Catcher In The Rye Summary

He has trouble growing up and accepting life as it is. Holden thinks adults are "phony" which makes him hate the fact of growing up and staying innocent as much as he can while he is old enough to become an adult. He is frustrated with the world and people which makes him act with anger. His innocent childish dream is to be the Catcher in the Rye, to catch the kids before they become phonies like Holden says about adults. The moment he realizes that he cannot keep kids from falling or in other words, from growing up and becoming adults, he, reaches adulthood, and takes a big step towards it at the end of the novel.

‘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.

The short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst elucidates the theme “selfish people aren’t the ones that suffer their selfishness: it's those around them, in which it harms”. The story is about a boy who received a brother after six years of being an only child, but because of an unfortunate disease, his brother wasn’t expected to live long. He unexpectedly lived far longer that anticipated, so his parents finally named him: William Armstrong. Because William wasn’t “all there”, his brother had plans to kill him with a pillow, but his plan was corrupted when his brother smiled at him, showing that he was “all there”. The narrator (who is also William’s big brother) renamed his brother Doodle.

I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. ” Holden often states that most of adults are phony, and he strongly dislikes them. He dreams of saving children, but in reality falling from a cliff is a metaphor of them becoming phony adults, losing their innocence, childish honesty and the way they look at the world. The way he explains his dream to Phoebe, shows us that he doesn 't have actual plans for the future. He knows that what he

Salinger, Holden Caulfield is kicked out of Pencey University because of his inability to show initiative in his schoolwork. After receiving the news that he must leave, Holden visits his history teacher, Mr. Spencer, in order to say goodbye. During their conversation, Mr. Spencer tells Holden, "Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules" (Salinger). After hearing that, Holden does not agree because he recognizes that life's game is an unfair one, one that is rigged and where one can easily have a better chance at winning than another.

His mind was somewhere else. Today was not only his first day of his senior year but also the first day at school without his best friend. The day he got the call, the horrible call that informed him of the death of Jughead Jones, was the worst day of Archie 's life. He was in his room, playing his guitar.

I am writing this letter to inform you that I have been providing your son, Holden Caulfield, with psychotherapy to help treat his concerns with a number of different mental and social issues. Upon conducting therapy with him, I discovered a lot about how Holden lived life thus far, what psychological changes he went through in specifically recent times, and the events that led him to these changes. The reason I believe he 's here for psychotherapy in the first place is due to the rather awkward tendencies he has, and fixing these flaws is part of my job as a psychotherapist. Through vigorous and close inspection of these tendencies, I uncovered a few issues Holden finds himself dealing with: general skepticism and distrust in others, loneliness,

The novel is set in 1950’s New York and although Holden is not specific about his current location, from the context we can glean that he is writing his story from a mental institution of some sort. The story is told as a flash-back as Holden recounts the days that follow his expulsion from “Prencey Prep”, the private school which he attends. After getting into a fight with his roommate, Stradlater, Holden decides to leave school several days earlier than he is expected back home for winter break, venturing into New York City. Holden spends a total of two days in the city and these days are spent for the most part wandering around the city and encountering strange places, people and situations.

Holden resents for becoming a screenwriter, after his release in one month. As he waits, Holden recalls the events of the previous Christmas. Holden begins his story at Pencey Preparatory Academy, an exclusive boarding school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania, on the Saturday afternoon of the traditional football game with a rival school. Holden has been expelled from Pencey due to poor work and is not to return after Christmas break, which begins the following Wednesday. He plans to return home on that day so that he will not be present when his parents receive notice of his expulsion.

How would you know you weren’t being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn’t.” (Salinger, Catcher in the Rye, 92) His constant need to defy norms and ridicule materialism defies the Dream to such an extent that it almost seems like he is mocking the dream. He chooses to evade the pressure of making it big in life contrary to his classmates.

Throughout the chapter the protagonist is unwilling to introduce himself, but shows his negativity towards his family and school. He starts off by telling us about his hatred for his brother, D.B’s job in the entertainment industry and refuses to explain why. We then learn that he has failed four classes and this would be his last semester and Pencey Prep, the school he attends. It was a frigid December afternoon and he had just arrived back to school from his fencing tournament in New York. He tells us about how he had lost the equipment on the subway and was ostracized by the whole team.

The other Wes ' father abandoned him and is alive but not around. This is almost a more sad situation because Author Wes ' dad wasn 't there because he died and couldn 't be but the other Wes ' father chose not to be there. Any child needs their father and it effects Wes because now that he doesn 't feel wanted, rebels more, and has an older girlfriend. Author Wes moved to Nee York and is attending a private school but gets caught in the mix between the fancy rich white kids at school and his other friends in his neighborhood. He says, "I was becoming too ‘rich’ for the kids from the neighborhood and too ‘poor’ for the kids at school"(Moore 74).

Before he leaves though, he "yell[s] at the top of [his] goddam voice, 'Sleep tight, ya morons ' " (68)! Although it is a shame, any reader can see that Holden seems to have nothing going right or in a positive way all because of his negative attitude. Therefore, this attitude leads him to almost care about nothing. Though Holden may seem to be a lost cause because of his negative attitude, he thankfully has an epiphany that changes his view towards the world because he realizes that people have to grow up. When Holden visits his younger sister, Phoebe, he is happy to see her, but when they begin talking their conversation turns negative.

She is at the point in her career where she can retire, but she loves her job to much to do that. Her abundance of experience can be good, because she knows how to teach things in the best possible way, but it is can be bad because her teaching style is not as modern other teachers. What frustrates Narwin most about Philip is that he is a very smart boy, but does not put in his full effort, also he does not follow the rules and never listens to her in homeroom. Lunser on the other hand, threatened to have Philip sing solo which is against the rules in his homeroom class.

Henry 's character changes dramatically from the relationships he forms with his father, son, and Keiko. To start off with, Henry does not communicate much with his mother or father because of the language barrier. His father is very caught up in is own life, and does not pay much attention to Henry. " He and his father had settled into a pattern of noncommunication months ago (166). This makes Henry independent and reserved.