The new book cover that I designed has a colorful carrousel in the center and New York City in the background. I these two images give a great explanation of the book and have true meaning to it. In one quote Holden says,"I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by . . . I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse.” This is how New York City is portrayed as. It’s the big city everyone knows about and when you leave there you know you are leaving. The city has a huge impact on you. You can that quote to the big city. Another quote that Holden says is, "People never notice anything.” It’s straightforward what Holden says here. No one ever notices the details in life. Just as most people don’t notice things in the big city. It is so vast and you feel like a tiny ant in it. People go through out the day walking through the city, but they never really notice anything that’s going on. I think what he means is no one is open minded anymore. The carrousel is a significant object in the book. It has a great amount of meaning to Holden, and I think he generally really enjoys them. One quote Holden says is, "That's the nice thing about carrousels, they always play the same songs.” I think this quote describes Holden’s feelings towards life. There’s always obstacles that people go through. In this scenario, I think the carrousel is the good thing in Holden’s life and he likes that it doesn’t change. That it stays the same, and that makes him happy. Another quote that Holden says is, "I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around . . . It was just that she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around and around, in her blue coat and all.” This quote really speaks to Holden simply because it is about his sister Phoebe. When he watches her go around that carrousel you can tell that he just loves her. I think that’s another reason why he really enjoys them so much, they remind him of Phoebe.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
In the third circle, you will find Holden’s red hunting hat located there. There are many instances where Holden puts on his red hunting hat because it makes him feel protected. Holden said to Phoebe, “Then I took my hunting hat out of my coat pocket and gave it to her.” He wants to protect Phoebe from being exposed to society resulting in her innocence leaving. Also in the third circle is a carrousel. I feel that the counterclockwise rotation of this is a very important and cool symbol. It is going back in time and for Holden it lets him stop the growth of an innocent adolescent. This carrousel can also show a cycle of innocence, for only little kids ride this. Located in the fourth and outermost circle there is a movie playing. Holden describes movies and the actors in them as phony. He says this because they are acting as someone else, not being their true self. For example, “In the first place, I hate actors. They never act like people.” (p.117) The last item to represent Holden on my circle is the picture of central park. The park can stand for youth and also innocence. At a park there aren’t older people playing around, you will find only little, young kids. Holden thinks of his little sister when he goes to…
- 438 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Traumatic experiences like the death of his brother Allie has not allowed him to move on.“ I know he’s dead….just because somebody is dead you don’t stop liking them..”(171). This shows that Holden has not been able to move on with his life because Allie is still a main focus of his life even though he is not physically there. Holden does not want anything to change, he wants everything to stay the same. That is one of the reasons he likes the Museum of Natural History, because it will always remain the same, it represents stability and security to him.“…every time I’d get to the end of the block I’d make believe I was talking to my brother Allie I’d say to him ‘Allie don’t let me disappears’…when I’d reach the other side of the street without disappearing, I’d thank him”(198). Holden suffers from extreme loneliness, however he does not anyone to get close to him, I believe that, yes , Holden has a problem, but it can be cured by giving Holden support, so he can build confidence within himself, so that one day he can be ready to open up to…
- 839 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
J.D Salinger has a written a novel called catcher in the rye, about a teenage boy named Holden Caulfield who lives in New York City. Holden is not an ordinary teenage boy. His way of viewing life is different its extraordinary Holden is confused, lost, and depressed. His character is very complex to understand through the book Holden tries to reach out to a lot of people and he tries to build a relation but something is not letting Holden to do so, the fact that Holden wants to remain a child is keeping him away from growing up and becoming more understandable to himself and the people around him. He has no stable relation with his parents which has affected him to do poorly academically. Through the book J.D Salinger have used symbolism that shows Holden’s mental anguish. The symbolism explains everything that’s is going on with Holden…
- 1609 Words
- 7 Pages
Good Essays -
Holden spends a lot of time in Central Park, wondering where the ducks go in the winter when the pond freezes over. Initially one might think that Holden is concerned for their wellbeing however on a deeper level, he is wondering about himself and where he will eventually go given that his pond of childhood has already frozen over. This also has references to Holden’s dream of being the Catcher in the Rye, where he can stand by the edge of the cliff and save the children from falling off, symbolically referring to protecting them from the dangers and hardships of adulthood. This further establishes the difference between Holden and society in…
- 532 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Along with the scene where Holden writes about Allie’s baseball mitt, this scene was one of the few times Holden was truly happy. The part that really struck me was the fact that Holden was so joyful to the point where he was almost crying. Although it seems a bit strange that Holden would cry over watching his sister ride the carousal, it was enough to make him feel happy and positivity. Personally, I think what made Holden feel so happy was the fact that someone that he sincerely cared about was enjoying her time.…
- 1701 Words
- 7 Pages
Good Essays -
