One of the most important facts of Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, is clearly his view of the world and his feelings towards the innocence of a child. Holden believes that the world is a corrupted place with corrupted people, and that a child should never grow up. He thinks that every adult or young adult is a phony. To Holden, everywhere he goes there is corruption. When people are in a hotel, a house, or an apartment, they have the right to have sexual intercourse. Even though there is nothing wrong with it, for Holden is corruption. Apart from all the sexual situations, Holden also struggles with the vandalism. In every place in the world, there is going to be something written in a wall that
Lying and deception are the most obvious and hurtful elements of the larger category of phoniness. Holden’s definition of phoniness relies mostly on a kind of self-deception: he seems to reserve the most scorn for people who think that they are something they are not or who refuse to acknowledge their own weaknesses. Isolation Throughout the novel, Holden seems to be excluded from and victimized by the world around him.
Cruelty is a vice of many motives. A cruel act is one that inflicts pain, suffering, and difficulty on others. Some of the motives that create cruelty are explored in the novels The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Ender’s Game, and The Catcher in the Rye. Although the characters are in these novels are in different situations, they each experience cruelty in a variety of forms. People use to cruelty to express their fear of change, manipulate others to go beyond their limits, and create new images.
He flees to his suitemate Ackley for comfort and assurance, but he receives the opposite. After Stradlater leaves the room, Holden slips into Ackley’s room to see if he will play a game with him. Ackley denies this request, but Holden still stays. He continues talking to Ackley, who claims he cannot be awake at the hour because he has church the next day, and asks if he can spend the night. Both of the boys know that Ackley’s roommate will be gone all weekend and the bed will be empty, but Ackley refuses to let Holden stay the night.
Sobrado, 1 Alexandra Sobrado 1B August 30, 2016 Who Runs the World...? Phoniness Holden Caulfield has a unique way of thinking, when he sees people he instantly begins to think they are phony. Throughout the whole book Holden calls everybody a phony, he thinks that everybody is fake. One example is Ackley. He begins to tell everybody about his summer and how he almost hooked up with a girl.
He has a matter-of-fact tone as if not to care, however, his swearing and strong diction show otherwise. When Holden references, “Standing way the hell up on top” he is showing how he is removing himself from interacting with his fellow classmates, by standing where no one is. He accepts that he is isolating himself and continues to do so throughout the
In Session I, Holden displays signs of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). throughout the session, he tells me about his day and the events that took place, but he seems to always be fixated on things that seem out of place or messy. Holden goes on to tell me about how Ackley purposely misplaced his items when he visited his room: "He must've picked up that goddam picture and looked at it at least five thousand times since I got it. He always put it back in the wrong place, too, when he was finished. He did it on purpose.
In The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield is a rebellious and angsty teen who suffers from internal and external conflict. Holden continously tries to create a conflict where there is none. However, after he creates these issues he is unwilling to face them. Holden’s internal conflict is his inability to accept responsibility for his actions, while his external conflict is the tension between him and anyone who succeeds. In this manner Holden continually pushes people away and refuses to accept the existence of these conflicts until the end of the novel.
In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield is a peculiar character portrayed as a skeptic living in “a world of phonies” in circa 1950. These personality traits can be seen through his doubts of society as well as his way of thinking and acting toward others. He also demonstrates a lack of responsibility adding to his role as a slacker. Holden flunks out of school repeatedly and has no desire to confront his parents. He mopes around the city for days, delaying the inevitable punishments he’s sure to get. Holden Caulfield is an irresponsible character and this can be proven time and again through his thoughts and actions toward himself and others.
I keep telling him to go home and get his bike and meet me in front of Bobby Fallon 's house” (Salinger 98). Holden always keeps a spot in the back of his head for his younger brother so he can communicate with him whenever. By communicating with Allie, Holden feels better about himself, as he can recall past events that he shared with his brother. To add, the death and tormenting of Holden’s former peer, James
Holden is tired of people becoming phony and leaving his life, he just wished to would stop. This is come on once he says “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. “ Holden lost his brother Allie and that could be why he wants everything to stay the same. After you lose someone your mind becomes blurred so Holden doesn’t want to lose someone else he cares about.
Holden is sixteen years old and picking up a destructive habit could eventually cause a disorder in his life. Perhaps, this is a reason that Holden was in a rest home before. According to beyondblue.org, the
Acceptance is defined as “the action or process of being received as adequate or suitable”(). The Catcher in the Rye is about Holden Caulfield and his search for acceptance in a world full of fake people. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden reaches out for acceptance to many characters including Mr. Spencer, the nuns, and Phoebe. Although most of his outreaches were unsuccessful, the nuns and Phoebe accept him for who he is.
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. Holden’s obsession stems from his fear that he may become a phony one day. So, he spends the book running from adulthood by doing childish things and struggling to keep his life from changing.
Usually considered a controversial novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger can often express the feelings of being an outcast and the desire to find a meaning in the world. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the novel, though often complains of the phoniness of the world around him, has a way of creating a deeper meaning within the readers. While the truth may be that Salinger purposely set the story in such a way that the readers will be able to connect with Holden, not often do readers find it easy to do so. While Holden believes that everything around him are wicked and phony, there is part of him trying to protect the innocence of those not corrupted by such phoniness. Although Holden wants to protect and save the innocence of children, can he really do so if cannot protect himself and trust those around him. Though Holden believes the world around him is phony and wicked, and while he wants to be the catcher in the rye, catching those who will fall over cliff; Holden does not only want to save those children but he also wants to save himself.