Analysis Of J. D. Salinger's 'Catcher In The Rye'
Imagine being a depressed teenager who just got expelled from high school, and on the verge of a mental breakdown. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, follows the life of a depressed six foot two and a half inch, partially gray-haired, and woefully angular sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield. Recovering from a recent breakdown, Holden tells his story from a mental institution in California. His older brother D.B. is a successful writer in Hollywood, and his younger sister Phoebe is attending elementary school in New York City. At thirteen years of age, Holden was forced to enter adulthood when his brother Allie died from leukemia. Instead of seeing pulchritude, Holden started to view the world as an atrocious place, populated by phonies who do not understand him. At times, he averts social contact as a result of depression. Holden struggles to cope with Allie’s death as he alienates himself from society and suffers from loneliness. Holden decides to sequester himself to evade relationships that will result in awkwardness, rejection, or the pain he felt when Allie died. By alienating himself, Holden believes he is safe from loss. In the novel, Holden fantasizes a life in which he is a deaf mute. He says “I thought what I 'd do was, I 'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn 't have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody” (Salinger ). Being a deaf-mute will ensure that Holden can’t communicate with anybody. People will leave him
Theme Of Responsibility In Catcher In The Rye
111 Words | 1 PagesThroughout the novel, Holden has a difficult teenage life, he is not responsible and can not face consequences that follow his irresponsibility. Holden can not let go of his childhood, and he has a tough time because he has to behave like an adult, now that he is 16. Holden is obsessed with his dead brother Allie, and his younger sister Phoebe because they are better than he is. Throughout the novel, Holden had many opportunities to get advice from the others that want to help. He refuses to go home and tell his parents he got kicked out of another school because he does not want to face the
Catcher In The Rye Allie's Death Analysis
624 Words | 3 PagesThe first effect of Allie’s death is that it makes Holden very depressed. This psychological problem is affecting Holden because he is very unsocial and having thoughts to kill himself. First example, Holden says,”I almost wished I was dead” this shows depression because after the fight with Stradlater he became very sad and wanted to kill himself but he decided to leave out of Pencey. Second example of
Examples Of Holden Being Depressed In Catcher In The Rye
728 Words | 3 PagesHe talks to his brother as if he 's there searching for help from him. This novel is about him moving through New York and witnessing this and not wanting to be a part of it, yet knowing he has to fit in there somewhere. Holden grows a very dangerous drinking problem. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, Holden is a lost and depressed boy looking for a purpose in life. Holden believes that growing up is going to cause him to lose all innocence in himself.
Holden Caulfield Lies In Catcher In The Rye
1378 Words | 6 PagesThe only motivator that Holden has to continue living is his younger sister, Phoebe, who is extraordinarily intelligent for her age. After he gets kicked out of Pencey, Holden is lost in life. He speaks to many people, seeking advice and comfort, but they are not able to help him find a human connection. Holden’s depression increases throughout the novel, almost to the point of suicide. He criticizes many people and ideas, labeling them as ‘phony’.
Theme Of Alienation In Catcher In The Rye
1095 Words | 5 Pages“I have a feeling that you’re riding for some kind of a terrible, terrible fall. But I don’t honestly know what kind…It may be kind where, at the age of thirty, you sit in some bar hating everybody who comes in looking as if he might have played football in college. Then again, you may pick up just enough education to hate people who say, “It’s a between he and I. ‘ Or you may end up in some business office, throwing paper clips at the nearest stenographer. I just don’t know…
Catcher In The Rye Allie's Mitt Analysis
779 Words | 4 PagesFurthermore, Holden starts to hate all the adults or loses faith in them, calls them phony. Holden has a second thought of becoming an adult he loses hope in his future and it seems to him nothing in the world matters to him anymore. We can see that throughout the book. He smokes, gets drunk, and does daring acts like getting a prostitute in his room. He also tries to escape all this guilt and grief by wasting time with unnecessary people he calls phony.
