Reflection On Catcher In The Rye

In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, Holden, the main character wants to be a catcher. Holden hears a young boy on the street singing. “If a body catch a body coming through the rye and it made Holden feel better” (Salinger 115). He wants to be the only big person around in a rye field, near a cliff, to catch all the kids playing from running off the cliff. It is obvious from this statement that Holden wants to help children, but how can Holden when he cannot even take care of himself?

Holden Caulfield experiences flashbacks to the traumatic events that have occurred in his life. Holden is constantly reminded of his younger brother Allie who passed away when he was 11 years old. “So what I did, I wrote about… did, and he had very red hair,” (Salinger 38). The reader can see that Holden is constantly thinking of Allie, and that Allie was one of the people in Holden’s life that made him happy. Holden’s ability to remember the vivid details of Allie and his life prove that these traumatic events, occurring upon those who brought him joy, will always be with him.

And I;m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start t go over the cliff…” (Salinger 173). This quote shows Holden’s day dream about children running innocently around a rye field and he would be standing at the edge of the cliff to protect them and keep their innocence if they were about to fall. He is aware that the children of the world are corrupted and has the desire to salvage them from further damage.

In The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, one of the characters is “stuck in the past”. Throughout the novel, Gatsby is constantly longing for a past relationship he had with a woman named Daisy, who moved on from Gatsby and married another man when Gatsby left for the war. Gatsby’s view of the past is used to develop a major theme of the novel: the moral decay of society. The novel begins with Nick, the narrator saying how the events that happened in New York, where the novel takes place, caused him to leave, and how he doesn’t like any of the people he was involved with.

"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody 's around--nobody big, I mean--except me. And I 'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff--I mean if they 're running and they don 't look where they 're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day.

On the other hand, Starving is another symbol that the writer uses to represent how the family feels about Papi. Papi is starving his family of affection and love, while they all seem to desire some of Papi’s love and affection Papi seem very distant from them. Yunior disapproves completely of his father’s affair by the vomiting when he gets in the van, a van his father got to impress his mistress. The van is a symbol of Papi’s affair and therefore Yunior dislikes the van. The reason he doesn’t tell his mom about the affair is because he wants his father to like him in part and in part because maybe he does not want to see his family split and to see his mom suffer.

‘But not too much, I guess’ (14). Holden didn’t want to grow up from his childhood years or even think of the future. He wants to remain in his childhood years, when everything was full of life and vivid happiness. Holden’s actions are also childlike, which makes his character unreliable at times, but it irritates Holden when people don’t take him seriously or simply notice that when he tries to change his behavior. For instance, Salinger mentions, “I get bored sometimes when people tell me to act my age.

Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket Just as he was going to break the window his wife walks in and he sees that she is not happy so he starts to think maybe he is on that ledge because he ain 't the right for her because he doesn’t make time for her. He thinks back on all the time he could have spent time with her and made his marriage better. Tom started thinking if he did fall off the ledge that she would find someone else and make her happy but then some guy walks in and she looks like they have known each other for a while so he starts thinking has she been using me working so much an excuse to go out and meet other guys and then he gets a rage in his body and break the window and starts to beat the guy up and grabs him and hangs him out the

The person with the biggest impact on him was his younger brother Allie Caulfield. He showed him what a happy person looks like and how they act, even through the darkest of time. When Allie died of leukemia it made Holden heartbroken. He was didn’t know how to deal with his death, this resulted in him going through the garage punching out the windows. This made it worse for him because when he

I didn 't want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory". (Salinger 2010 : 58)  Holden seems to think that it is better to die young than to become an adult materialist like his parents, brother, and nearly every adult he meets. In this case death act as a symbol of freedom, a gateway, a relief from one’s troubles and responsibilities, this is its very quality that at times caused Holden to consider it

The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger in 1951, is the story of an angst-ridden sixteen year old Holden Caulfield as he learns to deal with growing up. The story follows Holden through his three day experience through New York as he learns about the truth about innocence, sex, and mortality, making The Catcher in the Rye one of America’s most notable coming-of-age stories. One of the largest influences on Holden’s life was his younger brother Allie who died from leukemia at age eleven when Holden was thirteen. The death of Holden’s brother had a profound effect on Holden emotional state, which eventually caused his complete mental breakdown by the end of the novel.

No one wants to grow up. The transitions from innocent childhood, to fearless adolescence, to sudden real and terrifying adulthood is enough to scare anyone. So, because of this, people have a natural desire to want to protect innocence, or perhaps to even stop time and live young and free forever. J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye portrays this dilemma of becoming an adult and the protection of innocence through the story of Holden Caulfield. Holden’s story is essentially that of a teenage boy bumming around New York City for a few days in search of someone to listen to him about his fears of becoming an adult.

In The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, Salinger established Holden Caulfield’s introverted character through his background and experiences. As a sixteen year old student, Holden had to encounter many life and death obstacles. He becomes traumatized from witnessing the deaths of people close to him. Holden’s experiences with death changed his perspective of the world. For example, Allie’s death allowed him to realize the weaknesses that death has upon everybody, old or young.

Nandan Shastry In the novel, Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, the main character Holden Caulfield struggles with many internal and external conflicts that change his attitude on life and how he approaches and confronts various situations. Throughout the novel Holden is always labeling people and situations that he disagrees with as phony instead of respecting that someone may have different opinion than him and it might be right. At the conclusion of the novel Holden is faced with the questions of whether he will apply himself when he goes to school that coming fall. He replies that he wants to but will never know until that time has come.

Teenagers are so damaged and emotionally broken that at least twenty percent of teenagers suffer from depression before they become adults. That only could explain Holden’s need to self protect and not trust people. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger shows the theme of alienation for the purpose of self-protection . The main character Holden Caulfield uses his red hunting hat when he is looking for protection, refers to the museum when he wants everything to stay the same and Allie’s baseball mit when he wants to have comfort. Holden’s red hunting hat is used as a symbol a surplus amount of times.