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Character analysis of Holden Caulfield
Character analysis of Holden Caulfield
Analysis of holden caufield character
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The Catcher in the Rye a novel written by J.D. Salinger, the book starts off by Holden Caulfield, main protagonist, talking about his experience alone the weekend before he went home. Holden struggles to fit in society, communicating with others but most of all he is struggling to find himself. Holden lurks for advice from different people in order to get some insight of their perspective. Even though Holden seems to be embracing the growing up mentality yet he wants to keep his innocence. Holden is quite an interesting character because his attitude toward life in general is very complex. He pretends to be an adult by drinking heavily, yet he complains like a child. You can clearly see the struggle Holden is going through in finding himself. Holden's thoughts aren't what the average sixteen year old boy thinks about. He describes death in a weird sense and he pretends to be injured often yet he hasn’t been in that position before. He is a bit violently and sexual for a kid. Holden feels misunderstood by others because the way they perceive him. In Holden’s mind he believes everyone is a phony, but he can't notice himself being a phony. He lies about his age to people and he tries to act like an adult. He tried to lose his virginity to a prostitute. He is not a straightforward person because he hides behind his lies. In other words, Holden wants to be an adult yet can’t face life or reality. Maybe the reason why he thinks everyone is a phony is because he is an even bigger phony he just feels better about him knowing that everyone’s a phony as well. Or maybe Holden doesn't realize himself as a phony cause he thinks something set him apart from all the other phonies that surrounds him. Holden perceives himself as a good guy wit... ... middle of paper ... ... fact he speak to a number of adults to answer his peculiar question and “touchy" topics. Most likely Holden’s parents are conservative folks that disapprove with Holden’s behavior. His parent weren't great at raising Holden because they weren't there for Holden's needs. All they did was send out Holden to a school for years rather than looking for a solution to his problem. Another observation, he doesn't want to go home after being kicked out of school, which is usually a place you want to go to because home is safe and comfortable but instead, brings Holden anxiety and distress. His trouble with his parents probably has to do with his younger brother's death, Allie. After Allie’s death, his parents probably put the rest aside to grieve his son’s death. The parents didn't realize that Holden was affected by Allie’s death and might of neglect him for years. `
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 struggles with himself mightily and cannot fulfill his responsibilities. One of Holden’s struggles is that he has a bad attitude towards everyone. For example, at the school he goes to, he hates his roommates and his teachers. In addition to not liking anyone, Holden
Holden is an outlier of society, and tries to hide his own weaknesses with his angry thoughts. It is also implied that Holden is enrolled in an institution as he talks about doctor appointments towards the beginning of the book.
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. Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child.
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.
Before this book was written in it's time frame, Holden deals with some struggles that change and impact his life quite a bit. The author portrays Holden's personality through his actions for the audience to understand him. Some of the actions are going back to visit the museum, calling and visiting Phoebe at home, visiting the park, keeping Allie's baseball mitt, wearing the red hunting hat, and asking about the ducks. These examples all play a part in showing that Holden is afraid of change. Holden is starting to grow up and make the transition into an adult, but the audience can tell Holden is struggling. Holden's decisions such as smoking, drinking constantly, buying a prostitute, and staying out late at night show his attempts to face adult life. However, when faced
Holden does not want to grow up and becoming an adult and assume the responsibilities of college. He is failing school on purpose so that he can stay back and be a kid forever. Throughout the story Holden refuses to take the responsibility to communicate with other people that may help him. For exam...
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.
In a novel, the theme is the insight of real life. J.D. Salinger’s initiation novel, The Catcher In The Rye, describes the adventures of 16-year old Holden Caulfield, the protagonist and first person narrator, who refuses to grow up and enter manhood. The most important theme developed by Salinger is Holden’s problem of dealing with change; he has trouble dealing with death, he refuses to accept children’s loss of innocence as a necessary step in the growing-up process, and has difficulties with growing up.
He complains about his school, saying that it is just like any other school and uses language that makes him sound very obnoxious. Holden seems to focus on girls quite a bit, just like any other teenage boy. He seems to focus on one girl in particular, a girl named Jane. We soon learn that Holden’s personality is not your average personality. Holden does seem to have some friends but he does not fall into many peer groups with the type of personality he has. Holden isn’t able to read social cues like most teenagers learn to do. For this reason, he seems to play around a lot in the wrong situations. Even his friends have matured enough to recognise that Holden needs to ‘grow up’. Holden’s resistance to emerging adulthood is the cause of many of the problems he is faced with during the
Holden Caulfield doesn't often show respect for other people and is shown to be a compulsive liar to keep his true self hidden from the world. The only real people he ever talks about in high regards are his siblings Phoebe and Allie, as well as his childhood friend, Jane. He keeps himself distanced because of his constant fear of being rejected by society. After being continously let down, Holden begins to develop a mentality of isolating himself from everyone else because he believes there are only two types of people in this world, and that someone is either a good person or they’re fake.
Holden's relationship with his family shows that Holden is emotionally unsettled. What he knows deep inside is that he cannot be the son that his parents envision. Holden loves his mother as he should but he doesn't have a close relationship with her. She gets Holden skates , but they turn out to be the wrong kind of states. That shows how much is own parents don't know him. Holden's sister is always home alone without the parents, no one to talk to. Holden holds onto Allie's death and he doesn't come to terms with that, he bottles everything up .
Throughout the novel, Holden struggles emotionally as an outsider, gradually becoming more unstable as time passes on. He’s an outsider at school and in society so he doesn’t have many friends. In his eyes, everyone is letting him down, which causes him to think very low of himself. Earlier in his life, he had a brother named Allie, but he died due to his leukemia. The collateral damage from that caused him to break emotionally. The night of Allie’s death, he slept in the garage
He starts changing the way he is. He considers getting himself into psychotherapy to help him go through the emotional phase of his life because of the loss of his brother which plays a role on his behaviour: “Supposing I went to your father and had him psychoanalyze me and all. What would he do to me? I mean what would he do to me?” (speaker:holden,pg num:164.) Although Holden doesn’t see a psychoanalyst, he knows that he needs help with going through the difficult phase. Holden tries to gain respect from people by faking his age so that he can be treated like an adult: “I ordered scotch and soda and told him to not mix it. I said it fast as hell, because if you him and haw, they think you’re under twenty one and won’t sell you any intoxicating liquor” (Speaker: Holden, Pg num:78) Holden thinks he is ready to take on adulthood responsibilities by copying what adults do. This proves that he is mature or at least trying to be mature by taking responsibilities for his actions and not escaping the,
The way Holden acts shows how he is not an average teen. He is separated from his parents while at his boarding school and gets kicked out due to his poor grades. When talking with Mr. Spencer, Holden says he failed four out of his five classes, but did not have to do much work in English class. Holden is not relevant to teens if he does not act like a teen, for many teens care about their grades, so they may graduate and move on in life. Whereas Holden is very lazy and does not have any guidance in his life from any guardians or parents. Holden also has problems making friends and meeting new people. Although Source II states that “You’re not alone in your frustrations” regarding Holden, it contridicts the point that Holden does not have any friends or family besides his sister which he does not talk to until later in story. Holden does not have the greatest person skills, and most teens have lots of friends and can relate to others pretty easy which is totally different