Choices made as teenagers can impact their lives in either in a negative or positive way. If a teenager begins to make poor decisions, he/she could destroy his or her future personally or professionally. As teenagers become older, the margin for error becomes smaller. In “Beautiful Brains” by David Dobbs, the teenager in the story chose to drive passed the speed limit on a highway, and this decision got him in trouble with the law. It’s these types of choices that can get a person into a serious mess if he or she is not careful. If you choose not to work hard in school, you will receive bad grades. This will impact your GPA and consequently your ability to get into a good college. Therefore bad decisions you make as a teenager, especially as …show more content…
you become older, will significantly impact the outcome of your future. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, is a story about a teenager named Holden Caulfield. In the book the story mainly focuses on Holden’s actions and decisions that affect his life, his future, and the people around him. It also teaches the reader to make the right choices that don’t impact their life in a negative way. In fact, you constantly see Holden make poor choices that affect him later on in the book. One of the poor choices that he makes is the inability to control the amount of money he spends. Throughout the book you see Holden spending money uncontrollably, paying for taxis, hotel rooms, and drinks at a bar. He even spent money on other people most times. He originally started off with $180 (worth about $2,000 in the 1950’s), within a couple days after leaving Pencey, he is broke. ‘“After they left, I started getting sorry that I'd only given them ten bucks ($100) for their collection. But the thing was, I'd made that date to go to the matinee with old Sally Hayes, and I needed to keep some dough for the tickets and stuff.”’ (Salinger 147) This demonstrates that he has no self control over his actions. For example, Holden was very careless when he decided to spend $5 ($50) on a prostitute for his entertainment. When she arrives at his room, he feels nervous and only makes small talk with her. After which he asks her to leave, paying her the money. But that's not enough for her. Later, the “manager” comes and tells Holden to pay the rest of what he owns, but he refuses and the manager beats up Holden and ends up taking most of his money. These careless decisions put Holden into bad situations. After losing his money, Holden is broke and is forced to sleep outside on a park bench, later in the book he also ends up taking Phoebe’s (his sister) Christmas money. Therefore, Holden has no self control and that leads him to making poor choices that later impact his life in a poor way. Sadly, money isn’t the only thing that impacts Holden’s future. In the book it states that Holden was kicked out of two very good schools and is currently being kicked from the third. To add on, multiple times he stated that he failed many of his classes and he isn’t very smart. He even wrote a letter to his Social Studies teacher saying that it's fine that he fails Holden’s essay. He continued on, saying that the Egyptians didn’t interest him and he didn’t know anything else about them. “It is alright with me if you flunk me though, as I am flunking everything else except English.” (Salinger 16) This demonstrates that Holden doesn’t value education or how it will affect him in the future. To add on, he decides to leave the school earlier because he can’t handle the stress and doesn’t want to face any of his conflicts. This proves that he only wants the easy way out of situations, and that can also impact him later on. He also stated that he really hated Elkton Hills, his previous school, because there were too many phonies. This shows that Holden doesn’t have the correct mindset to focus on education and is irresponsible to be left alone somewhere without supervision, yet alone make his own decisions. If he continues down this road, he will have a hard time staying employed and making a good living when his older. One of the many poor choices that he makes is that he constantly lies.
Clearly, that it's not a choice that he makes, but rather a habit that he develops. His constant lies give false perspectives on what actually happens. For example, on a train ride Holden meets the mother of a bully from Pencey called Ernest Morrow. When they start talking, he immediately lies about his name and his identity. Then he lies to the mother about what a great son she has and about all his false accomplishments. This gives the mother a false perspective of her son and his actions. Lastly, he lies about having a brain tumor to cover up his expulsion from Pencey. Most of Holden’s lies consist of detailed stories to make them sound more interesting. He told these false stories at Pencey, to complete strangers, to his family, and to himself. It is clear that at times he lies to make his life more interesting and meaningful, since he is depressed. He doesn’t receive the care that he wants from his parents, he lost his brother to cancer and is extremely lonely. What’s really ironic though, is that Holden considers many people as “phonies”, while he is the one making up the most lies, making him one as well. ‘“I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. It's terrible.”’ (Salinger 22) This shows that he is a compulsive liar whose exaggerations continue to become more grand over time. The lies he tells himself are much more impacting than lies told to other people because he tries to make himself believe that everything is fine despite what happened. Holden’s lies are inexcusable and will one day get him into a lot of
trouble. Throughout the book the author demonstrated that Holden’s erroneous decisions somehow impacted his life in a bad way. Of course not all his decisions impacted him, but it is clear that they will impact him later on in life when he becomes older. So it's safe to say that Holden’s future will be rough and unpleasant due to his poor choices. In “Beautiful Brains”, “Teen’s sloppier moments can bring unbearable consequences.” When people make mistakes, especially teens, they always pay for them in some way. Same in my life, when I make poor decisions as a student or a soccer player, in the end it hits me hard. If I choose not to study, I get bad grades. If I choose not to stay in shape or practice, I don’t start in games or get to play for long. Therefore, it's the choices that a teenager makes along the way that shapes their future.
