CITR QUOTES
Symbol:
The symbol I chose was Allie’s Baseball Mitt. Allie’s mitt is a meaningful object because it helps remind Holden of Allie and all the good times they had with each other.
Physical Description:
pg 9, “I was sixteen then, and I’m seventeen now, and sometimes I act like I’m about thirteen. It’s ironical, because I’m six foot two and a half and I have gray hair. I really do.” (Holden) Holden is a tall teenager who has gray hair at a very young age. He is also a light eater which makes him very skinny.
Relationships With other Characters:
Honesty/Dishonesty: pg 16, “So when I told old Spencer I had to go to the gym to get my equipment and stuff, that was a sheer lie. I don’t even keep my goddam equipment in the gym.” (Holden) Holden tends to lie a lot to everybody he talks to. Even though his lies are awful, as said earlier in the chapter, he still manages to make them believable and gets past it.
Humorous Situations: pg58, “No everybody’s fine at home… I have to have this operation.” (Holden) Holden is not going to have an operation
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even though he is leaving a few days early for break. Instead he is leaving to get away from Pency Prep and from Stradlater. Dealing with Children: pg 171, “You can’t even think of one thing” (Phoebe) Holden has a hard time dealing with children like his sister because of all the questions they ask. Also, he is challenged because Holden doesn’t care about anything. Manner of Speaking: Tone: pg 41, “All right, give it back to me, then,” I said. I went over and pulled it right out of his goddam hand. Then I tore it up.” (Holden) Holden reveals that he gets angry if you say bad things about Allie. The glove is also meaningful to Holden, while to others like Stradlater it is just like any other type of glove. Word Choice: pg 20, “I sat down for a second, and then I felt better. But while I was sitting down, I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody written F*** you on the wall.” (Holden) Holden shows that he doesn’t like swear words in public especially at his old school. However, it teaches him the mistake of swearing at a young age because he still does. Thematic Moments Revealing Personality: Education: pg 10, “How many subjects did you carry this term?... And how many are you failing in?” “Four.” (Mr. Spencer/Holden) Holden shows that he does not apply himself to education. He also does not care about his work such as the history essay. Dealing with death: pg 38, “He’s dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in maine, on July 18, 1946.” (Holden) Allie’s death was hard on Holden because he loved Allie and it was one thing that he liked when he was asked by Phoebe. Humorous Situation: pg 96, “The thing is I had an operation very recently… my clavichord.” (Holden) Holden again is lying because he is very nervous and decides to make up a random operation. Holden also probably hasn’t gone this far. Success: pg 213, “Keeps asking me if I’m going to apply myself when I go back to school next September.” (Holden) This time Holden will hopefully put effort and pass. However, he is very stubborn with people asking even though school hasn’t started. Problem Teenager: In my opinion, I think that Holden is more of a problem teenager than a typical teenager.
One reason is that Holden drinks and smokes at a young age. However, he gets past this because of his height and his gray hair. Another reason is that he does not care about his education. Even after failing school after school he still does not care whatsoever. He also said that he does not have much concern for his future either. In addition, Holden tries to flirt and date with older women that he does not know. Furthermore, Holden likes runs away from all his problems instead of facing them. For example, instead of telling the truth about his grades at Pency to his parents, he decides to stay on the run until he runs out of money and gets sick. Lastly, Holden repeatedly lies a lot throughout the book such as his name or even where he is going. In conclusion, I am certain that Holden is a problem
teenager. Color: I chose the color green because it best represents baseball and on where it is played. Green also represents the the green ink poems that Allie would write in his glove.
In J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in The Rye Salinger writes about the main character Holden Caulfield and his life. Holden is a teenager who comes from a wealthy family, he loves his family and lives very happy until the death of his brother Allie. After his brother died Holden becomes troubled, being kicked out of school again and again developing a negative view of the world. Holden throughout the book shows anger,denial, and acceptance over the loss of his brother.
“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.
