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Psychological analysis of holden caulfield
Analyse the character of holden caulfield
Psychological analysis of holden caulfield
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All children must one day grow and emerge from childhood into adolescence. In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield embarks on a quest for knowledge. Throughout his journey, Holden attempts to save innocent children from maturing through preventing them from adult subjects such as profanities and death. However, at the end of his odyssey, Holden realizes how nothing can withstand change and growth hence, he accepts reality as he falls into a state of unconsciousness. The experiences and situations Holden comes across throughout his journey allows him to divert from a state of innocence to the retainment of knowledge.
Holden Caulfield is described by J.D Salinger as a rebellious teenager who neglects social norms and rules. First,
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“He was standing way up up on Thomsen hill, instead of the game” which indicates his inability to conform with other students and events. Afterwards, Holden is taught about, “life being a game and all” (Salinger, 11) that, “one plays according to the rules” (Salinger, 11). However, Holden’s perception of life is different as he believes that life provides two options; success or failure. He states, “if you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game [...] but if you get on the other side [...] what’s a game about it?” (Salinger, 11). His perception of life leads to the way he sees people, Pencey Prep, and the characters in the novel as phonies. He tells the reader that he intentionally acts naive and childish, “but people never notice it, people never notice anything” …show more content…
The poem written by Robert Burns is primarily about the concept of sex however Holden misinterprets the poem and claims that he is the guardian of childhood. Holden hears the little boy singing "If a body catch a body coming through the rye." (Salinger, 128) and it brings him comfort and pleasure. Holden notices that the boy is walking in the street where on the sidewalk, “his parents paid no attention to him” (Salinger, 128) and on the street, “The cars zoomed by, brakes screeched all over the place” (Salinger 128). Through Holden’s description of the boy, the reader understands how Holden is portraying the boy standing on the threshold of adolescence with the protection of his parents of one side and the dangers of reality on the other. However, Holden’s description is incorrect considering he misinterprets the poem as the correct lyrics are, “If a body meet a body coming through the rye”. The mistaken lyrics of the song is directly related to Holden’s belief in saving children from growth and change. As a result of Allie’s death, Holden does not accept the concept of change thus, he manipulates the lyrics in order for the significance of the song to conform with his ideology. Holden tells Phoebe how it is his responsibility, “to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff” (Salinger, Ch. 23) and how he would be, “the catcher in the rye and
Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye follows the journey of a young boy, Holden Caulfield, from adolescence to adulthood. There are a number of symbols that Salinger uses to help to portray the various stages that Holden goes through as he matures into adulthood. The snowball incident, his sense of fulfillment when at the museum, and his run in with a pimp, are all representations of how Holden is deeply obsessed with innocence thoughts and how reluctant he is to give them up.
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.
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.
I would like to discuss how Holden’s misinterpretation of the Robert Burns poem, “Coming Through the Rye”, sums up his deepest desires by taking a journey through his troubled adolescence and his journey to self–discovery that results in his breakdown. According to Phoebe, the original line in the poem is “if a body meet a body”. However, Holden’s misinterpretation of “if a body catch a body” removes all sexual connotations from the original poem. Holden is a deeply disturbed adolescent in search of a way to preserve his childhood innocence. His “red hunting cap” is a symbol of his uniqueness and his rejection to conform to society.
First, he goes to Mr. Spencer, his history teacher, who provides advice for his life and his future and even says “I’m trying to help you, if I can” (Salinger, 18). Because Mr. Spencer gives realistic advice to Holden to prepare him for his future even though it is not obligated, Mr. Spencer can be considered a mentor for Holden. Before Holden packs and leaves, he says “I was sort of crying” and “then I yelled at the top of my goddam voice, ‘Sleep tight, ya morons!’” (Salinger, 59). Although he becomes emotional when he realizes the company he is going to miss by leaving Pencey, he still acts immaturely as a result of an adolescent pitfall called invulnerability, when adolescents makes decisions without proper regard for their consequences (Adolescent Pitfalls). Holden finally leaves to take a train and reveals his love for riding trains at night (Salinger, 60). He is setting out on an adult journey by leaving Pencey, but he is still grasping to child interests by usually becoming excited to ride trains. Concluding sentence
In The Catcher in The Rye, by J.D, the main character, Holden, can be seen as a troubled teenager growing up in a less than perfect society. Throughout the novel Holden struggles with the fact that many young and innocent kids will grow up and see the world from a different perspective. He naturally becomes worried for all future generations who will one day grow, as he did, and loose their innocence. The fixation of youth and innocence can be seen in the title of the book, as well as throughout the novel.
Throughout the novel, J.D, Salinger develops Holden’s character with numerous situations. Holden makes the reader question his rectitude through his perspective of those around him, his sexual desires, his general attitude, and his chronic lying. Because Salinger permits the audience to know how situations proceed from Holden’s perspective, the audience has an alternative side of Holden available to evaluate. Without the varying traits Holden presents, The Catcher in the Rye would not thoroughly depict Holden as a suffering individual. Thus, Holden’s character is morally ambiguous and crucial to the overall development of the novel.