Beautiful Brains by David Dobbs is an article about why teenagers usually take more risks than adults. In the article Dobbs begins by discussing how his son once got in trouble for speeding down a highway just because he was curious to know what it felt like. He then goes into asking why teenagers often do "stupid" things and then explains that teens have always done that throughout time. He provides scientific evidence that the brain changes between the ages of 12 to 25 affecting our decision making. One way that a reader could interpret this data is that teenagers have a hard time using new parts of their brain and seem to be in a state of retardation. Dobb also describes the reckless acts of teenagers in order for them to adapt to any situation.
Since Holden was isolated from his family, in order to not get hurt again he tries to find hypocrisy in people to stop himself from trusting others. Holden feels isolated after being sent to a boarding school that “was full of phonies” by his parents (Salinger 90). Salinger’s message to the audience with this quote is that when
Compulsive lying is another characteristic that Holden exhibits. Holden would tell people lies just so they could not become closer to the real Holden. Holden tells lies on numerous occasions to gain. Holden pathetically tells Mrs. Morrow, " I have to have a tiny operation… it isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on my brain" (58). She tells Holden that she is very sorry and she is hopeful that he shall be well soon. Holden then catches him self in a lie and he remarkes, "Once I get started, I can go on for hours if I feel like it," (58). This compulsive lying shows that Holden is not satisfied with himself and that he feels that people will judge him critically.
Holden's idealism is first brought forth when he describes his life at Pency Prep. It is full of phonies, morons and bastards. His roommate, Stradlater, " was at least a pretty friendly guy, It was partly a phony kind of friendly..." (26) and his other roommate, Ackley is "a very nosy bastard" (33). Holden can't stand to be around either one of them for a very long time. Later, he gets into a fight with Stradlater over his date with Jane. Holden is upset because he thinks that Stradlater "gave her the time" and that he doesn't care about her; 'the reason he didn't care was because he was a goddam stupid moron. All morons hate it when you call them a moron' (44). Holden not only sees his roommates as phonies and bastards, but he also sees his headmaster at Pency Prep as a "phony slob" (3). This type of person is exactly what Holden doesn't want to be. He strives to be a mature adult; caring, compassionate, and sensitive.
He also exhibits honesty; as a child, he chopped a cherry tree by accident but confessed and told the truth when asked by his father. Now, let’s view at Holden and see how he fits in when compared to one of the most known hero of the United States. Holden lacks honesty as he confesses to the reader how, he’s the “most terrific liar” (16). Another clear example is when Holden talks to Ernie’s mother at the train station. From when they first met, Holden already lied by telling her that his name was Rudolf Schmidt, an obvious phony lie.
Holden often talked about how phony people in his life were, however, he was also a phony, which made him a hypocrite. Holden would often mention things he hated that someone did, but sooner or later Holden was guilty of doing the exact same thing. In chapter one Holden is hypocritical towards his older brother, D.B. He says “Now he’s out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute.”(Salinger
that he is trying to hide his true identity. He does not want people to know who he really is or that he was kicked out of his fourth school. Holden is always using fake names and tries speaking in a tone to persuade someone to think a cretin way. He does this when he talks to women. While he is talking to the psychiatrist he explains peoples reactions to his lies like they really believe him, when it is very possible that he is a horrible liar and they are looking at him with a “what are you talking a bout?” expression. Holden often lies to the point where he is lying to him self.
