More handpicked essays just for you.
How holden changed into catcher in the rye
Development of Holden's character in the Catcher in the Rye
How holden changed into catcher in the rye
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, is a story about a sixteen year old boy, Holden, that is fixed between childhood and adulthood. He keeps getting driven away by his parents and has been expelled from multiple prep schools for not applying himself. Holden takes the reader on a coming of age journey through New York city as he does delinquent acts not made for a teenager and through his deep emotions about life, his dead brother, and growing into a young man. Salinger outlines Holden’s urge to still be treated as an adult but to remain acting like a minor.
As I read The Catcher in the Rye, I noticed myself not only relating to Holden, but also feeling bad for him. I feel that Holden had a part off him in adulthood and the other part
…show more content…
stuck in his childhood. Holden was attempting to do things that were beyond his age, for example being served at a bar and then he was doing kid like things like refusing to return home after he was kicked out of prep school. The entire time I was reading the book, I wanted Holden to go home and explain to his parents how he felt and for them to keep him at home while he is in school. However, Holden was only making his situation worse by reminiscing on the past instead of preparing for the future. The biggest issue that touched me was the idea of Holden losing his innocence nonetheless, wishing simultaneously to go back to when things were less complicated. Holden’s struggles with the concept of how he should act for his age.
He doesn’t understand why he should apply himself in school or why he shouldn’t provoke his elders. Holden has no adults to talk to in his life because he is constantly being pushed to different prep schools by his parents. So, Holden primarily wants to act like an adult, but doesn’t necessarily know how to. Holden also does not understand time. He doesn’t get that as you grow older, interests change. Throughout the book, he tries to relate to Phoebe, his younger sister, by treating her like he used to do when she was a child. He does not understand that Phoebe is older now and doesn’t do things made for little children, like listening to little kid records or riding the carousel. Holden is stuck in the past and is refusing to evolve into adulthood. Throughout the story, I found myself questioning Holden’s motive for staying younger. I did not understand why he acted so old but yet longed for being a …show more content…
child. Society today also has the constant issue of kids growing up too fast and losing their innocence way younger then prefered. Parents today are preparing for their children's future so fast and making sure that they have everything they need to have the brightest future possible. Although, they mean well, kids nowadays see it as the parents hastening through minority and pushing them to be adults. Also, immaturity is looked down upon greatly in society. If you do not act like an intelligent, young adult, you are seen as a foolish child that will not succeed in their future. My generation is aiming to have the balance between childhood and adulthood just like Holden. Holden Caufield’s biggest problem was his inability to mature.
He was always looking back and wondering about change. It was almost as if he was afraid to be an adult. While walking through his childhood, favorite museum, Holden wonders, “Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you. Not that you’d be so much older or anything. It wouldn’t be that, exactly. You’d just be different, that’s all” (135). Holden is discussing how even if you aren’t that much older if you go back to one of your memories, it will never be the same. Holden is wondering about this because he wishes it could be the same. He is stuck in between wanting his childhood and wishing it away. In society today, many children are the opposite of Holden, they want to rush to be older and push the past away. I, however relate to Holden that childhood holds great memories and it will be sad to move on, but when it is time, I feel that I will be ready. Holden doesn’t only wish for the past about himself, he also wishes for Phoebe to be younger than she is. Holden talks about going to buy Phoebe a gift: “The first record store I went into had a copy of ‘Little Shirley Beans.’ They charged me five bucks for it, because it was so hard to get, but I didn’t care” (129). Although Holden only wanted to make Phoebe happy, Holden didn’t realize that Phoebe isn’t the same age that she used to be and probably wouldn’t enjoy the record “Little Shirley Beans” because she is now almost ten years
old. All of Holden’s memories are of Phoebe when she was a young child because he was at prep school throughout high school, so Holden still thinks that she will like things that she used to. It is almost like Holden wishes that Phoebe was the same as she used to be and doesn’t want her to grow older at all. Society today has the opposite issue. Everyone is always assuming children to be more mature and older than they are. Holden underestimating Phoebe’s age would be very odd in the world today. Holden also misjudges Phoebe’s age when they approach the carousel: “‘I’m too big,’ she said. I thought she wasn’t going to answer me, but she did. ‘No, you’re not. Go on. I’ll wait for ya. Go on’” (231). Holden is reluctant to move on from his nonage and is also fearful of the idea that Phoebe is becoming older. He wants her to still appreciate riding on the carousel and doesn’t want her to grow up at all. Holden’s fear for maturing is apparent throughout the entire novel. While reading The Catcher in the Rye, I watched Holden grow as a character. At the start of the story, Holden refused to move on with his life and in the very last scene, Holden seemed ready to grow up. I contemplated that no one could have pushed Holden to mature and only he had the ability to do it; he was ready when he was ready. Holden’s story has helped me realize that adulthood doesn’t just happen. If your mind is still in childhood, you will act like a child. Throughout the book, Holden’s inability to grow up due to the remembrance of his happier times before his brother’s death, showed that Holden could only move on with his life when he was ready to do so.
