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Character analysis of holden caulfield
Character traits of holden caulfield
Analysis of holden caufield character
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The plot of The Catcher in the Rye consists of Holden fighting the need to mature. This need, powered by the passage time, is stimulated by societal expectations. Society tells him he needs to act his age, to move on, to leave his immaturity in the dust, but still Holden stands his ground to rid himself from the grief that has become his own. This grief arose in Holden when Allie Caulfield, Holden's younger brother, died at the age of eleven from leukemia. He is reminded of the vibrant force that used to be his brother constantly, and Holden cannot move on from his death. Holden is used to dealing with his issues via his immaturity, but society has prevented Holden from using this childish innocence, keeping Holden from moving on. In the end, anger toward society is Holden's only logical response. Holden is the protagonist in a man vs. self and man vs. society scenario, fighting what is likely a losing battle, making him a righteous protagonist and pressing him ever forward into martyrdom. …show more content…
The death of Holden's brother, Allie, created a chain reaction in which Holden was forced to resort to anger.
His anger is represented by the red cap, a continuation of the theme in which red represents anger. James Castle is covered in blood, his anger, after fighting the bullies at his school, and the color of Phoebe's hair is red, although they show little, but significant bouts of anger. One such bout was the scene in which Holden gave the cap to Phoebe before leaving home. Phoebe is suddenly angry at Holden and society, but fails to think in such a way once she gave the hat back. In the final scene of the novel, the carousel scene, Holden uses the red cap to protect himself from the rain. The cap, or his anger, is protecting him from the rain, or depression that Allie's death brought upon him. This is the baseline conflict between Holden and
himself. Holden is forced to grow up and mature in society, as seen in the aforementioned text; he is attempting to recover from Allie's death, and yet his most effective way to deal with his depression is through childish innocence. This explains why he adores Phoebe so much; the innocence that is acceptable in Phoebe is shunned by society in Holden due to his age. Again, in the final scene of the book, Holden is on the sidelines watching the carousel go round and round. Holden is protected by the rain from his anger, but Phoebe is protected by the innocence that is the carousel. Holden claims that he is too old for the ride, which is society shunning him for his immaturity. The conflict between Holden and himself, as well as society, grows greater still. Holden's grief developed into anger, which he vents at society. This solidifies in Holden's observation of phoniness within society and other people. He doesn't truly hate the people that he vents his anger at, he is simply attempting to remove himself of his depression, which his anger holds in place. Once the shell of hatred has fallen away, Holden can finally proceed with mourning for Allie. Unfortunately, his anger cannot remove society's expectations, and places Holden in the position of an infinite loop. His anger is mainly opposed to society, which encourages more anger, which in turn makes him hate society on a greater level. This is a battle against society which cannot be won, making Holden a powerful protagonist. Holden is the protagonist in a never-ending struggle, where he is attempting to mourn for his lost brother. Holden's age prompts society to end Holden's only protection, immaturity, and Holden then defaulted toward anger toward the world. A never-ending conflict such as this can only end with Holden's death, giving him the makings of a martyr, a Jesus figure, and a protagonist all in one shot.
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
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.
He has nothing but nice things to say about her and wants to protect her. She makes many adult observations that you would not expect a ten year old to notice, yet still acts like a ten year old. She realizes that Holden got kicked out of school, and then responds by repeating, “Daddy’ll kill you!”(214). She corrects Holden about the words in a Robert Burns poem and realizes that Holden does not like anything, yet at the same time acts like a ten year old. She resembles Holden in the way she goes between adulthood and childhood. She is like a younger version of Holden. Holden wants to protect her and keep her from ending up like him. Holden gives his hunting hat to Phoebe, this shows how much he cares about her. He is able to give up the symbol of his independence and accept that he has ties to his family. The only time Holden is happy during his trip is when he takes Phoebe to the carousel. After deciding not to run away Holden realizes, “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off,” (274). At this point he realizes that growing up might not be the worst thing in the world and that even if he gets hurt in the process it is something he needs to
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. 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.
There is one universal truth that will exist through out all of time and space that affects all that live to experience it. That truth is known as grief. We all experience grief, and for Holden Caulfield, grief is a major aspect of his life, the force that drives him to do everything he does in the novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. There are seven stages to this emotion known as grief: denial, depression, anger, bargaining, guilt, reconstruction, and finally, acceptance. There are many parts in the novel that could have influenced Holden’s grief, but the main one that most people who read the novel have figured it out was the death of his little brother Allie. The root to Holden’s grief lies with his brother which cause Holden’s to act and change the way he does in the novel.
