ipl-logo

Gene Forrester In The Rye And A Separate Peace

1039 Words5 Pages

The novels we have read this year have all connected with themes and characters. I believe the biggest connection for this year was the connection between Gene Forrester from A Separate Peace by John Knowles and Holden Caulfield from The Catcher In The Rye. Both of these boys are looking for a way to find themselves. They need to accept their past and forgive themselves, and they need to accept who they are and who they are becoming. The boys struggle with the fact they are growing up and have to enter the scary world, they must find a way to find their place in the world. Gene and Holden are similar because they both face internal conflicts with their past, growing up, and finding their place in the world,
Gene and Holden are weighed down …show more content…

Both of them “fall,” so to speak, into the adult world and experience the reality and darkness that is out there. They experience the pain, suffering, and phoniness of the world outside their bubble. Gene realizes the horror after he goes and visits his friend, Leper, after Leper comes back from war. Seeing how the adult world turns Leper “psycho,” Gene is scared of what’s out there and doesn’t want to leave his childhood and grow up. Holden is also scared of becoming an adult. “ I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids and nobody’s around - nobody big, I mean- except me and I 'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do 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 do all day I just be the catcher in the rye and all…”(Salinger 173). Holden doesn’t want to grow up, and he doesn’t want anyone else to grow up. Holden wants everyone to stay young and innocent, including himself, even though he knows the can’t and he knows that he is already grown up himself. Facing the fact that they have to grow up and live in the real world is a real struggle for both Gene and Holden because they know the horrors that they are yet to face so they both try to hold it off as long as

Show More
Related

  • Analyzing The Conscious Mind Of Holden Caulfield

    808 Words  | 4 Pages

    The loss of his older brother and the absent parents have really affected Holden’s behavior. He lives a life without any care but with exception of younger children. Holden has a fascination with younger children and their innocence possibly because he wasn’t able to enjoy his adolescent years and nor did his brother. Holden mentions “‘Every time I'd get to the end of a block I'd make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I'd say to him, "Allie, don't let me disappear.

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye Rite Of Passage Analysis

    1142 Words  | 5 Pages

    The beginning of Holden’s journey starts with the innocence and naivety of childhood. Childhood is the stage that ignorance is bliss with no care in the world. Holden goes to a prestigious boarding school for boys and he believes that everyone in that school is a phony in some way. Holden is an observant character as he stays in the background, but he can also cause the most trouble. Like a child, he asks many questions and he is very curious to the point that he can be annoying.

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye Grief Analysis

    656 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Holden’s mind becoming “the catcher in the rye “means that he can still catch Allie from falling off the cliff. This is relevant to Holden’s depression because everything around him is telling him to grow up but instead he runs away from it in fear that is will pull him farther apart from his relationship with his brother Allie. Holden is on the edge of becoming an adult which creates more pressure and leads him to

    Read More

  • Examples Of Holden Being Depressed In Catcher In The Rye

    728 Words  | 3 Pages

    Boy gone crazy or depressed? Holden is in a deep depression but, does he stay depressed or go crazy? After Holden’s brother (Allie) dies he gets very depressed. Holden wasn 't even able to attend the funeral.

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye Holden's Struggles Essay

    830 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    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

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

    1230 Words  | 5 Pages

    A. Allie’s death causes Holden to become obsessed with death and this obsession makes him believe that growing up and becoming a “phonie” is like dying; this belief that is planted inside Holden’s head when Allie died is what sends him on a quest to preserve children’s innocence and save them from the “death” of growing up. B. Salinger includes the traumatic story of Allies death that happened years in advance to provide an explanation for Holden’s obsession with death and how he sees loss of innocence as equivalent to dying. Allie died with his innocence still intact, so Holden does not want other children to grow up and have their innocence “die”. C. Holden even admits to being mentally unstable after his brother’s traumatic death when he says, “I was only 13, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye Allie's Mitt Analysis

    779 Words  | 4 Pages

    Furthermore, Holden starts to hate all the adults or loses faith in them, calls them phony. Holden has a second thought of becoming an adult he loses hope in his future and it seems to him nothing in the world matters to him anymore. We can see that throughout the book. He smokes, gets drunk, and does daring acts like getting a prostitute in his room. He also tries to escape all this guilt and grief by wasting time with unnecessary people he calls phony.

    Read More

  • How Does Holden Caulfield Change Throughout The Novel

    693 Words  | 3 Pages

    Catcher in the Rye In the book Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, the narrator and protagonist Holden Caulfield a sixteen year old junior undergoes a series of changes. Holden learns multiple life changing lessons; one of them is you must grow up. In the beginning of the novel, Holden starts out as “that kid”; the one with the parents who expect him to get into an ivy league school, and end up with a kid with no intentions of doing so. At the beginning of the book it is very apparent that Holden lacks motivation; he also has hit rock bottom.

    Read More

  • Examples Of How Holden Mature In Catcher In The Rye

    1268 Words  | 6 Pages

    How Holden matured People go through rough stuff in their lives, such as losing a close sibling. It seems impossible to pull yourself out of the pain and guilt of your loss. It appeared Holden was in the same predicament, but through his experiences in the novel The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger he learns to grow up. Aside from being very immature, holden refuses to grow up and dislikes people who have grown up.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Loneliness In Catcher In The Rye

    646 Words  | 3 Pages

    You don't need water to feel like you're drowning do you ? That is a question that many people ask when they are going through many obstacles and can not seem to overcome their problems. The water is used to represent isolation, loneliness, and alienation. To be isolated, alienated, and lonely you can either push yourself away from people or someone is making you be alone. Suffering from these things you may have some issues that make you feel that way.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Maturity In Catcher In The Rye

    837 Words  | 4 Pages

    Holden struggles with growing up and facing reality. There are many examples of Holden’s immaturity that are displayed in many forms such as facing responsibilities, his speech, his actions, and etc. Holden’s outlook on adult life is that it is superficial and brimming with phonies, but childhood was all about looking pleasing and innocent. He wants everything to stay the same and for time to stop. As Holden progresses in age, he will discover more about becoming mature in the

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye Internal Conflict

    1032 Words  | 5 Pages

    The conflict of the story is internal, because it revolves around Holden’s struggle between wanting to stay as an innocent child and reject the “phony” world of adults, and his desire to become

    Read More

  • Examples Of Character Development In Catcher In The Rye

    2081 Words  | 9 Pages

    Holden believes he cannot live up to what his parents expect of him, but he cannot be so sure. He never talked to them to actually Nguyen 5 know what they want. Holden would rather run away from home, without proper preparations, then to just tell his parents what is really going on and how he really feels. His secretive feelings cause him to be alienated from his mom and dad.

    Read More

  • Misfit In The Catcher In The Rye

    1418 Words  | 6 Pages

    This describes Holden to-a-t, because of his alienation problem, his conflict with “phoniness” and his struggle of growing up and leaving his small problems behind him. Throughout the novel,

    Read More

More about Gene Forrester In The Rye And A Separate Peace

Open Document