I guess you can say he is trying to transition from adult hood but he can’t. He believes childhood is a beautiful and innocent thing where as adulthood is evil and corrupted. In the text Holden says “That's the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "Fuck you" right under your nose” Pg. 204 Another reason why Holden is stuck between adult hood and childhood is because he doesn’t understand the concept of sex. He doesn’t get how two adults can have sex without loving each other. Holden tells Luce "You know what the trouble with me is? I can never get really sexy—I mean really sexy with a girl I don’t like a lot. I mean I have to like her a lot. If I don’t, I sort of lose my goddam desire for her and all.”Pg148 Luce then later says “When are you going to grow up?"Pg. 144. This is another example how Holden can’t really grow up. Mr. Antolini brings up an examples that goes “this fall I think you’re riding for – it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling."Pg. 187. This quote is illustrating that Holden doesn’t know where to go, he’s lost and confused from the transition from childhood to
Holden Caulfield, the teenage protagonist of Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, struggles with having to enter the adult world. Holden leaves school early and stays in New York by himself until he is ready to return home. Holden wants to be individual, yet he also wants to fit in and not grow up. The author uses symbolism to represent Holden’s internal struggle.
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.
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, is a classic novel about a sixteen-year-old boy, Holden Caulfield, who speaks of a puzzling time in his life. Holden has only a few days until his expulsion from Pency Prep School. He starts out as the type of person who can't stand "phony" people. He believes that his school and everyone in it is phony, so he leaves early. He then spends three aimless days in New York City. During this time, Holden finds out more about himself and how he relates to the world around him. He believes that he is the catcher in the rye: " I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in a big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around-nobody big, I mean-except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What have I to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff..." (173). He briefly enters what he believes is adulthood and becomes a "phony" himself. By the end of the story, Holden realizes he doesn't like the type of person he has become, so he reverts into an idealist; a negative, judgmental person.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is an enthralling and captivating novel about a boy and his struggle with life. The teenage boy ,Holden, is in turmoil with school, loneliness, and finding his place in the world. The author J.D. Salinger examines the many sides of behavior and moral dilemma of many characters throughout the novel. The author develops three distinct character types for Holden the confused and struggling teenage boy, Ackley, a peculiar boy without many friends, and Phoebe, a funny and kindhearted young girl.