Similar observations are made by academic writer and author Sarah Graham in her book entitled Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. In this book, Graham addresses a variety of reading techniques, themes, and comparisons/contrasts in regards to Salinger’s most popular novel, but she specifically addresses the main theme of Holden’s attempt to escape the phony 1950’s materialistic focused society surrounding him. Graham begins her take on this theme of escaping society with a chapter on Holden’s rebellion: “Developing the theme of rebellion, Holden’s visit to Mr. Spencer confirms that he is opposed to the conventional ideas that school and society encourage in order to promote stability” (34). During this visit to Mr. Spencer’s house that Graham…
- 1991 Words
- 8 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Holden also has an unstable sense of self. His unstable sense of self is depicted in a few ways. First is his relationship with his little sister Phoebe. He says “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab the gold ring you have to let them do it, and not say anything” (273). In this quote in a way he saying let them be adventurous they will learn from their mistakes. He acts this way towards his little sister because he is trying to give her the childhood he didn’t get to experience. You can tell that kids have a certain place in his heart. For example anything that was said about his younger brother Allie was positive, also how he took Phoebe to the carousel and finally when he helped a little girl at the park tie her skates and the 2…
- 755 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
In this novel, Holden Caulfield gets kicked out of his school and stays in New York for a couple of days before returning home. During his travels Holden does not maintain any relationships and he associates most adults with being phony. He is constantly trying to protect himself and his sister Phoebe from being exposed to the harsh adult world. In The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger uses rhetorical devices to explain Holden’s struggles and establish the theme of preserving his own innocence and the innocence of those around him.…
- 1112 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
Throughout the book, it is shown that Holden really dislikes people who pretend to be something that they aren’t, or in his words, “phony”. These types of people were all over at his prep schools, so he really has to learn to focus more on the things that make him happy. It is shown throughout the book that he really likes people who are honest or genuine, as well as small children who still had their innocence. This is portrayed in the quote, “I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. I was damn near bawling, I was so damn happy if you want to know the truth. It was just she looked so damn nice going around and around in her blue coat.”(213). This shows that he really likes how nice and innocent his sister looked while she was going around the carousel; he liked that she was feeling the happiness of childhood. He also really disliked when people were mistreated in his schools. This all shows that the theme of this book was the loss of innocence in adolescence and the importance of being genuine and not mistreating…
- 1325 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
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…
- 481 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
He wants to be the protector of children that fall of the cliff while playing in the Rye fields, the symbolism used here is that Holden would rather catch the children than let them metaphorically fall and lose their innocence, in other words grow up, “What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff-“. Holden views adulthood to be the conformity of ‘phonies’ and he refuses to confine to societies expectations…
- 889 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
“Certain things should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and leave them alone” (122). Holden does not like change because it reminds him that he too must change in the process of growing up as change seems to be the only definite thing to happen in life, no matter how much he tries to avoid it. Whenever Holden felt that life was changing too much for him, he would visit the museum, “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole” (121) Holden feels secure in the museum because he knows that it is the exact same as the first time he saw it. This suggests that Holden wants to go back to the good ol’ days, the days of youth. The days when he did not feel the pressure of becoming an adult, because everytime he would go back, “The only thing that would be different would be you” (121). Holden is afraid to grow up, he is not ready to be an adult, nor is he mature enough. He fears change for others too, he wants to be the catcher in the rye. He explained that, “I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I…
- 1574 Words
- 7 Pages
Better Essays -
Keeping that in mind, Holden was dealing with the realities of growing up, and becoming "phony". He was slowly realizing that he could never censor the world from profanities, and that he could never rub off all the "****-Yous" on the walls. At the end when Phoebe is on the Merry-Go-Round, he says that he has to let her grab the ring, which his way of letting her grow up, and have her own experiences. He knows that he cant protect her anymore.…
- 2337 Words
- 10 Pages
Better Essays -
The quote made me really confused because I do not understand what Holden meant by shifting gear in this passage. However, now I understand that he does not like braggers and fakers. Also, Holden finds it irrational that these people dare to say they follow Jesus. I agree with him. If standing in a parking lot does not make you a car, then going to a church does not mean you are incredibly religious. This also seems to be one sign of Holden’s immaturity. It is very clear that when Holden starts to horse around, he puts an effort into annoying those surrounding him.…
- 1704 Words
- 7 Pages
Good Essays -
Analysis: Nick’s description of how the city first appears upon entering is an accurate portrayal of how Gatsby perceives the world and the American dream. The city is a place promising opportunity and success, and that same idea is the foundation for how Gatsby approaches life. He wants prosperity and wealth and Daisy, and his enthusiasm to have these in his life barely staggers. In my painting, a city skyline as Gatsby’s crown represents how the attitude he has towards his goals is ambitious and confident, the typical city mindset.…
- 1045 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays