater get into a fight and Stradlater is quick to immediately pin him to the floor (56). This clearly affects Holden's self-esteem, as he frequently mentions it. …show more content…
We know Holden has some unusual ways of talking and interacting with new people; he likes to lie to them out of entertainment instead of genuinely trying to become friends with them. This could be viewed as a sociopathic tendency, Holden’s. However, I view this as Holden exhibiting his loneliness. When Holden has no close friends or family to talk to, what does he do? He lies. He does this on multiple occasions, including on the train when he runs into the mother of someone at his school (71). He makes up an entire persona out of her son and even gives her a fake name. However, he’s not doing this to take pleasure in someone else’s pain, he’s doing this for pure entertainment as he has nothing else to do. He enjoys reading, but other than that, Holden has almost nothing to do with his time. This is what causes him to interact the way he
Immaturity of Holden in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye 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.
Compulsive lying is another characteristic that Holden exhibits. Holden would tell people lies just so they could not become closer to the real Holden. Holden tells lies on numerous occasions to gain. Holden pathetically tells Mrs. Morrow, " I have to have a tiny operation… it isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on my brain" (58). She tells Holden that she is very sorry and she is hopeful that he shall be well soon. Holden then catches him self in a lie and he remarkes, "Once I get started, I can go on for hours if I feel like it," (58). This compulsive lying shows that Holden is not satisfied with himself and that he feels that people will judge him critically.
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
In the novel The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger,Holden the main character tries to take on adult and mature situations but finds himself in reality not getting very far. Holden Caulfield who goes to Pencey has failed four out of five classes and gets the notice that he is being expelled from the school. He leaves the school and goes out and tries to adventure into the real world. Holden takes on many challenges and obstacles throughout the book . Although Holden wants to be independent many people perceive Holden in numerous different ways to his actions and feelings. Faith and Stradlater both perceive Holden as irritating, when in reality he tries to distract himself from being depressed. For example when Holden was in the phone
Vin Diesel once said, “It's insecurity that is always chasing you and standing in the way of your dreams.” In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden struggles with insecurity and accepting his personality and intellect. We get glimpses of these very traits Holden is insecure about through his observations of certain people he looks up to, namely his brother Allie and his old friend Mr. Antolini. It can’t be a coincidence that the people he admires happen to have certain ideal traits on which Holden expresses self-doubt. Salinger uses the description of characters that Holden holds in high regard to represent key traits that Holden is insecure about within himself.
His inability to have normal conversations and relationships is possibly one of the factors that has him shunned by his peers. Holden's insecurity is one of the reasons for his compulsive lying. This, in turn, is why he can't find his place in the world.
As Holden Caulfield interacts with others and meets new challenges, he reveals his innermost feelings throughout The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. Some may interpret his behaviors as teenage angst, but others find that Holden reveals traits of a mental disorder. Specifically, Holden suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder. Borderline Personality Disorder “is a serious mental illness marked by unstable moods, behavior, and relationships” (NIMH). He often experiences uncontrollable rage that results in altercations and behaves on impulse when handling money. He also shows signs of addiction when consuming alcohol. Additionally, Holden has trouble maintaining positive relationships with
In the Catcher in the Rye, Holden is an immature boy. Holden’s immaturity cause him many problem throughout the book. He is physically mature but not emotionally mature. He acts like a child. “All of a sudden I started to cry. I’d give anything if I hadn’t, but I did” (p. 103). Holden shows his emotional unstableness.
Holden Caulfield, - notorious for either being kicked out of schools or as he simply describes it “quitting”- having just been kicked out of yet another school for his lack of motivation, views life through a cynical lens as he deems those different from him as “phony”. Holden justifies his annoyance towards everything as he intermittently cuts off his tale to share some random pet peeve or irrelevant story, such as when he describes his roommate Stradlater as a “secret slob” (Salinger, 35) and continues on to critique his grooming habits, in an effort to validate how “phony” things really are. However, these tactics only further show his immaturity as Holden’s judgment of being a “phony” symbolizes his fear of growing up. Moreover, Holden’s greatest defense mechanism is pushing others away, this is seen as Holden visits his history teacher, Mr. Spencer and while he tries to
Within the book The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D Salinger the protagonist Holden, forces us to view him and his actions as immature. He lacks the wisdom and maturity needed to be successful in a fast pace world. Holden’s adolescent mind struggles to keep up with his developing emotions, causing him to have immense amounts of social anxiety. As a result of these struggles Holden finds difficulty in taking ownership of his mistakes leading him to be seen as immature in the eyes of those who surround him. Holden persistently acts in ways that do not fit the certain criteria our society has set for young men. In a way there is a stigma around individuals that do not act in the way we wish them too. This factor also
Holden Caulfield is a peculiar teenager. He's hypocritical, cynical, dishonest, and most of all...confused. All of these traits add up to an unreliable narrator, to say the least. You can never take what Holden says at face value: you have to read between the lines. In between the lines lies the fact that he is extremely lonely, and that his fear of abandonment causes him to isolate himself in opposition to that. He often tries to cover this up from both himself and outsiders, hence the lying and contradictory nature of his thoughts. The problem is, he doesn't know why he's lonely. He feels cut off from the rest of society; feels as though he is all alone in this world of supposed phonies. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden's loneliness shines through in the way he frequently reaches out to complete strangers for companionship (strangers he generally dislikes, too, which shows just how desperate he is for company). True to his contradictory nature, he also tries to isolate himself at the same time, for he fears abandonment. Abandonment, as a matter of fact, is at the very root of his issuance with creating connections: he reaches out to people and then immediately proceeds to push them away, for he is terrified of getting hurt by them.
that he is trying to hide his true identity. He does not want people to know who he really is or that he was kicked out of his fourth school. Holden is always using fake names and tries speaking in a tone to persuade someone to think a cretin way. He does this when he talks to women. While he is talking to the psychiatrist he explains peoples reactions to his lies like they really believe him, when it is very possible that he is a horrible liar and they are looking at him with a “what are you talking a bout?” expression. Holden often lies to the point where he is lying to him self.
Throughout the novel Holden seems to be excluded from any group. He feels alienated from the rest of society, but I believe that Holden stays bitter on purpose. He keeps a cynical, sarcastic outlook on life so as to escape his true feelings. This is not uncommon for people who have trouble accepting their problems. Many of the times that Holden criticizes people it is something he does himself. (Pg 13) “… one of the reasons I left Elkton was that I was surrounded by phonies…” Holden himself is many times what he refers to as a “phony”. He knows that he lies and pretends to like people that he would rather not be with. (Pg 125) “… I told her I loved her and all. It was a lie of course…” His bitterness is a shield against his reality, a reality he doesn’t like at all. Yet at the same time Holden really wants to communicate with people. (Pg 66) “ I damn near gave my kid sister Phoebe a buzz…” He is torn between the two ways to act and cannot reach conclusio...
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...
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...