Holden Caulfield is a very relatable character for teenagers in The Catcher in the Rye, he is a very angsty teenager who just wants to be accepted by others. Throughout the story, Holden is scared because things around him are changing and Holden hates that. After being kicked out of school, Holden is worried because he does not know what he should do or where he should go. So, he tries to find comfort from other people he knows. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield seeks the acceptance of many different people, he seeks acceptance in a prostitute, one of his old professors, and even his little sister Phoebe.
Holden first tries to reach out to a prostitute that he hires for $5. However, Holden becomes too scared, so he decides to talk to the woman. Holden wants the woman to help him figure out his problems and just make him feel better emotionally. Unfortunately, the woman did not want to talk about Holden and his problems, so she tries to leave and asks for $10 instead of the decided $5. Holden refuses to pay the extra $5, so the woman gets her “boss” Maurice to try and get the extra $5 from Holden. Maurice comes by Holden’s apartment and beats up young Holden and then
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takes the other half of the money. Holden is then left with nowhere to go and he is now $10 poorer, so he decides to call an old professor that he actually liked. He calls an old English teacher that he liked very much to see if he can sleep there for a short while.
His professor, Mr. Antolini, accepts Holden’s request and even invites him to dinner and some drinks afterword. When Holden arrives, Mr. Antolini and his wife seem happy to see Holden, so the three of them share many drinks together. Holden then decides that he needs to get some sleep, so Mr. Antolini leaves Holden to fall asleep on his couch. Holden wakes up the next morning to the feeling of something on his hand, it turns out to be Mr. Antolini caressing Holden’s hair while he was sleeping. Holden did not know what to do after Mr. antolini’s actions, so Holden left their house. Before going to Antolini’s home, Holden was at his house house talking to his little sister
Phoebe. Holden’s conversation with Phoebe was one of the few bright spots in the novel. They had a long conversation and it was like Holden never left his home for school. By their talk, you could tell that Phoebe was one of the few people Holden actually cared about. They easily got along with each other and Holden loved the fact that Phoebe was still young enough to enjoy childish things. Holden hated it when things changed, so Phoebe was always young at heart to satisfy Holden. Holden then had to leave because he was scared that his parents would come into Phoebe’s room and see Holden not in school. So before he left, Holden gave Phoebe his popular red hunting hat as a gift for her. Holden finally reached out to somebody and the other person accepted Holden. He finally left their conversation happy with himself. The irony of the story is that Holden hates when things around him change, yet, he is changing as well. Holden is slowly becoming an adult, and he is not ready for it yet. He wants to be accepted by other people because he is not ready to be by himself. That is why he seeks the comfort of a stranger, an old teacher, and even his sister. Holden is too scared to be by himself in the adult world.
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 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.
Holden checked into the Edmont Hotel in Manhattan, where he hired a young prostitute named Sunny. This scene depicts Holden’s struggle with confused adolescence. Holden thought that sleeping with a prostitute would make him a man. However, when he was confronted with the burgeoning sexual situation, he yielded. After all, he is still just a child. “The trouble was, I just didn’t want to do it. I felt more depressed than
“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.
Holden returns to school and goes to his bedroom in the dorm. In his room quietly reading, his neighbor Robert Ackley came in. Holden describes him as a pimply, insecure, annoying boy with a bad dental hygiene. When Holden’s roommate Stradlater who was “madly in love with himself” (27) arrived home after the football game, Ackley abruptly left. Stradlater tells him that he has a date with a friend of his, Jane Gallagher. Jane is someone that Holden really cares for and because he knows the way Stradlater is, Holden became worried for her. “It just drove me stark raving mad when I thought about her and Stradlater parked somewhere in that fat-assed Ed Banky’s car”. (48) Holden became depressed and lonely, so out of the blue Holden decides to pack his things and leave for New York a few days earlier. On the train to New York, Holden meets the mother of one of his schoolmates. Not wanting to tell his whole life story, he told her his name was “Rudolf Schmidt”, the name of th...