This metaphorically explains how he feels about Allie. Holden wishes he could somehow save him from leukemia, even though it is uncontrollable. Also, when his sister, Phoebe, rides the carousel Holden thinks about telling her to be careful and not fall, but he refrains because he realizes if she falls, she falls; there is nothing he can do about it. This is significant because it shows how he is learning to understand that he has to let children live their lives and grow on their own. Holden initially wants to be a guardian for all children protecting them from pain, but he later learns that his approach of being overprotective is not
... narrator, those events triggered a moment of hesitation where the narrator had to make a choice, leave his old lifestyle and pursue a relationship with the girl, or he can continue his free lancing and not take things seriously. The narrator changes, but the girl becomes what he was, a seventeen year old who doesn’t take things seriously. When Holden gives Phoebe his red hunting hat, he is making her the next ‘catcher in the rye’. He grows into adulthood and he takes Phoebe as his replacement by giving her the red hunting hat, which symbolizes the role. Both Holden and the narrator grow into new roles and give up their old roles to women. Although, they both give up their roles and grow into adulthood to the same women who helped and influenced them to grow up. These characters helped the protagonists overcome their fear of change and finally turn them into adults.
Holden Caulfield, portrayed in the J.D. Salinger novel Catcher in the Rye as an adolescent struggling to find his own identity, possesses many characteristics that easily link him to the typical teenager living today. The fact that the book was written many years ago clearly exemplifies the timeless nature of this work. Holden's actions are those that any teenager can clearly relate with. The desire for independence, the sexually related encounters, and the questioning of ones religion are issues that almost all teens have had or will have to deal with in their adolescent years. The novel and its main character's experiences can easily be related to and will forever link Holden with every member of society, because everyone in the world was or will be a teen sometime in their life.
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.
Another part where Phoebe shows her influence on Holden is when Holden states, “… the kids were trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the horse. The thing… is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it…if they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them.” Holden feels that by letting Phoebe ride alone, he will make good for her, something that his parents did not give him. At the same time, Holden reveals his feelings towards his Allie, who he loves and takes care of.
In J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, the main character Holden Caufield believes that innocence is corrupted by society. He exposes his self-inflicted emotional struggles as he is reminiscing the past. For Holden, teenage adolescence is a complicated time for him, his teenage mentality in allows him to transition from the teenage era to the reality of an adult in the real world. As he is struggling to find his own meaning of life, he cares less about others and worries about how he can be a hero not only to himself but also to the innocent youth. As Holden is grasping the idea of growing up, he sets his priorities of where he belongs and how to establish it. As he talks about how ‘phony’ the outside world is, he has specific recollections that signify importance to his life and he uses these time and time again because these memories are ones that he wont ever let go of. The death of his younger brother Allie has had a major impact on him emotionally and mentally. The freedom of the ducks in Central Park symbolize his ‘get away’ from reality into his own world. His ideology of letting kids grow up and breaking the chain loose to discover for themselves portrays the carrousel and the gold ring. These are three major moments that will be explored to understand the life of Holden Caufield and his significant personal encounters as he transitions from adolescence into manhood.
from his classmates: “I was standing way the hell up on top of Thomsen Hill. You could see the whole field from there, and you could see the two teams bashing each other all over the place. You could hear them all yelling” (Salinger 5). He isolates himself from everyone down in the stands after the episode on the subway when he forgot the fencing equipment. Holden thinks that all the boys on the team will strongly dislike Holden which is why he watches the game from Thomsen Hill, above the stadium. The concept of purity is expressed as Holden believes his fencing teammates are not pure because they do not directly resemble Allie’s emotions and behavior towards others. Also, Holden’s isolation from society and the people around him is evidenced after he leaves the bus station and goes to make a phone call.
Have you ever been afraid to grow up as a child, wondering what would happen in the future? These are the thoughts that Holden Caulfield, a young protagonist in J.D. Salinger’s, “Catcher in the Rye,” focuses on. Unable to stay at Pencey Prep any longer after flunking most of his classes, he takes his special red hunting hat and suitcase, and leaves. He then wanders around New York City, trying to live his life in his childish ways, but everyone he encounters tells him he must grow up. After his little fiasco, he decides to return home and meets up with his sister, Phoebe, at the Museum of Natural History. They later end up at the carousel in Central Park, and there, he realizes that within the past three days, his experiences are signs of his dread for adulthood. J.D. Salinger presents Holden Caulfield’s fear of growing up through the events that he encountered with the red hunting hat, the museum, and the carousel.
At some point in our lives we have realized that life is unfair. The minute we realize this we lose our innocence. We stop seeing the world through the thin veil of childhood, we exit the garden of where we used to play as children and enter through the gates that lead to the adult world. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden lost his innocence abruptly after his brother, Allie’s death. After his tragic loss Holden was deeply distraught and torn to shreds, he even begins to physically look the part after his fight with Stradlater. So, for my English project I decided I wanted to depict Holden as a young, turbulent teen who looked battered and broken. However, I also wanted to depict Holden’s physical and mental change towards the end of the novel.
In The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the novel, emerges as a juvenile who has a bleak outlook in life, accosted with the arduous challenges of both humanity and life as he seeks to define the meaning of existence. Holden has many obstacles being thrown at him such as the loss of his younger brother, Allie, which has him confused and trapped in recollections from the past. On his own Holden has made attempts to subside these conflicts, however, they have only left him managing with more problems: loneliness, addictions, delusions, etc. Holden is also depicted as a failure that struggles to maintain firm in one of the four schools he has been expelled from. As a result of said incapacity to remain stable,