Miranda Lambert is using the power of music to express her feelings about her recent split from Blake Shelton.…
Holden has liked Jane for a while even before she and Stradlater were together. She and Stradlater started dating and it made Holden go crazy. The thought of them being together drove him nuts. One day when Jane and Stradlater came back from a date Holden started asking a lot of questions as to what they did. They basically got into a heated argument which eventually…
When Holden leaves Pencey Prep and goes out into New York to live in hotels, he has several moments when he had Jane on his mind and wanted to contact her. However, each time he decides to call her, he ultimately does not do so because he is scared of what Jane would think of him now that his innocence is no longer. The most apparent example of this is when Holden got drunk at the whisky bar after he met with Carl Luce, and old school mate of his. After getting so drunk that he could barely see straight, Holden went to the phone booth to call up Jane but he decided not to and to call Sally Hayes instead. “Finally what I felt like, I felt like giving old Jane a buzz and see if she was home yet. So I paid my check and all … But when I got inside…
When Holden describes Jane as having her checkers in the back row, he is projecting the Madonna-Whore complex onto her because,it represents her virginity, by employing this mindset he is preserving the “pure” image of Jane that Stradlater tainted. In addition, Holden utilizes this defense mechanism to employ a thinly-veiled perspective of childhood by avoiding any overtly sexual descriptions of Jane, something Straddler and his other peers obviously engage in.The barriers towards sexuality in Catcher In The Rye deviates from the antiquated quest narrative,because traditionally sex is glorified,but holden does everything in his mean to either purify or avoid it .In his article, “Kings In The Backrow”, Strauch and Salinger compares Holden to another iconic literary character, Huckleberry Finn, which shows the idea of the restriction of sexual thoughts: “The Catcher suffers in comparison with Huck Finn. If Holden displays a superiority over Huck in certain traits of character, his neurotic psychology, intensified by sexual conflicts from which Huck was free and aggravated by a vulgar, dehumanized society, leads the boy to the psychoanalytical couch in a thoroughly pessimistic novel, whereas Huck Finn ends on a resolute note of…
For a novel that was made in the late 1940’s, “Catcher in the Rye” is still similar to our current age. For example, have you ever had a huge crush on someone that you barely ever talk to? If you have, then you can definitely relate to Holden's feelings towards Jane. As shown, Holden fell hopelessly in love with Jane, even though they haven’t talked ever since they were kids. Holden was so head over heals for her he claimed: "I still could not get her off my brain. I knew her like a book.," (Page 76). This shows how Holden felt like he knew everything about Jane and could not help himself but to have strong feeling…
In the beginning Holden talks about his family, and mentions the death of his brother, Allie, and he says that after Allie’s death he had a mental breakdown. While Holden was at Pencey his roommate, Stradlater, asks Holden to write an English composition for him, because his date won’t leave him with time to do it on his own. Holden was displeased because Stradlater, one of the few sexually experienced boys at Pencey, is taking Holden’s crush out on a date. Because Holden was depressed, he decided that he would write Stradlater’s composition about Allie.(pg.1-43) When Stradlater came back from his date with Holden’s crush, Jane, he saw that Holden had written Stradlater’s composition…
When Holden gets older, he cannot seem to snap out of such a subconscious focus on Allie. Depressingly, Holden has often said, “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window” (117). From this, he means he wants to stop transitioning into adulthood by giving up all together. Holden views this as a good outcome because he thinks no one could fault him for being a phony if he never lived long enough to become one. He also uses words like “that kills me” which can go so far to say that he wants to join Allie in death. Likewise, Holden often used self-degrading words towards himself which is also a symptom of depression. Interestingly, Holden seems to have a focus on Allie or Phoebe even when he faces more adult scenarios such as alcohol and potential sex encounters. From the moment Allie dies, Holden is stuck in a state of focusing on the purity in things which is why people like Jane and Allie seem so nice. Holden also has trouble growing up because he has no male role models in his life due to his lack of a father-son relationship. At the time, it was normal for more wealthy families to send off their boys to some prep school. From there, he never fully connected with any teacher or any older boy of whom he could shadow the healthy behaviors. Perhaps his father sent him away because he did not want to bond to…
Holden is a young 16 year old boy who admits to being everything he stands against. He admits he isn’t particularly good looking, or strong, and to having a lack of courage. He is lacking the strong characteristics that most protagonists possess, but what Holden does possess is a kind heart. Holden has a kinder heart than he may realize, and he shows for that in the ways that he expresses his love, for Jane, his sister Phoebe, his brother Allie. Even the way that he sees the nuns, or the way he sees Sunny, as a human rather than a prostitute. The only time Holden openly shows his kind hearted attribute is when he interacts with…
He remembers Jane as a good girl who really wants true love. Stradlater braggs about his date with Jane and implies having such an encouter with her so that Holden developes emense frustration. Holden shares his thoughts with the reader away from Stradlater, "I kept thinking about Jane, and about Stradlater having a date with her and all. It made me so nervous I nearly went crazy"(34). When Holden stays the night at a hotel he agrees for Maurice, the elevator operator, to send a prostitute, Sunny, up to his room. Instead, he only wishes to talk with her and she reacts bitterly about the awkward incident and leaves. He reveals his sympathy for Sunny thinking to himself, "The trouble is i just didn't want to do it. I felt more depressed than sexy if you want to know the truth. She was depressing"(96). Holden makes it evident he longs to establish a personal connection…
