In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield the main character, struggles throughout the novel from mental deterioration that his father has caused him due to the lack of an affectionate connection between them. In the Dead Poet’s Society Neil Perry, the main character, experiences a similar effect, but unlike Holden’s father, Neil’s father is too present in his life due to his father’s oppressive expectations. On one end of the spectrum Holden has a father that is not present in his life and does not care enough about him to create that connection that Holden desperately needs. On the other end of the spectrum Neil's father is too controlling over his life which causes Neil to have a tense relationship with his Father. When …show more content…
comparing The Catcher in the Rye to Dead Poets Society, both storylines encompass a lack of a stable fatherly figure which leads to Holden’s mental breakdown and Neil’s suicide. Throughout his life so far, Holden Caulfield has experienced an emotional deterioration due to his father’s absence in his life.
This deterioration is caused from never having a connection with his father on an emotional level. This unstable relationship causes Holden to act out. The most prominent action that is a cry for help, is his expulsion from four different schools. One after another he gets kicked out of these schools due to him failing his classes and not caring enough about his academic career. Holden makes these irrational decisions due to him not having the affection from his father that he needs in order to maintain an emotionally stable state of mind. Unfortunately instead of addressing Holden’s issues Mr. Caulfield continues to ship him off to other schools. His father’s inability to connect with Holden is based on his father not wanting to have to emotionally engage with Holden, due to his father’s dislike for emotional and personal topics. In the novel Holden narrates, “...my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them. They’re quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father”(1). This exhibits how Holden describes his parents opinions and touchiness around subjects relating to personal information. This quality
Holden’s father posses induces him to become distant from his father because Mr. Caulfield does not like to talk about personal information, which is why they have never had a chance to build a healthy relationship. Since Holden’s father does not like to engage in emotional conversations he never tries to interconnect with Holden. This distant relationship Holden has with his father makes him to want to connect with people and fill the void that his father has created by not being there for him. Holden narrates, “What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of good-by. I mean I’ve left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don’t care if it’s a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it”(4). This quote expresses Holden’s struggle with not having any friend or companion to say goodbye too when he is leaving the schools. This directly correlates to the relationship he has with his father because, he tries to seek out other connections with people but can never find one. Correspondingly this causes him to become depressed. Holden’s mental deterioration is from his father's inability to connect with him, which sources Holden’s need to seek out other connections with people. Unfortunately he never gets these assimilations, which leads to him having a mental breakdown in the end. Neil Perry, like Holden Caulfield, experiences a difficult relationship with his father. Mr. Perry controls almost every aspect of Neil’s life. This is because he has set high expectations for Neil and feels that if he does not always watch over him, he will not live up to those expectations. His plans for Neil’s future is for him to attend medical school at a prestigious college and become a successful doctor. In order to reach this goal, Mr. Perry believes Neil needs to get straight A’s in school and only focus on factors that could help contribute to him getting into medical school. Unfortunately for Neil, he does not want to follow his father’s plans but because he gives into his father's dominating authority, forcing Neil to obey him. Neil wants to pursue a career in acting when he gets older, but his father strongly dislikes that idea and believes it is impractical and would be a waste of his time. When comparing The Catcher in the Rye to Dead Poets Society, both of the main characters, Holden and Neil struggle due to an absence of a fatherly figure in their lives, ultimately leading to Holden’s mental breakdown and Neil’s suicide. With Holden, he has difficulty coping with his emotional issues caused by Allie’s death and the fear of adulthood, due to his father’s lack of existence in his life to help provide the emotional support that he needs in order to work through his issues. With Neil, he struggles due to his father’s dominance over his life and his overwhelming expectations, which unfortunately generates Neil’s belief that he does not have a way out of the pressure, leading him to suicide. In the 20th century, unhealthy parental relationships like Neil and Holden experience, often happen to teenagers in today’s society as well. Many students feel the constraining pressure from their parents due to the high expectations they have for their children’s academic performances. In addition students also experience a lack of support and connection from their parents perhaps because they believe their child is a burden to take care of or they never form a bond at the beginning of the child’s life and continue to grow more and more apart as the child matures. This can cause a child to make bad decisions as they are maturing into young adults. Students having these distant relationships with their parents can take a toll on their lives and cause them to make irrational decisions similar to those that Neil and Holden made.
Holden also has a negative perspective of life that makes things seem worse than they really are. In addition to Holden’s problems he is unable to accept the death of his brother at a young age. Holden’s immaturity, negative mentality, and inability to face reality hold him back from moving into adulthood. Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child.
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
Familial Love is natural or instinctual love. Familial Love can also be referred to as the love between a parent and a child. In J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the character of Holden Caulfield does not convincingly embody a compassionate and caring character. Holden, after having a difficult year at school, finds comfort in his memories of his brother Allie. Another instance of Holden finding comfort, is when he spends time with Phoebe. In the same way, Phoebe is supportive when spending time with Holden. However, this takes a turn for the worse, as Holden reveals to Phoebe that he is leaving. Holden finds comfort and love through his memories of Allie, his experiences with Phoebe and the support from he receives from her.
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.
