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Chapter 19 - Emerging Adulthood: Psychosocial Development
Holden the catcher in the rye character analysis
Holden s adulthood experience
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The Metamorphosis of Holden in The Catcher in the Rye
Without love and guidance, young people often find themselves lost; unsure of what direction their lives are headed. Such is the case with Holden Caulfield, a character from the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. Holden is a sixteen-year old boy who has lost his way. Hold has suffered a great loss, the death of his Brother, Allie.
Holden is trying to reconcile his emotions since Allie's death. While dealing with their own grief, Holden's parents have neglected his needs and have therefore not addressed this with him. Holden goes searching for answers and companionship since his parents are emotionally unavailable. This story takes up with Holden on in search to all the wrong places to find these things.
After a fight with his roommate at Pencey Prep School, Holden goes to Ackly's room. He strikes up some very superficial conversation and then asks if Ackly wants to play a game of cards. Ackly declines. Asking "Do you know what time it is, by any chance?"(pg.42) Holden is aware of the time but is desperate for a friend. Holden presses father asking if he could spend the night in Ackly's room. Ackly once again denied Holden's request
With that, Holden let's Ackly go back to sleep and lays alone with his thoughts, "I t was depressing out in the street. You couldn't even hear any cars anymore. I got feeling so lonesome and rotten. I even felt like waking Ackly up."(pg.50) At this point Holden decides that he is going to run away for a few days before he has to go home. On the train going into the city, Holden meets up with Mrs. Morrow. He finds her very attractive. An interesting point here is that he te...
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...about the carousel."(pg.213) It started pouring rain but Holden wasn't bothered, he " felt so damned happy."(pg.213) At that point Holden was able to say goodbye to Allie and let go of his grief. Holden returns home with Phoebe, and his family get him some help. He'll be back to school in the fall and this time he's ready to put in an effort.
Sources Consulted
Davis, Robert Con, ed. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 56. Detroit: Gail Research Inc., 1989.
Marsden, Malcolm M. Ed. If You Really Want to Know: A "Catcher" Casebook. Chicago: Scott, Foresman, 2002. 68-73.
Internet Public Library. "Salinger Literary Criticism Collection.".Dec 2001.17 April 2002.<http://www.ipl.org/cgi- bin/ref/litcrit/litcrit.out.pl?ti=cat-202>.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1951
In J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in The Rye Salinger writes about the main character Holden Caulfield and his life. Holden is a teenager who comes from a wealthy family, he loves his family and lives very happy until the death of his brother Allie. After his brother died Holden becomes troubled, being kicked out of school again and again developing a negative view of the world. Holden throughout the book shows anger,denial, and acceptance over the loss of his brother.
3.) Divide your 30g of white substance into the 4 test tubes evenly. You should put 7.5g into each test tube along with the water.
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...
Holden feels as if he is stuck in his 13 year old self. Although he is aging he isn’t necessarily maturing the way his classmates and other people are around him. This is due to the fact that he never received closure when Allie died. When he starts picturing his own funeral because he might get pneumonia and die, he remembers D.B. telling him about his brother's funeral. He stated, “I wasn’t there. I was still in the hospital. I had to go to the hospital and all after I hurt my hand” (Salinger 171). Since he never attended the funeral he never got to say his final goodbyes to the one person he truly loved. Holden feels as if he can’t connect with anyone else in the world like he did with Allie. If he did then he would most likely push them away, so he wouldn’t have to experience the trauma of loss again, because it greatly impacted his life the first time. The trauma Holden experienced when he was younger resulted in him not being able to form stronger relationships with people which made him more depressed and
In J.D. Sallinger's Catcher in the Rye, is based on the sullen life of Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old teen-ager is trying to find his sense of direction. Holden, a growing adult, cannot accept the responsibilities of an adult. Eventually realizing that there is no way to avoid the adult life, he can only but accept this alternative lifestyle. What Holden describes the adult world as a sinful, corrupted life, he avoids it for three important reasons: His hatred towards phonies and liars, unable to accept adult responsibilities, and thirdly to enshrine his childhood youth.
Holden’s childhood was far from ideal, with Allie dying, his dysfunctional parents and the revelation that he had some “perverty” stuff happen to him when he was a kid. Due to this, he isn't ready to step into adulthood and leave his childhood behind. This is why Holden is mostly alienated from adults and connects more to the innocence of children like the girl at the park and his sister, Phoebe. However, Holden is disillusioned with both adulthood and childhood. He already knows how it feels to be an adult; drinking alcohol, being independent, living by himself and caring for Phoebe, but isn’t ready to immerse himself in it.
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, Allie has an immense impact on Holden through his journey. Allie is Holden’s brother that died of Cancer when Holden was young. Holden is always sad about Allie’s death and is always thinking about Allie. Allie’s impact on Holden’s life sparks from Holden feeling like Allie missed out on opportunities.Allie also brings Holden a sense of guilt and also pain because he feels that Allie is missing out and that it is unfair for him to experience life. Holden can never get over Allies death and Allie because of his guilt that stems from his beliefs of Allie’s inability to experience life. When talking to Phoebe he says, “I Know he’s dead? Dont you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can't I? Just because somebody's dead, you don't just stop liking them, for God’s sake-especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that’re alive and all” (Salinger 171). This quote shows Holden’s reluctance to not forget Allie, and move on with his life not living in regret of Allie’s...
Immediately after Allie’s death, Holden changes immensely. His very first act after Allie died was smashing all his garage windows with his fist. Following this aggressive act, he becomes a recluse and judges every person he crosses to- I assume- Allie, because of how much he still reminded Holden of innocence, and will for the rest of his life. Cynthia Barron states, “Holden is sixteen… in a unique position, caught in the limbo between childhood and adulthood. Thus faced with their inability to adapt to an adult world that is hypocritical and corrupt, both boys seek a return to the realm of childhood” (Barron). In my personal opinion, i believe that he ...
Another part where Phoebe shows her influence on Holden is when Holden states, “… the kids were trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the horse. The thing… is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it…if they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them.” Holden feels that by letting Phoebe ride alone, he will make good for her, something that his parents did not give him. At the same time, Holden reveals his feelings towards his Allie, who he loves and takes care 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.
If You Really Want to Know: A "Catcher" Casebook. Ed. Malcolm M. Marsden. Chicago: Scott, Foresman, 1963. 68-73.
So the balls would therefore be tested under the weather conditions of the regions in which the balls would be transported through as closely as possible. At the start of the transport the balls would be under the conditions of the dry heat of New Mexico reaching temperatures of 46ºC in the summer which derived the dry heat test performed by putting the ball on a watch glass over a beaker of boiling water acquired and maintained using a hot plate as done in step 4 of the procedure [1]. The half way point of the transport, around Utah, would most nearly be comparative to the normal conditions of the room held at standard room temperature. Lastly, freezing weather condition aspect of the end portion of the transport is replicated with the submerging of the ball in a beaker of ice in an attempt to get as close to the Canadian-Alaskan region temperatures of the travels that the ball would be experiencing, 1ºC [1]. This being performed in the final part of the procedure, step 6. This will all show how the ratio of reactants in the selected combination really comes into play in an everyday life situation such as material or product transport across the
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.
borate) and 1.0 g. of sodium hydroxide in 20 mL of warm water. It may