ipl-logo

Catcher In The Rye Outline

843 Words4 Pages

“The Catcher in the Rye,” starts off with a sixteen year old boy, Holden, who has been expelled from prep school. Holden has three days to leave his school, but when he gets fed up with his friends he decides to leave the school early. After he leaves Pencey Prep School in Pennsylvania he decides to go back to New York. But, before he goes back home, he roams around New York City, for a few days, because he doesn't want to face his parents yet. When he gets to New York, he checks into a fancy hotel room, tries to get alcohol, and have an unsuccessful attempt to have sex. But, throughout all this he can’t seem to get his ex-girlfriend, Jane, out of his head. Next, he meets up with and old friends and confesses everything to his sister. Holden, who is getting depressed, decides to run away and leaves a note for his sister. In the end, Holden and his sister end up at the carousel and tells her he is not running away and is finally happy. “I’m always saying ‘Glad to’ve met you’ to someone I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say all that stuff, though.” Holden calls everyone a phony. He calls Pencey prep phony because they are suppose to be filled with honest and proper intellectuals, but he thinks everyone there are liars and slobs. Even the prostitute, Sunny, he hired. He believes …show more content…

That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.” This passage really shows the theme of the book which is innocence. Holden heard a little boy singing a song of “The Catcher in the Rye,” and ever since he wanted to be like him. Which is a was actually a poem by Robert Burns. Holden thinks he is a protector of the innocence of children. Holden want to keep children from falling off a cliff, which in this book represents a cliff to

Show More
Related

  • The Effects Of Holden's Death On The Catcher In The Rye

    447 Words  | 2 Pages

    As a result of this, Holden felt it was his responsibility to protect the innocence of all children. Holden believes that all children are lucky to have innocence. Once you reach a certain age, your innocence just disappears. He wants children to be grateful of their innocence. This meant that if someone was about to lose their innocence, Holden would save them.

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye Analysis

    1308 Words  | 6 Pages

    Holden Caulfield lives his life as an outsider to his society, because of this any we (as a reader) find normal is a phony to him. Basically, every breathing thing in The Catcher in the Rye is a phony expect a select few, like Jane Gallagher. What is a phony to Holden and why is he obsessed with them? A phony is anyone who Holden feels is that living their authentic life, like D.B. (his older brother). Or simply anyone who fits into society norms, for example, Sally Hayes.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Holden Being Depressed In Catcher In The Rye

    728 Words  | 3 Pages

    Holden begins trying to be older than he actually is, still scared to lose innocence he grasps so hard to be a different person. He is a teenage boy in a grown up’s world. Trying to be an adult isn 't as easy as it seems and Holden is starting to learn that. “She had a terrifically nice smile. She really did.

    Read More

  • How Does Holden Mature In To Kill A Mockingbird

    893 Words  | 4 Pages

    Holden’s answer was, “‘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. I'd just be the catcher in the rye(191). Holden wanting to be the catcher in the rye is a good dream to have but it is also an immature dream because he cannot catch everybody that falls off the cliff, which can also be seen as trying to save the children's innocence.

    Read More

  • How Is Holden Caulfield A Dynamic Character

    1495 Words  | 6 Pages

    Holden's growing awareness of the impact of his actions on others is further evidenced by his interaction with Phoebe, his younger sister. In the beginning, Holden fantasizes about rescuing children from falling off a cliff, believing that he can be the "catcher in the rye" who saves them from the perils of adulthood. However, as the story progresses, Holden begins to understand the futility of this fantasy and the importance of allowing others to make their own mistakes. When Phoebe insists on accompanying him on his journey, he initially resists, but eventually relents, saying, "All right, Phoebe. Alright.

    Read More

  • Holden Caulfield Unreliable Narrator

    471 Words  | 2 Pages

    (Salinger, 96). This shows how Holden is naïve towards the subject of sex, since he thinks he’s ready, but he’s not. Furthermore, proving he’s afraid to grow up. As the book progresses, Holden stresses childhood innocence. He tells Phoebe that, “I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.”

