Holden prefers to stay as a kid rather than “grow up”. When Holden talks about phonies they were most of the time adults and never kids. He dislikes the idea of growing up and becoming a phony himself. He even says this when he talks about his cabin, “ I might come home when I was about thirty-five.”(pg.213) He decides that he might be able to accept to grow up by the time he is thirty-five. He doesn’t believe that he will be able to let go of the concept of innocence any sooner than that. Holden explains his thoughts at the end of the book, “ I mean how do you know what you’re going to do till you do it? The answer is, you don’t. I think I am, but how do I know? I swear it’s a stupid question.”(pg.213) He is pretty much confused on whether he should let go the feeling of innocence. His statement at the end tells us that he is tired of being questioned about his maturity, he admits that he doesn’t know when he will be able to
Holden experiences sex in his thoughts but also in certain situations that he eventually backs out of. He encounters a situation with a prostitute named Sunny, instead of Holden actually having a sexually encounter with her he worries about her innocence. Holden is able to detect that she’s young by her word choice and the way she carries herself, when he notices this he decides not to have sex with her and to try his best to perserve her innocence. Holden fails to realizie that the girl’s innocence has already been stolen from her. Love is depicted in the story a lot and hurts Holden; He falls in love with Jane Gallagher but is crushed when he finds out Stradlater took her on a date and most likely took her innocence away from her.
school.Since Holden finds it infuriating living amongst people with no sense of morality. Consequently,his discontent with school hinders the enrichment he wishes his life to encompass. Therefore, Holden’s objectives of school are not being accomplished. Holden foresees countless misery and restlessness in his future. Therefore, his depression and thoughts of suicide are enkindled by the emotional dissatisfaction he experiences at Pencey. Second, Holden’s reckless behaviour of excessive drinking to escape his problems also displays his depression. For example, after Holden’s heated argument with Sally, he fails to maturely resolve his problem with Sally.Instead, he decides to bury himself in alcohol. This is revealed when he states,“she kept telling me to go away and leave her alone, so finally I did… and left without her.
Tragic events can affect your mindset in irreversible ways, causing self-destructive behavior, low self-esteem, and devious actions. Jerome David Salinger in his novel, The Catcher in the Rye, he develops the character of Holden Caulfield, an adolescent boy who is living a tragedy, causing suffering and deep pain within him. According to Mary Klages from the University of Colorado, she incorporates Warren Hedges and Freud through a psychoanalytic lens and they come to a conclusion that psychoanalytical approaches reveal how and why people behave as they do, which helps clarify Holden Caulfield’s actions in the novel. Holden is presented as a troubled adolescent, facing discontent of his childhood in which he desires not to describe much in
In The Catcher in the Rye, the author J.D. Salinger, introduces the protagonist; Holden Caulfield. Holden feels the sense that he cannot choose between the two worlds. For example, he makes it seem as both of them are complete opposites from each other. In the book, Holden wants to keep his innocence, but he also wants to grow up and toss that innocence away. He still keeps his childhood personality by constantly obsessing over things that shouldn’t matter. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden demonstrates the struggle of transitioning between childhood and adulthood by revealing his hassle to grow up.
How would you feel if you were outcasted by society, looked down upon by everyone else around you, never to fit in. This is the life that Holden Caulfield has to live. Holden Caulfield is a character in the book, The Catcher In the Rye, that is viewed as a misfit but assigned this label by society around him. Holden just has a different perspective on the world than everyone else, causing him to be seen as lower than everyone else. Holden doesn't believe in how materialistic things make you happy, he doesn't agree with people pretending to be someone that they truly are not, and he wants to protect children from the world and keep their innocence for as long as he can. It is not Holden Caulfield who is a misfit in our society, but society
Throughout the novel, The Catcher In The Rye, by J.D. Salinger, Holden struggles to find himself and who he truly is in order to be happy. His struggles relate to many things that he does or say in particular.
Salinger uses the symbol of Allie's mitt to express the theme of innocence as demonstrated in a major symbol, big factor in Catcher in The Rye, and overall connection to the theme of the book.
Today we are dealing with Holden Caulfield, a 17 year old student who attends Pencey Prep in New York City. Holden is maturing quickly and has happened to grow six and a half inches in the past year. He has grey hair at the age of seventeen and is very skinny for his age. Holden’s family consists of his mom and dad, his brother D.B, and his sister Phoebe. Holden did have another brother, Allie, but he passed away when Holden was thirteen years old. Holden does not communicate with D.B often but they keep in touch once in awhile. On the other hand, Holden cares for and loves Phoebe with his whole heart; he would never let anything happen to her and he continues to worry about her and care for her. Holden is very passionate about his family but
Adulthood is when we mature into a person that continues to live life in reality as we let our childhood and adolescence become a faint memory. The memories, however, taught us lessons of acceptance as we cannot always shape the future. Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye takes a journey through the rite of passage by experiencing the innocence of youth and the phoniness of adulthood.
At the start of the novel, Holden uses his hunting cap to protect himself from both the phonies and pain. Holden then uses his cap as a way to distance himself from other people since he struggles to make connections as he feels that no one else is able to relate or understand him. After he goes back home and reconnects with Phoebe, Holden no longer feels a need for the hat to protect him. In the short time of just three days, Holden goes from isolating himself from others to reconnecting with Phoebe, which brings him a bit of joy. Throughout the many preparatory boarding schools Holden flunked out of, he has had no one be able to understand his thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Holden finally feels as though he no longer needs protection when he comes back home and reconnects with Phoebe, who despite being quite young when Allie died, is able to understand and respect what Holden says and how he
There is one experience in life that everyone can relate to. Whether it was pleasurable or not, no one can deny the fact that they have not been through it. This experience is that of growing up and change, a time in all of our lives where it is such a complicated yet natural process that kids just ‘go with it’. In the novel, Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield suffers from the same complexity in his life. Holden is struck with events throughout the book questioning his maturity and emotions. He is unable to analyze what maturity really is because he does not want to grow up. The first stage of the motif Growing Up/Change is seen when Holden constantly thinks about his peers and siblings and how he would like to protect them. The final stage of this motif shows Holden wanting to protect kids from the vulgar world. However, he is struggling because he would prefer to stay innocent,
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.
A conversation between people can tell a great deal about a person’s character. In the case of Holden Caulfield, the erstwhile protagonist in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger shows his reader that interactions with people are often affected by the other person’s actions. This novel is structured around Holden’s encounters and interactions with other people. The novel is about a seventeen year old boy named Holden Caulfield who is writing to his therapist about his experience getting kicked out of Pencey Prep, the third school he’s gotten thrown out of. His younger brother Allie has died at the age of eleven and seems to have had a big impact on Holden’s life, as Holden repeatedly refers to his brother throughout the book. Holden has many encounters with others throughout the book, but the two that stand out as being the most affected by the other person’s actions are, the interaction with the two nuns, and his encounter with the Maurice and Sunny.
Holden’s unwillingness to grow up is often perplexed by Allie’s death and his own inability to transition into adult hood. As Holden deliberates his admirations with his sister, he states, “I like Allie”, revealing his continuous glorification of his long time dead brother (Salinger 222). Although this exaltation is visualized as an act of adoration towards Allie, in this instance, it can be seen as Holden averting from the outlying truth that he must move on from his parted brother. Accepting Allie’s death correlates with the first step