Imagine a teenager whose dream job is to stop children from growing up. This scenario occurs in J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye., where Holden Caulfield wants to be a “catcher in the rye”. In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger employs symbolism and flashback to reveal that Holden Caulfield is obsessed with the idea that he should stop people from maturing, as he believes that maturing leads to the loss of innocence, later realizing that he can let people mature as long as he can preserve their innocence. At the beginning of the story, the reader sees that Holden likes to see Jane as her younger and more innocent self, hinting at Holden’s obsession. Jane Gallagher is Holden’s former neighbor and is Stradlater’s date at the beginning of the novel. When Stradlater and Holden converse about Jane, Holden’s mentions the odd strategy Jane uses when …show more content…
This is supported when Holden repetitively calls Stradlater a moron after his date with Jane. Salinger writes: I told him he thought he could give the time to anybody he felt like. I told him he didn't even care if a girl kept all her kings in the back row or not, and the reason he didn't care was because he was a goddam stupid moron. He hated it when you called him a moron. All morons hate it when you call them a moron. (Salinger 50) Holden calling Stradlater a moron because he doesn't care if a girl keeps her kings in the back row or not is showing off how Holden would insult Stradlater and other people if they didn't care about others’ innocence. Holden supports his aggressiveness towards Stradlater by explaining that since Stradlater hates being called a moron, and all morons hate being called morons, then Stradlater is a moron. This also is the point in where Holden’s fear of Jane losing her innocence is at its highest. While Holden’s view of an innocent Jane might not be true of her right now, there are two people in Holden’s life keep their innocent view throughout the
Holden thinks Jane is a great girl and that she’s the type that he likes. Holden misses her and that’s why he starts to think of her at that
Holden then continues to reveal the same trait when he says “didn't know anybody. I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn't have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody. ”(Salinger PDF 119) The evidence above is beyond human-like to even act that sort of way.
For example, Holden thinks of a relationship as being something sacred that cannot be casually thrown around. We see this in his attitudes towards the people at the Edmont Hotel deeming them to be degenerates due to what he views as casual behavior. Also, Holden has a certain naivety towards women as tends to idealize them as evidenced by Jane. Stradlater is the antithesis, in using common slang the man is a player, as Holden describes on pg. 27, he takes a mild view towards sex and is very charismatic towards
“Jealous” by Nick Jonas shows Holden’s feelings for Jane Gallagher and how easily he gets jealous. Holden doesn’t like many people, but those that he does he hold on tight to. Jane is a childhood friend that Holden is fond of. Holden lays down thinking, “It just drove me stark staring mad when I thought about her and Stradlater parked somewhere in that fat-assed Ed Banky’s car. Every time I thought about it, I felt like jumping out the window” (Salinger 48).
In J.D. Salinger's bestselling novel The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield shows a sense of maturity that exceeds far beyond his peers when it comes to sexual relationships with girls. First, Holden becomes furious when he learns that Stradlater exclusively wants his childhood crush Jane for sexual endeavors. Second, Holden forfeits his big chance with Sunny and attempts to unsuccessfully build a healthy relationship with her instead. Third, Holden reflects on his treatment of girls, showing a more refined mindset when compared to other teenagers. Although Holden dislikes the transition from childhood to adulthood, he exhibits qualities of a mature grownup without even knowing it.
Holden goes in to the bathroom while stradlater is shaving he asked him about girls and how he’s going to take Jane Gallagher out that he’s attracted too. Stradlater, is being uninterested in what Holden is saying. Holden really worries about that Stradlater will make sexual advances toward Jane Gallagher. Ackley tries to bully Holden and stradlater is more like his bud mainly since it’s his roommate. He’s a 16-year-old kid that speaks his mind.
Salinger is demonstrating in this phrase the fact that Holden admires his
Throughout the story, Holden retells his relationship with D.B. In the beginning he describes him as, “being a prostitute”(Salinger 2). This is unexpected due to the fact that his brother is now a very successful screenwriter. Rather than showing support for his brother's new found success, Holden labels him as a phony. Similarly, when he is jealous of Stradlater's success with his love, Jane Gallagher, he immediately insults him and says, “all the athletic bastards stuck together.
In the catcher in the rye Holden takes the risk of fighting Stradlater. " ...then [he] tried to sock him, with all my might, right smack in the toothbrush, so it would split his goddamn throat open" (Salinger. 43) Holden knew that fighting is agents the school rule's, but he fought Stradlater anyway and the reason why he fought him is because Holden likes Jane, and he
**in' special.” Through this excerpt of “Creep”, you can connect it with Holden putting Jane up on a pedestal, even though it is communicated through her family history that she is anything but perfect. He doesn’t feel equal to her socially, or physically, because he, as I said before, is very critical of himself ,especially now that she is dating his seemingly “perfect” roommate,
Holden think about whether Jane and her "lousy adolescence" fills in as some kind of association amongst her and Holden. Given the circumstances, he later uncovers that he, as well, has had some "pervert" stuff transpire "around twenty circumstances since he was a child." On pages 87-88 Jane and Holden start to have dialogue and he begging’s to like her even more so does she. This allows Holden to have extreme confidence and maturity into making him a better person.
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.
What a deal that was. You never saw so many phonies in all your life, everybody smoking their ears off and talking about the play so that everybody could hear and know how sharp they were (Salinger 98). Instead of talking about the play and appreciating the play, Holden judges the people who surrounded him outside the theater. This suggests his immaturity by making fun of people who are just trying to live
I do believe that Holden’s flashbacks are an accurate depiction of both cases because Holden puts his thoughts on both of these cases as he was describing them. For instance, when Holden describes his dead brother, he mentions that “you’d have liked him,” (Salinger, 38). This demonstrates how much Holden really loves his brother but refers to it in second-person as a way to distance himself from his own personal feelings. After he recalls the moments with his dead brother Allie, he writes Stradlater’s composition about his old brother’s baseball mitt. This also contradicts with the fact that Stradlater asked Holden to write him a composition for his English class.
He probably was scared I fractured my skull or something when I hit the floor. It 's too bad I didn 't. (pg.45) The quote shows how Holden and Stradlater got into a fight. It connects to the claim because Holden is childish for a fight. Holden fought him because of Jane but Stradlater didn 't know that Holden liked her.