When Holden sneaks into his house to visit with his little sister Phoebe, he demonstrates how sensitive he is. He wants to protect Phoebe and keep her safe. Holden does not usually enjoy talking to people; however, he does enjoy talking to Phoebe. Holden indicates this by saying, talking to her felt “swell for a change…it just felt well” (159). Holden demonstrates his sensitivity when he listens to his younger sister and wants to talk and catch up with her. Another time when Holden is sensitive is while drinking at the Wicker Bar with Luce. A seemingly immature Holden badgers Luce, the more experienced of the two, for details about sexual exploits with an older woman. Holden goes on, however, to complain of his own poor sex life: unless he truly likes a girl, he “can’t get really sexy with her” (191). Although his absolute need for experience drives him, his need for respect and emotional connection with a girl keeps him from taking action. The desire for respect overrules the desire for sex.…
Holden is a teenager who refuses to grow up because he is afraid of gaining the responsibilities that come with it. So, Holden struggles hard to stay childish. For example, he does not want to take responsibility to communicate with others that may want to help him. He refuses to go home and confront his parents and face the consequences. Along with this, he also pulls the childish silent treatment toward his parents; because that is the only knife he has to hurt them:” She would not be the ones that answered the phone. My parents would be the ones. So that was out." He is afraid to talk to people close to him because they will be critical to him. This would also explain his lack of interaction with Jane Gallagher: "I kept standing there, of giving old Jane a buzz- I mean calling her long distance at B.M. The only reason I did not call him was because I was not in the mood." Since he is afraid of interaction with people close to him, he tries to get strangers to talk to, so the conversations he has with them won't go too into depth. He does not want to face the world of reality. Holden asks his cab driver, who is a complete stranger to him, for a cocktail once he's done driving Holden to the Edmont Hotel: "Would you care to stop on the way and join me for a cocktail" Therefore, Holden will try to get some random stranger for a beer, as they won't criticize him.…
J.D Salinger describes Holden as mentally unstable, lonely, and depressed. An example of his loneliness and depression is when Sunny the prostitute leaves Holden alone in his hotel room after she finds out he doesn’t want to have sex with her, and he says: “I felt so depressed, you can’t even imagine. What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud to Allie” (Salinger, 98). Allie his younger brother’s traumatic death was the cause of Holden’s depression, especially since he had a close relationship with him. This quote shows what Holden’s character is like, because as soon as he is alone, he thinks about his dead brother and it conjures up uncontrolled emotions for him. Another example of his depressive behavior is when Holden says: “Even all the whory-looking blondes weren’t around anymore, and all of a sudden I felt like getting the hell out of the place. It was too depressing,” it shows when he is alone he makes excuses such as the place being a crumby hotel and how that depressed him, when in reality being alone was the root of his depression because he had no one to talk to (80).…
There are wires growing out of everyone’s ears. That is, to listen to music. Music is an infinite source, whether that source is for lifting up spirits, expressing underlying pain and anger, or just merely a distraction. Music from well-developed Broadway musicals to a series of beats at a party, it is something we all have done: listen to music. Some even say that music defines us but it that really true? Is our music the soundtrack of who we each are? Do what we listen to support our core values in life? To answer this I sought out the one song I listened to most, “This Kiss” by Alex Days and Carrie Hope Fletcher, and interpreted its lyrics to see if it matched with my core values of commitment, happiness, and love.…
Just as in many other novels, love, or a form of it, shows itself in the numerous relationships that Holden has with various women in the novel. Holden ‘talks’ or flirts with many girls in the novel. He speaks of Jane a lot, and goes on a date with Sally, and even dances with some girls at a nightclub. In an extreme case, Holden calls a prostitute. Although it does not go as planned when he calls her. Instead, she comes over and he thinks,”Sexy was about the last thing I was feeling. I felt much more depressed than sexy”(106). Holden tried to obtain a prostitute in order to have sex and lose even more of his innocence. In a dramatic change of emotion, Holden feels very sad while looking at this prostitute. She is about the same age as him and it makes him feel very depressed because he is looking at someone who has completely lost their innocence and he does not like what he sees. As a result, he becomes very conflicted about what he wants to…
At first, Holden wants to dedicate his life to the preservation of innocence. When he was a child, his innocence was lost when his brother Allie dies. He cannot come to terms with the death, and wishes to return to his happy childhood with Allie. However, he believes he can find solace by saving the innocence of others. Even his name seems to imply that he is trying to "hold on" to childhood. Perhaps he even is trying to regain his own lost childhood through others. "I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff…. I just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy but that's the only thing I'd really like to be" (173). His only goal in life is to save children from taking a terrible fall, in essence sheltering the children from their own mistakes. Holden is so obsessed with this concept that he even refuses to sleep with a prostitute that he has paid for. He is so saddened by her lost innocence that he cannot bring himself to go through with it. Also, he is disproportionately upset that his roommate may have had sex with his childhood friend because he still thinks of her as the sweet innocent girl of his childhood. The fact that she may have lost her innocence drives him even further into depression. Finally, Holden's little sister Phoebe is the ultimate symbol of his obsession with his lost childhood. She represents the last remaining figure of sweet innocence in Holden's life. In fact, when asked to name the people he likes, of the three people he can come up with, Phoebe is the only one that…