In the novel, Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield is an example of a prosaic rich adolescent boy,with a pedestrian set of problems, but a psychoanalysis reveals that Holden has a plethora of atypical internal conflicts. Internal conflicts that other students at Pencey, such as Stradlater and Ackley, would not normally experience.
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 novel The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger,Holden the main character tries to take on adult and mature situations but finds himself in reality not getting very far. Holden Caulfield who goes to Pencey has failed four out of five classes and gets the notice that he is being expelled from the school. He leaves the school and goes out and tries to adventure into the real world. Holden takes on many challenges and obstacles throughout the book . Although Holden wants to be independent many people perceive Holden in numerous different ways to his actions and feelings. Faith and Stradlater both perceive Holden as irritating, when in reality he tries to distract himself from being depressed. For example when Holden was in the phone
After spending some time at Mr. Spencer, his history teacher's house and getting lectured regarding his poor efforts in school, Holden fabricates a story to leave his teacher’s house without seeming rude. On his way to his dormitory at Pencey, Holden claims that he is an exceptional liar, and would lie even about the most insignificant facts, such as where he is going. He then goes into detail about whom his dormitory is named after, and how much of a phony the man is.
In The Catcher in the Rye, a boy named Holden Caulfield is faced with the obstacles of both society and life as he struggles to find direction as well as his relationship with the world. From page one, the reader can both understand and relate to what Holden has to say about the society in which we live and the way in which people in that society govern themselves. The more we read the more we identify with Holden Caulfield.
Holden's beliefs on the possibility that not everyone has evil intentions change only once in the book. The scene is with Mr. Antolini. After Mr. Antolini patted Holden on the head while he was sleeping, Holden jumped up and ran out, thinking that Mr. Antolini was a pervert as well. This is the only time during the novel where Holden thinks twice about considering someone as a pervert. After reviewing Mr. Antolini, Holden finally decides that maybe he wasn't making a "flitty" pass at him.
The transition from a teen to an adult is one of the major steps in life. This major transition can be really scary. Some people are so scared of becoming an adult, that they try to keep their inner child alive. One person in the book The Catcher in the Rye is Holden Caulfield, Holden is the main character in the novel written by J.D. Salinger. A prominent theme in his novel, The Catcher in the Rye is the painfulness of growing up. As this theme is going on through the novel, Salinger weaves in symbols that Holden happens to use and talk about throughout the novel.
That Saturday Holden and his friend Mal Brossard, who is on the wrestling team , go to see a movie. They invite Ackley out of sympathy because he never does anything Saturday night. After the boys finnish playing pinball. Holden goes back to his room to write a composition for his roommate Stradler. When Stradler comes back from his date with Jane Grallagher, a girl that Holden has a crush on, he doesn't like the composition. Holden and Stradler argue, then Holden punishes Stradler. Holden loses the fight. Holden goes to Ackleys room to talk, but Ackley doesn't want to talk so Holden leaves to look for Mal Bossard. Holden starts to pack his bags after he decids not to look for Borssard. He walks to the train station because it is too late for a taxi. While there he cleans off the blood from the fight with some snow. He catches a train to New York. On the train he meets a woman who is the mother of one of his classmates. Holden is attracted to the women so he starts to lie about himself. When he arrives in New York he get a room in the Edmont Hotel. Holden is thinking of staying in the hotel until Wednesday when he can go home.
In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield’s story represents a coming of age for all young adults. In the beginning of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is an immature teenager. Holden gets kicked out of his school, Pencey Prep, for failing four out of five of his classes. He says, “They kicked me out.
Many young people often find themselves struggling to find their own identity and place in society. This search for self worth often leaves these young people feeling lonely and isolated because they are unsure of themselves. Holden Caulfield, J.D. Salinger's main character in the book The Catcher In the Rye, is young man on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. One contributor to this breakdown, is the loneliness that Holden experiences. His loneliness is apparent through many ways including: his lack of friends, his longing for his dead brother, and the way he attempts to gain acceptance from others.