The novel “The Catcher in the Rye”, by J.D. Salinger, details the story of 17 year-old Holden Caulfield. Holden is stuck between childhood and adulthood, and his outlook on life makes his transition even more difficult. By the end, Holden begins the process of change and starts to show some maturity, but still has not fully transitioned into adulthood.…
Holden's journey through the novel was a journey in which he searched for a purpose and a sense of finally finding that “ride or die” person he desperately needed in his life. Like many teens, he had to deal with “phony” people and felt strong emotions for someone he did not really talk to and even though students currently don’t have sleepovers at their english teachers house, “The Catcher in the Rye” is still a book that should be discussed and read in schools. This novel is still…
Growing up is generally not considered easy or desirable. In J.D Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is a sixteen year old boy on the precipice of adulthood. He is resisting growing up despite the allure of sex and alcohol, but he despises the thought of entering a phony world. For Holden, his life is stuck in a never ending cycle of misery, alcohol, and a desire to hold on to his childhood innocence. His own life up to this point has been very rough - his beloved younger brother Allie died of pneumonia, a classmate jumped out of a window, and he has gotten kicked out of yet another school. He yearns to be a protector of childhood innocence. It is only after beginning to accepting change, relinquish his protective instincts,…
Every teenager and every person experiences the stress and challenge of growing up. The main character in the novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, experiences challenges with feeling alone and growing up. Holden is sometimes in denial of growing up because he doesn’t want to feel alone or lost in the world. In the novel “The Catcher in the Rye”, J.D. Salinger challenges the nature of growing up through symbolism, point of view, and characterization.…
Holden Caulfield, portrayed in the J.D. Salinger novel Catcher in the Rye as an adolescent struggling to find his own identity, possesses many characteristics that easily link him to the typical teenager living today. The fact that the book was written many years ago clearly exemplifies the timeless nature of this work. Holden's actions are those that any teenager can clearly relate with. The desire for independence, the sexually related encounters, and the questioning of ones religion are issues that almost all teens have had or will have to deal with in their adolescent years. The novel and its main character's experiences can easily be related to and will forever link Holden with every member of society, because everyone in the world was or will be a teen sometime in their life.…
The main purpose of J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, is to epitomize the importance of adolescence and illustrate the benefits of a social lifestyle. Salinger achieves this meaning in multiple ways. Primarily, he uses Holden, Catcher’s protagonist, as an example of a teenager who has failed to develop during the quintessential period of youth. Additionally, by characterizing him in this manner, Salinger utilizes Holden’s desire to act both older and younger than his age to convey the dangers that come with poor decision making, as well as their consequences. Lastly, he uses the characters of Mr. Spencer and Mr. Antolini to act as voices of reason to Holden, while also showing Holden’s missed opportunities in life when he does…
Many adolescents often suffer from a lack of direction. Not knowing what they are doing or where they are headed, faced with the many obstacles of both life and adult society as they struggle to find direction in the world. Many long for acceptance and love that they do not receive. This description perfectly suits the situation befalling Holden Caulfield, the controversial protagonist and main character of J. D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. In the novel, after being expelled from his fourth school, Pencey Prep, Holden goes on a journey of self discovery through New York. He becomes increasingly unstable in a world in which he feels he does not belong, with the company of people he deems "phonies". Holden, not unlike a typical teenager, is also on his own quest in order to find himself, yet he resorts to ignoring his problems as a way of dealing with them. Holden tells his story from the confines of a psychiatric hospital, having been there to recover from a neurotic breakdown caused by his outlandish and often over the top actions. Holden Caulfield’s unachievable dreams, delusional fantasies, and erratic behaviour all lead to the breakdown of his character throughout the course of the novel Catcher in the Rye.…
In today’s society, the youth struggles to find their place and identity in the world they live in. This often leads to seeking personal isolation rather than human interaction, as an attempt to free themselves from being emotionally overwhelmed. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger explores the idea of alienation through the voice of the conflicted narrator, Holden Caulfield. Holden is a profoundly troubled teenager who has completely alienated himself from the society and his surroundings. Although his voice portrays intelligence and sensitivity, Holden is hostile with the hypocrisy and “phoniness” that he observes in the world around him.…