Parents are the most important support system in their children’s lives. There is a breakdown in this support system for Holden. His relationship with his parents is very dysfunctional; he rarely talks to them and avoids seeing them in person. Mr. and Mrs. Caulfield have their own life agenda, which doesn’t include Holden as a priority. Their obligation is mainly to pay for the various boarding schools he attends. Holden’s parenting comes mostly from these boarding schools. Holden even feared returning home or was ambivalent about seeing his parents. When he did return home to visit his sister, Phoebe, he avoided his parents as much as possible. “It was a helluva lot easier getting out of the house than in, for some reason. For one thing, I didn’t give much of a damn anymore if they caught me. I really didn’t.” (p. 180) Any person that has a good relationship with their parents would certainly try go to them for help especially if they were in a difficult time in their life. Holden was undergoing a very difficult time in his life; he was lonely and desperate for someone to talk to. Instead of seeking his parents, he chose to avoid them. This portrays the lack of the primary support system in Holden’s life, his parents.
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.
Holden’s apparent desire to be separated from the majority of his family and friends appears to have been triggered by the death of his younger brother Allie. From Allie’s there has been a downward spiral in Holden’s relationships, as he begins to avoid contact with others and isolate himself more. The reason I believe this is because we can see how immense his anger is after Allie’s death, ‘I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist’. The death of Allie has become like an awakening to Holden, and has alerted him how precious childhood innocence is, when Holden comes to this realisation he convinces himself to do everything within his power to protect the innocence of himself and those around him, to protect them from what he sees as a false adult world. Although Holden clearly fails to protect himself, as he falls into all sorts of situations which hardly boasts of innocence and virt... ...
The novel The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger depicts a journey of a young man named Holden Caulfield where he encounters many of life’s challenges. As Holden has been bouncing between schools all his life, he just recently got kicked out of his current one: Pencey Prep. He has trouble focusing in school and has experienced many traumatic events in his life, like the death of his little brother Allie. Many believe the novel should be banned, but there is an underlying message Holden is trying to communicate. Throughout Holden's journey many feel that there were ban-worthy moments, but the traits he demonstrates are most powerful: compassion, maturity/coming of age and intelligence.
No one really thinks about how devastating it might be to lose a sibling when you're young. However, Holden Caulfield, the main character in J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye,” has to experience this devastation. Holden is merely 13 years old when his 11 year old brother Allie dies of leukemia. The two boys were extremely close and Holden is traumatized, he spends that night punching out windows with his bare hands. Many articles have been written about the adverse effects of a sibling’s death has on a child, even later in life, and Holden was surely effected. After Allie’s death, Holden isolates himself, begins to do worse in school, and grasps onto the concept on innocence and childhood and cannot let go.
The negative light that Holden views the world under is a key contribution to his unhappiness. He is unable to see even a glint of sincerity in people’s actions which allows him to experience feelings of severe despondency and dejection. “People never give your message to anybody,” (pg. 166) shows how Holden no longer feels let down by people but instead expects the worst from them instead. He struggles to find genuinity in people’s actions, and in turn feels “lousy and depressed,” by nearly everything. Holden is constantly seen bringing down the adult world. It is shown he has an inner conflict between his adult and child self, leading him to feeling lost and without a place. He is disgusted by the adult world describing it as a place filled with “phonies” but, views adolescence as a source of happiness. He shows a direct fear of change by stating, “The best thing...was that everything always stayed right where it was.” (pg. 135). As Holden is being pushed out of his childhood and into an area where he feels out of place, it is only inevitable that this would be a source of his depression. Both of these internal conflicts add to Holden Caulfield’s
From the very first page of the novel, Holden begins to refer to his parents as distant and generalizes both his father and mother frequently throughout his chronicle. One example is: "...my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything personal about them. They're quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They're nice and all - I'm not saying that - but they're also touchy as hell" (Salinger 1). Holden's father is a lawyer and therefore he considers him "phony" because he views his father's occupation unswervingly as a parallel of his father's personality. For example, when Holden is talking to Phoebe about what he wants to be when he grows up, he cannot answer her question and proceeds to give her his opinion about their father's occupation..
A human society is often described as a group of people involved in persistent personal relationships, or as a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or social territory. People tend to believe that doing what everyone else does, is the only correct path for life. If someone dares to break the pattern, does what he wants, or wears different clothes from what everybody else wear, he would frequently be seen as a strange or weird person. This is not it, every little thing someone does that differs from what it is “normal”, is seen as bad or bizarre. Holden Caulfield, of “Catcher in the Rye” is a character who stands out from common people. Holden doesn’t believe that he needs to follow what everyone else does. Contrary to that, Holden does what he wants and acts how he likes. By acting like this, Holden is not considered as a normal teenager, but as a unique one. Caulfield has often trouble fitting in society. Holden won’t fit into society because he doesn’t want to be a part of it. Hints displaying Holden not wanting to be part of society are his constant failing at school, his powerful revulsion for “phony” qualities, and his distancing himself from people.
The novel Catcher in the Rye, by J.D Salinger, and the article Spoiled Rotten, by Elizabeth Kolbert, examine the topic of growing up. Salinger depicts the experiences of teenager Holden Caulfield, who struggles with maturing because of the death of his brother. He feels alienated from society and has a lack of guidance and support in his life. Meanwhile, Kolbert investigates the flawed way Americans raise their children, and how we can find solutions in other societies. Salinger and Kolbert illustrate that children need a balanced relationship with their parents where the child has freedom and responsibility, as well as structure and support to grow up in a healthy manner.
Holden Caulfield alienates himself from the rest of society to hopefully escape the means of growing up shown by his dialogue and behaviour. Holden doesn’t want to grow up because he doesn’t want to have to accept the responsibilities that come with it. Holden is constantly getting kicked out of different schools, “They kicked me out. on account that. I was not applying myself and all.”
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