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Literary analysis for the catcher in rye
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Holden Caulfield a kid who has emotional, and social problems is having a struggle with growing up. Holden has many complications with his social abilities, and is in a very poor emotional state. He is hitting the age of maturity and he is struggling with that process. The book The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, tell the story of how Holden Caulfield deals with his recent expulsion from his high school Pencey prep, and how he is struggling with growing up, and deal with mature situations. Holden struggles with growing up and fights between acting mature or acting like a child. Holden has been having trouble maturing and expressing his feelings in a mature way. A situation that displays this, is when Holden punches Stradlater his roommate, …show more content…
Holden shows that he continues to keep the innocent idea of Jane and checkers well within his mind. He thinks of Jane as innocence because of how she kept her kings in the back row the kings which to him made her seem like an innocent girl that was naive and friendly. This however changes when Stradlater comes back from his date with her, pushing Holden over the edge, afraid that his innocent belief of change is ruined. Holden has a struggle expressing his thoughts in a mature …show more content…
Holden still does the childish thing of making up situations. An example of this is, when he gets beat up in the hotel and is bleeding instead of facing the fact he was beat he makes up a story that he was in a shootout Holden exclaims, “But I’d plug him anyway, six shots right through his fat hairy belly.” (Salinger 184). Holden making up a situation like this that shows that he still does the childish thing of making up a situation instead of accepting what actually happened. He also does it to make himself feel cool, so his self-esteem doesn’t lower. Holden goes to a bar and gets drunk, he then starts to pretend that he was shot again, Holden says, “I kept keeping my hand under my jacket to keep the blood from dripping” (Salinger 150). Holden does this because he is trying to escape the harsh reality and makes his situations more fun and interesting. He doesn’t want to feel the guilt of getting drunk and hurting Sally’s feelings, so he bends reality. Holden warps reality and changes how he perceives things in order to not deal with
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
Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child. “All of a sudden I started to cry. I’d give anything if I hadn’t, but I did” (p. 103). This occurs when Maurice argues with Holden about money that Holden owes to a prostitute. The situation becomes too much for Holden to handle, and he breaks down like a child. Holden also tries to have immature conversations with people who have become adults. Another example of imma...
Immediately after Allie’s death, Holden changes immensely. His very first act after Allie died was smashing all his garage windows with his fist. Following this aggressive act, he becomes a recluse and judges every person he crosses to- I assume- Allie, because of how much he still reminded Holden of innocence, and will for the rest of his life. Cynthia Barron states, “Holden is sixteen… in a unique position, caught in the limbo between childhood and adulthood. Thus faced with their inability to adapt to an adult world that is hypocritical and corrupt, both boys seek a return to the realm of childhood” (Barron). In my personal opinion, i believe that he ...
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.
Holden's problems in the real world were too much for him, he had to make up things to make himself seem better than what he was.
J.D. Salinger's 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, is about a sixteen-year-old boy named Holden Caulfield. Throughout the story, his doubt and strange thoughts reflect his desperation from others. His tone often sets a depressing setting. In the novel, it never reflects on Holden's past, and in the end never shown any signs of his achievements. Holden is not your typical bildungsroman protagonist, many question if Holden Caulfield ever comes of age.
While trying to fall asleep after getting beat up by Maurice, Holden thinks of what he would rather be doing, “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would’ve done it, too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn’t want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory” (Salinger 104). Holden does not understand the world around him and would like to find a way where he can escape it and not have to deal with it. By killing himself Holden would have a way where he could escape his surroundings and responsibilities. Furthermore, Holden has a fear of growing up and wants to avoid it. While out with Sally, Holden states, “What we could do is, tomorrow morning we could drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont, and all around there, see… We’ll stay in these cabin camps and stuff like that till the dough runs out. Then, when the dough runs out, I could get a job somewhere with a brook and all and, later on, we could get married or something. I could chop all our own wood in the wintertime and all” (Salinger
There is not enough information in these six chapter to have a deep description about Holden’s complex character, and maybe something in this character sketch change drastically in next chapters, but Holden seems an intelligent, stubborn and protective character who confronts many problems in his