This semester, I read the book The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. This is a stunning book about a teenager named Holden Caulfield who has gotten kicked out of prep school after prep school, and after being kicked out of his current school, he tries to avoid making contact with his parents so they don’t find out that he flunked out of school. He has days of self-reflection and thinking while wandering the streets, going to countless bars, and meeting up with people from his past. He remembers different people that he met in his life and different things that he liked. He also thinks a lot about all the things and people in his world who are phony. He decides that, after he sees his sister Phoebe, he will leave New York and never come…
Holden Caufield, the protagonist of J.D. Salinger’s iconic coming of age novel, cycles through various emotional states towards people, places, items, and events throughout the story. However, most of his feelings can be categorized under the umbrellas of either contentment or dissatisfaction. For most of the novel, he exists in a state of deep depression that overshadows him and skews his view of many events. Holden’s emotions are very contradictory as well; he simultaneously abhors and desperately wants to be a part of the world he lives in. He is both fascinated and disgusted with the people he meets on his journey and finds himself in situations that make him feel many emotions, whether that emotion is joy, disgust, or just plain contentment.…
Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in Rye speaks to core of being an outsider, but beyond the anti-hero, anti-establishment persona that Holden reflects, Salinger wrote a portrait of a boy deeply troubled by the end of simplicity. Past the cynical nature and the reclusion from people, Holden is a little boy saddened by the death of his brother. Holden was never able to get closure over Allie’s death and because of this he has never been able to move on. To remember his brother and a simpler time Holden treasures innocence and has remained a child himself in many ways. Through the uses of metaphorical landscapes, a relatable anti-hero, and the setting of a repressed post-war American society Salinger depicts the journey of a young boy fighting, resisting the transition from childhood to adulthood. Holden Caulfield’s cynicism and reclusion are his defense mechanism, they warn of phony and slobs alike, but leave him lonely. He is both a figure for the youth and old alike, because Holden’s disdain of hypocrisy, longing for innocence, and his need for acceptance transcend age groups, these are human emotions that bother any age group. At the end of the novel, Holden says “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do you start missing everybody” (Salinger 214). There are times when Holden comes off as neurotic, but in this case he meant that you will the way life used to be if you remember it. At the end Holden realizes that Allie’s death and his longing to go back to his childhood were holding him back, keeping him from applying himself. Many readers come away from that last line and feel that there is no happy ending for Holden, but the negative tone of the comment is less of a warning and more of a new being for Holden, meaning that Holden’s dream of being the catcher in the rye can can…
Salinger’s novel, Catcher in the Rye, is one of the most striking examples of “coming of age” literature written to date. The struggle that comes with the process of growing up is one that everyone faces, and it is often one of the most trying times in a person’s entire life. One must begin to take on the many responsibilities that come with adulthood, and it can seem difficult to do so without losing the innocence and wonder that is so profound in childhood. Holden fears this change very much, but fighting it head on results in only physical and mental exhaustion. Holden comes to understand that growing up is not such a death sentence, and that if you go through with the right attitude, there is nothing to fear. In the words of C.S Lewis: “Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” Holden comes to understand that magic age lasts your entire life, and as long as one remembers that, one will be as innocent as the day they were…
The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D Salinger is a coming of age story. It is a story narrated by the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, who is a sixteen year old boy, but has a mind of a ten year old innocent kid. In the beginning he thinks of innocence as important, but later he realizes that growing up cannot be stopped. He wanders around the New York City by himself and gains experience of life that teaches him to become mature. This book is clearly written to show the theme of coming of age because it shows many symbols of coming of age, it shows the changes of young adults in modern life, and it creates an image of Holden growing up.…
When I pulled Billy from his class for the evaluation, he was open and easily talked with me. It was apparent Billy came ready to give his best effort, but he grew tired of testing as time went on. When Billy encountered difficult test items, he would become frustrated, give up without giving much effort, and speak poorly of himself when he did not know the answer to problems. He appeared bored at times, and he expressed anxiousness to return to class as the session continued. Throughout the evaluation, Billy had a mature pencil grip and often held down his paper with his left hand, while writing with his right hand.…
The English III AP (or AP( English Language and Composition) course objectives are to help students become “skilled readers of prose written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts” and to help students become “skilled writers who compose for a variety of purposes” (The College Board, AP( English Course Description, May 2007, May 2008, p. 6). Students are expected to read critically, think analytically, and communicate clearly both in writing and speech, which form the “basis for academic and professional communication.” The purpose of this course is to emphasize “expository, analytical, and argumentative writing” based on selected readings…