Throughout the whole novel Holden has always been in denial of everything. As stated by Freud, denial is the “Refusal to recognize a threatening impulse or desire” (Sigmund Freud). When he visited his ten year old sister Phoebe, she was trying to communicate with Holden but she was nervous that it would displease him. She stated “Because you don't. You don’t like schools. You don't like a million things. You don't…Why the hell do you have to say that?” I said. Boy was depressing me” (Salinger 169). Even though Holden is very fond of Phoebe he didn't bother to listen to what she had to say, this demonstrates that Holden is very in denial because he got very upset when Phoebe said that he dislikes everything. Which furthers shows how he is unable to recognize that what Phoebe is
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.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a story of Holden Caulfield's growth as a person. Some view Holden as a static character, and say that by the end of the novel he hasn’t changed. I’d say that on the contrary Holden is an extremely dynamic character throughout the story. Holden does change and grow as a character because he lets go of wanting to protect innocence in the world, we see Holden begin to grow into what Erik Erikson believes is the stage of development for adolescents, and he starts to be willing to apply himself.
Have you ever pondered about when growing up, where does our childlike innocence go and what happens to us to go through this process? It involves abandoning previous memories that are close to our hearts. As we can see in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, we listen to what the main character; Holden Caulfield has to say about it. Holden is an average teenager dealing with academic and life problems. He remains untouched over his expulsion from Pencey Prep; rather, he takes the opportunity to take a “vacation.” As he ventures off companionless in New York City, we are able to observe many things about him. We see that Holden habitually states that he is depressed and undoubtedly, wants to preserve the innocence of others.
Holden and the Complexity of Adult Life What was wrong with Holden, the main character in The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D.Salinger, was his moral revulsion against anything that was ugly, evil, cruel, or what he called "phoney" and his acute responsiveness to beauty and innocence, especially the innocence of the very young, in whom he saw reflected his own lost childhood. There is something wrong or lacking in the novels of despair and frustration of many writers. The sour note of bitterness and the recurring theme of sadism have become almost a convention, never thoroughly explained by the author's dependence on a psychoanalytical interpretation of a major character. The boys who are spoiled or turned into budding homosexuals by their mothers and a loveless home life are as familiar to us today as stalwart and dependable young heroes such as John Wayne were to an earlier generation. We have accepted this interpretation of the restlessness and bewilderment of our young men and boys because no one has anything better to offer.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger is a coming-of-age novel set in New York during the 1940’s. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the story, is a detached seventeen-year old boy harboring feelings of isolation and disillusionment. He emphasizes a general dislike for society, referring to people as “phonies.” His lack of will to socialize prompts him to find nearly everything depressing. He’s alone most of the time and it’s apparent that he is very reclusive. This often leads him to pondering about his own death and other personal issues that plague him without immediate resolution. Holden possesses a strong deficit of affection – platonic and sexual – that hinders and cripples his views toward people, his attitude, and his ability to progressively solve his problems without inflicting pain on himself. The absence of significant figures in his life revert him to a childlike dependency and initiate his morbid fascination with sexuality. In this novel, Salinger uses Sunny, Sally Hayes, and Carl Luce to incorporate the hardships of discovering sexual identity and how these events affect adolescents as they try to understand their own sexuality.
phonies and all he hates. By being in the stage where he is, he manages to avoid change, control his world with his own hands, yet. creates a paradox between what he is, and what he wants to be. Possibly the main reason why Holden doesn’t want to become an adult. is his perception of ”phoniness” and hypocrisy surrounding adult.
It takes many experiences in order for an immature child to become a responsible, well-rounded adult. In J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger’s main character Holden Caulfield matures throughout the course of the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Holden is a juvenile young man. However, through his experiences, Holden is able to learn, and is finally able to become somewhat mature by the end of the novel. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield’s story represents a coming of age for all young adults.
Throughout the novel, Holden is facing a big problem that many teenagers have to face eventually (their coming of age) and the setting that he is in makes his problem worse. His biggest conflict is that he internally doesn’t want to grow up. The 40s/50s was a very turbulent time period. Teenagers during that time liked to venture into adult like behaviors. They smoked, drank, and partied. Holden described how some wild things happened at Pencey Prep, a s...
To start with, Holden expects to be treated like an adult by the people around him, but always acts like a child. For example, when Holden is on the train talking to Mrs. Morrow, the mother of a student who goes to Pencey with Holden. Everything Holden tells her is a lie. He