It is made evident that Holden is enamored with Jane Gallagher, and this first manifests itself when Holden talks about her to Stradlater. “I used to play checkers with her,” Holden recounts. “ ‘She’d get [her kings] all lined up in the back row. Then she’d never use them. She just liked the way they looked when they were all in the back row.’ Stradlater didn’t say anything. That kind of stuff doesn’t interest most people” (41). In a world where almost everything is so “goddam depressing,” thinking about Jane’s minor traits actually makes Holden happy, even if it is the kind of stuff that does not interest most people. It allows him to channel his childhood, where he was oblivious to the phoniness around him. However, this silly nostalgia cannot get across to Stradlater, who is more interested in Jane as a sexual being than trivialities such as her checker tactics or struggles with ballet. This physical interest eventually becomes the root of their brawl in their dorm. Although Holden’s interrogative mood agitates Stradlater, Holden is only showing his genuine care for Jane. Unlike Stradlaer, Holden has enough sense to know that Jane, being the humble, intelligent girl she is, deserves to be treated right. So, even though Holden lets his anger get the better of him and eventually start a fight, he has reason to do
He also pretends to do unnecessary things like walking around imagining himself with bullets in his guts. On chapter 20, page 149 Holden says “When she was finished, she beat it out of the room so fast I didn't even get a chance to invite her to join me for a drink” I chose this because this is an example of how Holden is desperately trying to talk to someone so he can vent himself and get everything off his mind. But it always seems that when he talks to someone he puts himself in a bad position. On chapter 20, page 150 Holden also says “When I was really drunk, I started that stupid business with the bullets in my guts again. I was the only guy at the bar with bullets in their guts.” This goes back to what I was saying about him being depressed and being physically and mentally ill because who in their right mind, even though he’s drunk, would imagine having bullets in their guts and blood dripping everywhere. Last but not least, on page 151 Holden says “When I’m drunk, i'm a madman” Holden comes right out and says that he’s not a responsible drinker and this also proves that even though he drinks, all of his problems still exist and the effects of those problems come down harder on him than they did when he is
Ackley barges into Holden’s room and Holden thinks to himself: “He ha[s] a terrible personality. He [is] also sort of a nasty guy. I wasn’t to crazy about him, to tell you the truth” (26). The whole time Ackley is in Holden’s room, he talks about how mean, rude, dirty, etc. he is. He even tells him to his face what he thinks about him. When Stradlater comes to join them, Holden thinks to himself, “He was at least a pretty friendly guy, Stradlater. It was partly a phony kind of friendly, but at least he always said hello to Ackley and all” (34). Holden seems to have conflicted feelings about Stradlater. He thinks that he is nice although it may be phony, and that he is handsome and built, but he also thinks that he is a hot-shot, a secret slob, and thinks too highly of
In his fight with Stradlater, Holden’s character is shown as a defender of innocence. He defends the memory of his brother through the report he writes for Stradlater. Because of Stradlater’s criticism on his brother’s death, Holden destroys the essay and says “All right, give it back to me, then,’ I said. I went over and pulled it right out of his goddamn hand. Then I tore it up.” Holden is tormented by the memory of his brother throughout the novel, and in this fight he defends his brothers memory by protecting the baseball glove. Later in this scene Holden is upset with Stradlater’s relationship with Jane. Holden explains, “If you knew Stradlater, you 'd have been worried, too. I 'd double-dated with the bastard a couple of times, and I know what I 'm talking about. He was unscrupulous.” Holden tries to defend Jane’s innocence and the reader is able to see Holden’s ethical code to protect the innocence and memory of others. In Holden’s confrontation with Maurice, Holden displays his detestation of the evil phony. “All of a sudden I started to cry. I 'd give anything if I hadn 't, but I did. 'No, you 're no crooks, ' I said. 'You 're just steeling five ' 'Shut up, ' old Maurice said and gave me a shove.” The scene between Maurice and Holden over the prostitute Sunny shows his emotions when it comes to fake people. In this scene he
Holden's idealism is first brought forth when he describes his life at Pency Prep. It is full of phonies, morons and bastards. His roommate, Stradlater, " was at least a pretty friendly guy, It was partly a phony kind of friendly..." (26) and his other roommate, Ackley is "a very nosy bastard" (33). Holden can't stand to be around either one of them for a very long time. Later, he gets into a fight with Stradlater over his date with Jane. Holden is upset because he thinks that Stradlater "gave her the time" and that he doesn't care about her; 'the reason he didn't care was because he was a goddam stupid moron. All morons hate it when you call them a moron' (44). Holden not only sees his roommates as phonies and bastards, but he also sees his headmaster at Pency Prep as a "phony slob" (3). This type of person is exactly what Holden doesn't want to be. He strives to be a mature adult; caring, compassionate, and sensitive.
One of them being Stradlater being with Jane, This caused Holden to become angry at him for being with someone he actually likes. Holden thinks Stradlater is using Jane for sex more than friendship. He says, “If you didn't go to New York, where'd ya go with her”(26)? Holden reveals his thoughts about Stradlater not respecting Jane as his girlfriend. Because of this, Holden even imagines himself killing Stradlater for Jane due to the fact that Jane is the only girl he has feelings towards. When Holden visits Phoebe’s school, he found a written F word on the wall. Holden says, “F word on a wall is crazy, I kept wanting to kill whoever written it”(221). He disappointed towards actions that elementary school students do naturally. Despite the fact Holden was actually teenagers, he fails to control his scenario of killing people. By seeing most of his imaginations, Holden still handles life with anger and childish thoughts, showing he has not grown up through a series of
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