Many of the times that Holden criticizes people, it is something he does himself. (Pg 13) “. one of the reasons I left Elkton was that I was surrounded by phonies.” Holden himself is many times what he refers to as a “phony”. He knows that he lies and pretends to like people that he would rather not be with.
Holden’s thoughts emphasized to the reader that he is state of mind is very disoriented and so Holden comes off as unsure of his opinions causing contradictions. Critics of the book highly disagree on why Holden comes of as contradicting throughout the novel. Dan Porter suggested Holden acts in a hypocritical manner to avoid taking responsibility for his actions (goodreads). I disagree with the perspective that being hypocritical has a correlation to him avoiding taking responsibility but his mental health is large aspect of him avoiding responsibility. While I will admit that Holden did have actions that cause contradictions and could be even referenced as being hypocritical, Holden doesn’t take responsibility for his actions because of the feelings of depression he experiences that distort his judgement making it difficult for him to efficiently progress throughout the novel to reach his goals. In addition, after being beat up and taken advantage Holden remarked how he feels suicide. “What I really felt like,though,was committing suicide...I was all gory” (104). Holden struggling to maintain good mental health eventually leads to his downfall. His mental state makes it difficult for him to succeed and motivate himself to do well when he sees so much negativity. Holden has emotional response after agreeing to take sister's Christmas money
He describes himself as, “the most terrific liar you ever saw,” (16). He talks about how often he lies, and how he does it even in the most unnecessary situations. Heroism requires honesty, and Holden lies constantly. He has prominent traits of an anti-hero. When Holden is on his way to see Phoebe, he has to lie to the elevator boy by saying, ‘“I’m supposed to wait for them. I’m their nephew’...It’s funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they’ll do practically anything you want them to,” (158). He lies to practically everyone, including strangers like the elevator boy. Holden has obviously had previous experience with lying, and it comes easy to
Because when he feels something, he’s sad and depressed and feels as if he wants to die. “ I wasn’t sleepy or anything but I was feeling sort of lousy, depressed and all, i wish i was dead” (Salinger 118). He lies to everyone he knows to be able to steer away from situations he doesn’t want to be in. or to make himself seem more interesting. For example, when Holden was on the train talking with one of his prior Pency classmate's mother, he lied about his name, why he wasn't at school, and about the woman's son. Holden did this and felt guilty afterwards because he found that she was a caring person and wanted her to be able to trust
Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual”. In the book Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield’s lies become habitual throughout the book. Holden is a sixteen-year-old boy, who has been kicked out of several schools including, most recently, Pencey Prep. Holden’s younger brother, Allie, died when Holden was only thirteen and his older brother, D.B., is too busy working for Hollywood to care about Holden. Although his mother cares immensely for him, Holden saddens her by failing academically. The only motivator that Holden has to continue living is his younger sister, Phoebe, who
Holden was on his way to purchase a magazine and someone asked where he was going and he said he was going to the opera, which was a complete lie. Another lie was, when he was having a boring conversation with Old Spencer, so he lied exclaiming that he had to get equipment out of the gym. In the book it corresponds, “I’m the most terrific liar you saw in your life.” (Salinger, 9) He confesses that he lies a lot and he said it was “terrible” but he can’t help himself. Holden was at the sandwich bar eating his breakfast then we begun talking to two nuns. He gives them a ten dollar contribution. In the passage, it exclaims, “Quite bit of money”. (Salinger, 59) He doesn’t have a lot of money but
In every story the hero is always truthful. Holden is not. He admits to being a pathological liar. “I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. It's terrible.” He acts respectful to adults, but is lying the whole time. He lies to Mrs. Murrow on the train ride home. He asks her to get a drink with him even though he is underage and she is married. Holden lies for fun, mostly because I believe he doesn't fully comprehend that lying this much could get him into
In life poor decisions are made which leads to repercussions that can land anyone in a difficult situation. For example, A teenager drops out of high school, hangs out with a negative group of friends who encourage rebellion, and ends up uneducated out in the streets doing illegal activities; that choice to leave school has created many other problems because of it. In the poem “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks, Brooks gave a genuine answer to what commonly happens when the negative choice of dropping out of school can lead one; “We Left school, We Lerk late, We die soon” (732-733). Many people drop out of school and become very successful however that is not the case for all people so when a kid makes that choice poor things can happen.