Growing up is not easy. The desire to slow down or stop the process is not unusual for adolescents. Resisting adulthood causes those who try to run away from it to eventually come to terms with the reality of life: everyone has to grow up, and fighting against it makes it much harder to accept in the end. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield often tries to resist the process of maturity in an effort to avoid the complicated life he might face as an adult, making him an unusual protagonist for a bildungsroman; this struggle, however, opens Holden’s eyes to the reality and inevitability of growing up, helping him realize that innocence does not last forever. Holden’s preference of a simplistic lifestyle is evident throughout the novel, but stands out especially when he visits the Museum of Natural History.
In his novel Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger portrays childhood and adolescence as times graced by innocence when his protagonist, Holden Caulfield, is faced with the reality of becoming an adult. Holden’s desperation to maintain his innocence and the manner in which he critiques those he deems to have lost theirs, emphasizes his immaturity and ignorance while highlighting the importance the author places on childhood.
In JD Salingers' Catcher in the Rye, a troubled teenager named Holden Caufield struggles with the fact that everyone has to grow up. The book gets its title from Holden's constant concern with the loss of innocence. He did not want children to grow up because he felt that adults are corrupt. This is seen when Holden tries to erase naughty words from the walls of an elementary school where his younger sister Phoebe attended. "While I was sitting down, I saw something that drove me crazy.
The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger is one of the most controversial and timeless books written in our history. A “catcher in the rye” is someone that’s stands at the edge of a rye field and saves children from falling over a cliff. Holden Caulfield, a troubled young teenager and also the main character of the novel, pictures himself as being this “catcher in the rye” protecting all children from losing their innocence. Towards the end of Catcher in The Rye he realizes that this idea is something impossible because growing up and getting old is inevitable even for him. Throughout the course of the novel we notice how Holden is digging himself deeper into a hole as he transitions from adolescence to adulthood. He continues to head into the direction of despair as we see how purposeless his life becomes. Holden thinks by moving to a new environment the course of his life would change but it doesn’t. It just continues to get worst until eventually we learn that he is in a ward somewhere in California. Holden Caulfield has nothing to live for so maybe he should just give up entirely.
Growing up and becoming mature can be an intimidating experience; it is difficult to let go of one’s childhood and embrace the adult world. For some people, this transition from youthfulness to maturity can be much more difficult than for others. These people often try to hold on to their childhood as long as they can. Unfortunately, life is not so simple. One cannot spend their entire life running from the responsibilities and hardships of adulthood because they will eventually have to accept the fact that they have a role in society that they must fulfill as a responsible, mature individual. The novel “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger follows the endeavours of Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old teenage boy who faces a point in his life where he must make the transition from childhood to adulthood. In an attempt to retain his own childhood, he begins hoping to stop other young children from growing up and losing their innocence as well. As indicated by the title, “The Catcher in the Rye” is a book that explores a theme involving the preservation of innocence, especially of children. It is a story about a boy who is far too hesitant to grow up, and feels the need to ensure that no one else around him has to grow up either. His own fear of maturity and growing up is what leads to Holden’s desire to become a “catcher in the rye” so he can save innocent children from becoming part of the “phoniness” of the adult world.
Holden is a pessimistic, remote, and miserable character and he expresses this attitude through dialogue, tone, and diction. Throughout the book he has remained to be a liar, a failure, a loner, and lastly, a suicidal guy who feels like he has no purpose in life. Perhaps Salinger expressed his perceptions and emotions of his teen years in this book and it was a form of conveying his deep inner feelings of his childhood. Readers can see this clearly shown in The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger.
Holden Caulfield, a young boy in his teenage years who lives without his parents alone in a dorming school without any real friends must figure out how he can survive through a world full of “phonies” when he himself has become tainted as well. “A combination of strong vocabulary and the creation of a strong-acid-behavior character was the best formula for a legend to be born: Holden Caulfield became the “older brother” for many adolescents who did not have anyone to turn to, a kind of partner, fellow friend. Caulfield and his existentialistic problems showed the whole world how tough and tiring being a teenager could be” (Pinto 7). Although there are many parts in the book that might make Caulfield seem disapproving such as, “I’M THE MOST terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It’s awful,” or “I kept walking around the room, waiting for this prostitute to show up. I kept hoping she’d be good-looking. I didn’t care too much, though. I sort of just wanted to get it over with,” it is important to know why Caulfield acted the way he did (Salinger 16 and
J. D. Salinger’s novel, Catcher in the Rye explores the ambiguity of the adult world Holden must eventually learn to accept. Throughout the novel, Holden resists the society grownups represent, coloring his childlike dreams with innocence and naivety. He only wants to protect those he loves, but he cannot do it the way he desires. As he watches Phoebe on the carousel, he begins to understand certain aspects of truth. He writes: