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Holden's Past In 'Catcher In The Rye'

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Catcher in the Rye
1. Describe Holden’s past. How does his past contribute to who he has become? Quote at least TWO passages that support your answer.
A: There are two important traumatic experiences that have made Holden into who he is today. Those are the death of his 11-year-old brother Allie and the suicide of his classmate James Castle who was wearing Holden’s sweater. Holden has become a very judgmental person. He is very judgmental and is seen lying several times throughout the story. I think these tragedies have made him this way so he can distance himself and not be hurt or “depressed” anymore. It also shows his new view of the world/society. He also shows signs of not worried or concerned about growing up.
• Page 14 ““Do you feel …show more content…

What are the various themes that you can identify in the novel? Choose two and explain. A: Some of the themes I can identify in the story are True Loneliness, His Reluctance to Grow Up, His Disdain to Other People, and His sadness of Living a Boring “Phony” Life. I picked True Loneliness and His disdain to Other People. I believe Holden is truly lonely. Throughout the book you can Holden always want hang out with someone. He asks his taxi drivers, the girls in the lobby and gets a prostitute just so they can talk. Multiple times he thinks about calling family members and friends but always talks himself out of it. His excuses are always no wanting to talk to parents or any adults for that matter. His disdain to other people is also something that caught my eye. It’s not that he hates anyone in particular. I think he calls people phony because that are like your everyday person and he doesn’t want to be rejected either. He insults them to protect himself. Throughout the book you can see him calling the Ivy League students phonies because that’s where he is expected to go but he doesn’t believe he can. He also called his last principal the “biggest phony he’d ever met” and Holden was expelled/rejected from that school by that

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