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Holden catcher in the rye characterisation
Holden the catcher in the rye character analysis
Holden the catcher in the rye character analysis
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Relationships with Holden in The Catcher in the Rye
‘The Catcher in the Rye’ is written from a first person narrative to
be able to convey to the reader Holdens thoughts and feelings and this
makes his character seem more believable. Holden describes what he
himself sees and experiences, providing his own commentary on the
events and people he describes. It takes the form of, perhaps, a
session with a psychoanalyst or a one sided conversation with the
reader during which Holdens attitudes to other people emerges. We
learn that he finds it very difficult to maintain relationships with
people and I will be examining Holden’s relationship with adults and
with his sister and how they differ.
Holdens attitude towards adults is very much the same; he is polite
and respectful. He prefers to avoid issues with them, for example,
with his history teacher he tries to avoid the fact that he is failing
in all but one of his subjects. He does not like to talk about his
emotions with anyone and instead he isolates himself to show that that
he is better than everyone else around him. However, the truth is that
relationships with other people usually make him uncomfortable and his
belief in his own superiority is there to protect himself. He attempts
to be grown up and sophisticated, but, often fails.
The episode with Holden’s history teacher, Mr Spencer, is a good
example of how Holden behaves in the company of adults. When Holden
visits him he talks about how Mr Spencer is wrapped up in a blanket
and that there is “pills and medicine all over the place and
everything smelt like Vicks Nose Drops”. He is quite bothered about
the fact that he is in an atmosphere he considers as unpleasant and
describes it as being “d...
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... does get on better with children than adults and we
can tell this because he has invented a fantasy that adulthood is a
world of “phoniness”, while childhood is a world of innocence,
curiosity, and honesty. Nothing reveals his image of these two worlds
better than his fantasy about the catcher in the rye where he imagines
childhood as a field of rye where children play and have fun.
Adulthood however, is unknown and frightening and this is why he is so
protective towards Phoebe as he does not want her to make the step
into the adult world. In my opinion, I think that there is no reason
why Holden will not return back to school after his breakdown. If he
gets the help that he needs then he can begin to get his life back on
track again and start to live a “normal” life as an adolescent and
actually enjoy the adventures of growing up instead of fearing them.
Foster’s characteristics of the QUEST are the quester, the destination, the purpose, the challenges along the way, and the reason behind going to the destination. In The Catcher in the Rye Holden is the quester who begins his journey by being kicked out of Pencey Prep. He decides to go on a trip instead of going home and revealing to his parents that he has been expelled. Staying around New York is a challenge in itself, and by the end of his trip Holden realizes more about himself. Some of the challenges he faces are his immaturity levels getting in the way of certain tasks and his loneliness. At the end of his trip Holden begins to have a new sense of maturity, and is ready to grow up.
In today's world many people do not show their true self to people that they do not feel comfortable around. Readers can see this in J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. Holden only shows his true authentic self to women and girls. Although Holden seems that he does not like to talk to anyone, when he is around women he pays attention to them, is comfortable, and expresses his true feelings.
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, portrays Holden Caulfield as a manic-depressive. Holden uses three techniques throughout the novel to cope with his depression. He smokes, drinks, and talks to Allie. Although they may not be positive, Holden finds comfort in these three things.
Immaturity of Holden in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye 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.
People rebel for a cause. In the book “The Catcher in the Rye” , the protagonist, Holden Caulfield is living in a school called Pencey Prep. Holden is failing all of his classes except English, and he often curses and smokes cigarettes in his dorm. One of Holden’s main problems in life is the death of his brother Allie. Allie, who died of leukemia 3 years prior to the events of the book, was the only person who deeply understood Holden. When Allie died, Holden broke all of the windows in his garage while breaking his own hand. Holden even states that he tried to break his family’s station wagon, but his hand was broken. This event shows that Holden really cared about Allie and that his death had a huge impact on his life. The death of Allie created a fear for Holden, Holden became afraid of change. Holden himself stated that Allie was very mature for his age and very smart in the quote “He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent.” (p. 21). The way Holden sees change is the more you grow, the closer to death you find yourself. In the poem “Novel” by Arthur Rimbaud, the narrator talks about drinking and walking around. The narrator is having fun and is in tune with the environment. A quote that supports this is “At times the air is so scented that we close our eyes,” Other lines in the stanza also support this idea. In the next section, the narrator talks about his/her surroundings and how he feels. He is interrupted by a sudden kiss and starts to tremble like a small insect. In the next section, the narrator starts to talk to himself in his mind. The narrator uses the word ‘you’ not to the reader, but to himself to think about the things he is seeing, for example the attractive girl. The narrat...
Nineteen million American adults suffer from a major case of depression (Web MD). That is a staggering one in every fifteen people (2 in our classroom alone). Holden Caulfield is clearly one of those people. Depression is a disease that leads to death but is also preventable. Psychology, stressful events, and prescription drugs are causes of depression. Stressful events brought on Holden’s depression. Holden has been trying to withstand losing a brother, living with careless parents, and not having many friends. The Catcher in the Rye is a book that takes us through the frazzled life of Holden Caulfield, who appears to be just a regular teen. But by hearing his thoughts and through heart-wrenching events in the book, the reader learns that Holden is not the innocent boy that he once appeared. In his book, The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger shows that Holden’s depression is not only affecting him, but also the people around him through Sally, Phoebe, and Sunny.
Catcher in the Rye is a complicated book about a young man going through, what appears to be a nervous break down. This is a book about the boy’s negative self-talk, horrible outlook on life, and a life itself that seems to keep swirling down the toilet. He keeps trying to fill his life with something, but the reality of it is he doesn’t exactly now what he needs. It’s complicated to understand at parts, because all he does is think of things in the worst possible conditions.
The novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger, depicts a boy named Holden Caulfield whose psyche ultimately impacts his mental state. Throughout the novel Holden’s mental state gradually becomes affected by this damaged psyche. He either demonstrates the id or the superego, and rarely his ego. Holden’s psyche appears in the id, superego, and ego forms.
In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden views the world as an evil and corrupt place where there is no peace. This perception of the world does not change significantly through the novel. However, as the novel progresses, Holden gradually comes to the realization that he is powerless to change this.
more mature for his age then he should have been. This is the basis of
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.
The protagonist, Holden Caulfield, interacts with many people throughout J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, but probably none have as much impact on him as certain members of his immediate family. The ways Holden acts around or reacts to the various members of his family give the reader a direct view of Holden's philosophy surrounding each member.
Holden’s “catcher in the rye” dream represents God’s wishes for the human race in the Garden of Eden. Holden symbolizes God when he dreams that he has to “catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff” (191, Salinger). The imagery of the cliff represents loss of innocence, so when Holden has to keep the kids from going over the cliff into a chasm, he represents God, when God tries to preserve the innocence of Adam and Eve, and when God warns them from eating the apple, which like the cliff, causes them to lose their innocence. In the same dream, Holden thinks that the kids are “running and they don't know look where they're going” (191, Salinger). This vision of the kids shows that the kids don't know that they are going to lose their
J.D. Salinger's novel Catcher in the Rye revolves around Holden's encounters with other people. He divides all people into two different categories, the "phonies" and the authentics. Holden refers to a "phony" as someone who discriminates against others, is a hypocrite, or has manifestations of conformity. A person's age, gender, and occupation, play a key role in how Holden interacts with them.
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.