... has to go away. He runs to Phoebe’s school to leave her a note to meet him. While he’s waiting he notices “Fuck you” (201) on the wall. “It drove me damn near crazy,” he thought. Holden sees Phoebe with her suitcase as she tells him, “I’m going with you. Can I? Okay?” (206) Holden’s response was “No. Shut up”. Phoebe got angry and didn’t let up until Holden agreed that he wouldn’t leave. She went on the carrousel in the park and while she was going around and around, Holden felt so happy that, “[he] was damn near bawling”. (213)
The origins of Holden’s disillusionment and the reason that it all started is the death of his younger brother which he was very fond of and admired, Allie, three years ago. The death of Allie is very significant in Holden’s mind since it is an event which he remembers quite clearly at multiple occasions during the book. For example, when Holden is writing a descriptive composition for his roommate Stradlater, he decides to write about Allie’s baseball mitt since it is the only thing on his mind. “My brother Allie had this left-handed fielder’s mitt. He was
Events in Holden's life lead him to become depressed. Holden's depression centers on Allie. The manner that Holden sees himself and how he sees others leads him to be expelled from school. The speaker expresses, "One thing about packing depressed me a little," (51). Holden expresses these feelings when he packs his bags after being notified that he is expelled. Holden leaves school and heads for New York City, where he finds himself to be more lonely and depressed than ever. He is all alone and he laments, " What I really felt like doing was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out of the window," (104). Holden says this while he is all alone in his motel room. He is too ashamed of himself to return home, he knows that his mother will be upset and his father will be angry with him. He also adds that " I wasn’t feeling sleepy or anything, but I was feeling sort of lousy. Depressed and all, I almost wished I was dead," (90). Holden states this during one of the first nights that he is staying in New York. Holden expresses many thoughts of depression.
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.
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.
In J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is seen by some critics a a drop out student destined for failure in life, but I see him as a symbol of an adolescent who struggles to adapt to the reality of adulthood.
There are numerous times in the book that Holden lies about his age. It seemed as if Holden wanted to be older than what he was. He was always wanting to do the things older people do, but he never looks the age he says. Most of the time he never got away with his lie, which made him a little more phony. Holden often liked to try to go to the bars and drink. In chapter 10, he goes to a bad and it says, “I ordered a scotch and soda…’I’m sorry sir,’ he said, ‘ but do you have some verification of your age.’”(Salinger 69). This is one of the many times Holden lies about his age and gets rejected. Holden was very interested in sex, even though he didn’t know much about it. He was always trying to get a girl to be with him. Women or prostitutes would not want to be with a teenager, so this is another reason he always lied about his age. In chapter 13, Holden meets the elevator man and the man offers him a prostitute. “‘How old are you, chief?’ the elevator guy said. ‘Why?’ I said. ‘Twenty Two.’”(Salinger 91). This is another example when Holden lies about his age, but the person he lies to questions him. Holden is a phony that never told the truth, not even about his
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.
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.
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
Holden had a tough time fitting in at his schools because he thought of almost everyone as phonies. "`It's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques' (pg. 131)." He seems to have a history of expulsion and failure at various schools because of his lack of ability to cope with others. Ordinary problems of his had turned into major conflicts with other students. "I hate fist fights. I don't mind getting hit so much - although I'm not crazy about it, naturally - but what scares me most in a fist fight is the guy's face. I can't stand looking at the other guy's face, is my trouble. It wouldn't be so bad if you could both be blindfolded or something. It's a funny kind of yellowness, when you come to think of it, but it's yellowness, all right. I'm not kidding myself. (pg. 90)" Holden got into a fight with his roommate at school because he was going out with his ex-girlfriend. He's afraid that the guy is taking her from him, even though he's not with her anymore. These are problems that are normal, but Holden has trouble dealing with them.
...’s habitual lying relates back to times where he is hypocritical about his environment being full of phonies. Salinger provides these small details of deceitfulness in order to further advance Holden’s character and the work as a whole.
... Even people Holden has close relationships with, he still can’t reveal details that mean a lot to him; for example, his roommate from Pency Prep, Stradlater, has a close relationship with Holden, but Holden has still never told him about his dead brother Allie’s baseball mitt. “All I had to do was change Allie’s name so nobody would know it was my brother’s.”(pg. 34. Although Holden alienates himself, there are times when he wants company; for instance when he sees Luce at the bar, “I didn’t say anything, I was sort of afraid he’d get up and leave on me if I didn’t shut up.”