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Catcher In The Rye Essay

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Catcher in the rye in class essay, nathan bond

Picture your best friend. Now imagine that person dying to cancer, specifically leukemia a degenerative disease to the blood cells and bone marrow. How would you feel and how do you think you could function in a world without your best friend? In The Catcher in the rye written by J.D. Salinger a boy by the name of Holden Caulfield had lost his brother Allie, who was his role model and idol as well as best friend. His brother had died of leukemia when Holden was 13 years old. With no support from his family or closure he was mentally unstable as a child and as such was kicked out of his school because of his poor grades and ill-mannered behavior. He was not a very proper man in the society of …show more content…

Because the book is written from his perspective you only see the actions he describes but not as everybody else sees them. You begin to realize throughout the book that he isn’t as tough as some people think he is or as he portrays himself. When Holden fights with stradlater he gets dominated because he is not as strong as he thinks he is and when the man in the elevator (Maurice) comes to his room to get the money Holden owes he stresses that the flick that Maurice gave to him was so painful he pretended that he had been shot the quote was “about halfway to the bathroom, I sort of started pretending I had a bullet in my guts.” he talks himself up big even though he isn't so intimidating, the reason is because his brother died he has been overcompensating for the grief and sadness he feels by pretending to be over confident and tough like nothing can hurt him because he is very vulnerable inside. Another example of him chickening out was when the prostitute sunny came to his room and they were going to have sex but he decided in the end that it wasn't a good idea and he instead paid her the 5 dollars, which in itself is very unnatural to pay for a prostitute and then when she arrives tell her you want to talk. Then he told her to leave which is why she took advantage of him in the end with Maurice because they knew he was weak and an easy

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