How Does Holden Caulfield Change Throughout The Novel
693 Words | 3 PagesCatcher in the Rye In the book Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, the narrator and protagonist Holden Caulfield a sixteen year old junior undergoes a series of changes. Holden learns multiple life changing lessons; one of them is you must grow up. In the beginning of the novel, Holden starts out as “that kid”; the one with the parents who expect him to get into an ivy league school, and end up with a kid with no intentions of doing so. At the beginning of the book it is very apparent that Holden lacks motivation; he also has hit rock bottom.
How Does Holden Connect With Others
734 Words | 3 PagesHolden is unaware of his problem. When people try to help him he tells them there is nothing wrong with him. Holden wonders why he cannot connect with others. He blames it on other people when the source of his problems is himself. Holden’s past holds him back from connecting with others, but his fear of letting go of his past has him limited and scarred from making new relationships and connections.
Catcher In The Rye Rhetorical Analysis
828 Words | 4 PagesAs the book starts Holden describes his childhood and how he has been kicked out of several school and once more again from his currently school, giving a sense of irresponsibility and no care in the world. Holden later on mentioned slowly the loss of his brother due to leukemia and how he reacted outrageously by breaking the windows of his garage home. As a reader one would view that behavior as abnormal, but Peter Shaw descried it as a normal behavior for a fictional character in the 1950s and by mentioning that Holden, “is presenting in a somewhat different manner than are the sentimentalized young people in other novels if his period” (par. 3), admitting that Holden was somewhat of an outcast of a character even for its time he is still considered normal. Shaw also challenged the reader’s view of Holden by emphasizing that Holden is not a real person, but a fiction character developed in the 1950s and in fact a mad psychological character is normal and made the reading rather more interesting and acceptable during that time. As readers someone may come across as understanding Holden’s behavior due to a loss and everyone mourns differently and as Shaw said, “ the one period of life in which abnormal behavior is common rather than exceptional” (par.
Stubbornness In Catcher In The Rye
1493 Words | 6 PagesThe Catcher in the Rye In the novel The Catcher in the Rye J.D Salinger writes about a teenager struggling to find his place within the existence of the reality of others. Salinger creates shocking events that lay out the foundation of the the main character Holden Caulfield’s life in the novel. Salinger uses Holden’s characteristics throughout the novel such as Holden’s stubbornness to establish a much bigger theme in the book along with many other symbols.
Catcher In The Rye Analysis
756 Words | 4 PagesWhen we were younger, all we ever wanted was to be a ‘big kid’. We wanted to be able to do things by ourselves and have independence and freedom from our parents. In J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, protagonist Holden Caulfield finally had this ‘freedom’. But was it what he wanted?
What Are The Causes Of Holden's Mental Breakdown
2021 Words | 9 PagesThe 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.
Holden Caulfield Mental Illness
1704 Words | 7 PagesI slept in the garage the night he died and broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it” (Salinger 39). Ever since the passing of his brother, Holden has never been the same person as he had been. He never quits thinking of Allie and he believes he is with him at all times. When Holden is depressed, which happens frequently, he decides to speak to Allie to comfort him, as shown by, “What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. I do that sometimes when I get very depressed.
Catcher In The Rye Identity Analysis
991 Words | 4 PagesThe Catcher in the Rye is a fictional novel written by S.D Salinger. Sixteen year old Holden Caulfield has flunked out of the prestigious, all-boys Pencey Prep boarding school in Connecticut. But, Holden did not fail every class, except for English, for nothing. Holden wants to leave Pencey. He is tired of feeling rejected by the phonies and the fakes at Pencey, so Holden leaves and goes to New York.
Misfit In The Catcher In The Rye
1418 Words | 6 PagesThis describes Holden to-a-t, because of his alienation problem, his conflict with “phoniness” and his struggle of growing up and leaving his small problems behind him. Throughout the novel,
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