    Read More

  • Holden's Loss Of Innocence In Catcher In The Rye

    1230 Words  | 5 Pages

    Holden’s unusual fantasy metaphorically displays this desire to save children’s innocence on his quest, and literally displays his obsession with death and preventing it, as being the catcher in the rye would accomplish both goals. F. Literary Critics also note that Holden’s catcher in the rye job is a dream of his that he pretends to be a reality to hide the fact that he secretly knows that he is unable to save the innocence of all children. G. Authors James E. Miller jr, and Arthur Heiserman explicitly state that, “Holden delights in circles – a comforting bounded figure which yet connotes hopelessness” (Miller, Heiserman 496). H. The “comforting bounded figure” is Holden’s catcher fantasy that he literally uses to comfort himself against the reality he refuses to believe because it “connotes hopelessness” and he is still too innocent and naïve to accept that. I. Holden possesses this dream as a weak attempt to save the innocence of children and to avoid a hopeless reality of defeat he has yet to accept.

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye Holden's Journey Analysis

    656 Words  | 3 Pages

    Holden says that all he want to do is be the catcher in the rye protecting children from falling. The whole novel Holden makes observation around him that are taking away from children's innocence. This is what upsets him the most the fact that everyone will eventually have to grow up. While he is trying to go get Phoebe he is reminded this in the following quote. “I went down by a different staircase, and I saw another "Fuck you" on the wall.

    Read More

  • An Alternate Ending to The Catcher in the Rye

    1400 Words  | 6 Pages

    Rationale The catcher in the rye Title: What if the story ended different? Type of text: Alternative ending to the text

    Read More

  • What Are The Causes Of Holden's Mental Breakdown

    2021 Words  | 9 Pages

    This is most likely because Holden wants to continue living in the past when his brother was alive. Several occasions in the novel Holden expresses the feeling that he is responsible for protecting the innocence of children since he was unable to save Allie. The title of The Catcher in the Rye reflects this responsibility since when Holden is talking to his sister, he says, “I keep picturing all these little kids playing… And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff… I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff,” (Salinger 191). To Holden, falling of the cliff represents the shattering of a child’s innocence, and Holden feels like he has to stop children from growing up.

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye Internal Conflict

    1032 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Catcher in the Rye is a novel that was written by J. D. Salinger in 1951. It was first published by Little, Brown and Company and was originally written for adults, but became popular among teenagers for its teenage main character, who deals with problems a large number of adolescents face in their transition into adulthood. It is not a difficult book to read, especially considering it is only 234 pages. The story revolves around the protagonist, a 16 year old boy named Holden Caulfield, who recently flunked out of a prestigious preparatory school.

    Read More

  • What Are Holden's Struggles In Catcher In The Rye

    858 Words  | 4 Pages

    The idea of having a character that struggles to find themselves is quite a common idea in many books. This is seen in the Catcher in the Rye where JD Salinger puts Holden the main character through different struggles throughout the book to finally realise what his purpose is and what he aims to be. There are many different situations that Holden is put through but they all aim to the same purpose, being a catcher in the rye. Two of the main struggles are his journey into adulthood and to retain his innocence. The second is how he is almost alienating himself from others and very rarely opens up to anybody, and his relationships with people are not great because he thinks of many of the people he meets are phony.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Innocence In Catcher In The Rye

    1851 Words  | 8 Pages

    Holden wishes that people could keep their good qualities by “sticking them into glass cases and leaving them alone.” (Chapter16). While he realises that this is just a fantasy, it does not stop him from wanting to protect the children from falling into the emotional and mental distress of personality changes that occur in the journey from childhood to adulthood. This ties into the

    Read More

  • 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…

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye And 1984 Comparison Essay

    672 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Catcher in the Rye is a story about loner Holden Caulfield who recounts his past few days where he was kicked out of school, left to visit New York, and shares his thoughts on almost everything in his everyday life, such as women and his dreams to be a catcher in the rye. First, to establish the shabby setting, Salinger uses similes. When Holden travels to his former teacher's home, he sidetracks from his original thought to complain about the bed he is sitting on. Salinger writes Holden thinking, "'It is. I was.

    Read More

More about Catcher In The Rye Outline

Open Document