He mentions to her her all the schools he has gotten kicked out of and she is disappointed in him. (Salinger 209) It seems to me that his little sister also means a lot to him and has a very large influence on him. He seems to care what she thinks of him quite a bit. After telling me about the time spent with his sister later in the session and taking her on the carousel he realizes that his sister’s innocence and childhood is running thin. Holden sees that she is growing up after noticing that she is reaching for the “gold ring” on the carousel. (Salinger 273) Holden confides to his sister about what he wants to be. He claims he wants to be “the catcher in the rye” stating that when children are playing in a field nearby he would catch them as they fall off a cliff and preserve their innocence. (Salinger 224) Children seem to bring Holden happiness and help him cope with his depression since he seems to not like change which also suggests why he likes museums so…
"The Catcher in the Rye" opens with Holden Caulfield at Pency Prep, his high school, where he has just been kicked out for failing almost all of his classes. Holden, as a lost and frustrated teen, goes to his room for his last night before planning to run away from Pency Prep for some "alone time" before telling his parent he was kicked out of another school.…
The Catcher of the Rye was written in the 1950s and character was introduced as immature in the beginning then encounters a challenge or problem. In the middle of the story character struggles to overcome challenge or problem and then makes tough choices or overcomes difficult obstacle, and by the end of the story, character is seen as different or changed. Holden’s, the main character of the story, Hunting Hat, Allie’s Baseball Hat, Carousel, and Ducks are symbols to track.…
Right next to the carousel is a golden ring that all the children try to grab as they go around and around. Phoebe is no exception to this and prompts Holden in to thinking: “I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them.”(232) This could be seen as a way for Holden to realize that there is no real need for a catcher in the rye, if they run off the plain of childhood and off the cliff into adult hood this doesn’t mean they are lost forever. Instead it is just something they have to do, it would be bad to say anything to them. Holden sees this moment as a way to coup with the inedibility of growing up. Then after the ride finishes it starts to rain and Phoebe, being the awesome sister she is places Holden’s red hunting cap on his…
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…
As Holden explains, “I act quite young for my age sometimes.” He also wants others to hold on to adolescence like he does(represented by his hand on the glass reaching for his childhood). This is shown when he tells Phoebe he wants to be “the catcher in the rye”. In which he would protect the kids playing in the field of rye and he would “catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff.” The field of rye where the children play is symbolic of childhood and youth, while falling off the cliff represents entering the mature world of adulthood. Thus, by wanting to catch the children, Holden’s viewpoint of the adulthood and growing up is revealed, as he wants to protect the children, and himself, from the harsh reality(Allie’s death, loneliness, broken record, failure) which is adulthood by holding on to one’s childhood. Holden’s wish to protect the children from “falling” into adulthood is also shown when he prompts Phoebe to ride the carousel after she retorts “I'm too big.” Phoebe riding the carousel represents her staying in the world of adolescence, and thus is the reason Holden “felt so damn happy all of sudden” when he saw her on the…
"The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger shows its readers life through Holden Caulfield's eyes. The readers see his outlook on life, thoughts about people, and ideas about maturity and adulthood. Even though Holden doesn't want to grow up, he still develops maturity through three symbols: the museum, the idea of being "the catcher in the rye," and the carrousel and gold rings.…
Phoebe has just found out that Holden is running away and refuses to take her along. Holden decides to stay in New York City and take an angry Phoebe to the zoo to cheer her up. There, he reminisces about the carousel saying, “When she was a tiny little kid, and Allie and D.B. and I used to go to the park with her, she was mad about the carousel. You couldn’t get her off the goddam thing” (210). Since then, Holden has not been able to have those happy memories with his brothers after DB becoming a screenwriter in Hollywood and Allie’s passing. Despite being angry with Holden, and objecting because of her age, Phoebe rides the carousel. On the carousel, Holden observes her and the other children grabbing at the gold ring. He recognizes the danger, but also comes to the realization that children will always be children saying, “All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them” (211). As an adult, he must let the children take the risk instead of trying to protect them. Through the novel, he has slowly changed his outlook on protecting children. Holden has come a long way since telling Phoebe about his dream of being the catcher in the rye and now recognizes that he cannot be the kind of protector he dreams…
At the end of the novel Holden takes Phoebe to a carousel. Holden realizes he’s to old to ride the carousel so he sits on the bench. When he sits on the bench it shows how he realizes he’s an adult. On the carousel Phoebe reaches for a gold ring, just like all the other kids. Holden was nervous she would fall, but then he realized she’s growing up. Holden says, “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off but it’s bad if you say anything to them. (211)” He knows if Phoebe does fall off she won’t grab the ring again because she learned from her mistake. Growing up involves taking risks, but they are necessary. You…
"The Catcher in the Rye" has a lot of important symbols and meanings. Each symbol seems to represent a part of Holden 's personality, whether it is, an idea in particular, or a thing that is part of his surroundings.…
In contrast to Holden’s younger brother, Holden’s older brother D.B does not provide Holden with a sense of security. “If there’s one thing [Holden] hates, it’s the movies” (Salinger 2), and coincidentally D.B just happens to work in the movie industry. Holden mentions multiple times how D.B has sold himself to Hollywood and “prostituted “ (Salinger 80) himself to become a screenwriter despite being a fantastic novelist, in Holden’s eyes. In the beginning, when Holden introduces his family, he implies that his relationship with D.B is not the closest; he says that he only told D.B some of the story of his three day journey, despite D.B being his “brother and all” (Salinger 1). During his three day journey, after arriving in New York, Holden considers calling up D.B, however decides against it since “D.B was in Hollywood” (Salinger 59).…
The song “All I Want” by Kodaline refers to Holden’s feelings toward Phoebe near the end of the book. For example, when Holden is delusional, he thinks he is going to die of pneumonia and says, “...so finally what I figured I’d do, I figured I’d better sneak home and see her, in case I died and all” (Salinger 156). Holden’s one wish before he dies (or so he thinks) was to go see his kid sister Phoebe. Holden has a very close relationship with his sister, and they are both very fond of the other. This mindset is displayed by the members of Kodaline when they sing “‘cause if I could see your face once more/ I could die a happy man I’m sure” (Kodaline). While “All I Want” is admittedly about a romantic relationship and not one of a sibling nature,…
In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, the author, J.D. Salinger, takes the reader through Holden Caulfield’s struggles with adolescence as he makes his way through New York City in the 1940’s. Salinger shows how Holden attempts to go on an unrealistic quest to save children from a sudden loss of innocence. Holden’s wake-up call comes in the form of his little sister, Phoebe, who unintentionally illustrates to her big brother that reaching for the gold ring isn’t always a scary thing, but a part of life that everyone must go through. The author uses symbolism to create Holden’s idea of becoming “The Catcher in the Rye,” a way of preventing others from the abrupt loss of innocence. Holden’s idea is challenged by his interactions,…
Three seconds remain in the tied basketball game. The point guard shoots and scores right before the buzzer sounds off. I bet for a long time, that player worked hard in the gym to practice and perfect his shooting for game time situations like that. It just goes to show that nothing great can ever be achieved without hard work. Holden Caulfield from The Catcher In The Rye, however, does not quite understand this saying. In the story, Holden does not apply himself to his education at Pencey Prep, which results in his expulsion from school. Throughout the story, Holden, as well as a few other characters, represent the terms expressed in Freud’s Theory of Personality known as the id, superego, and ego.…
Salinger is about an adolescent who runs away to New York to discover who he will become. While most people his age are able to mature and grow up Holden is still trying to figure out how he to deal with growing up when he values youth over maturity. Holden doesn’t feel the need to grow but whether he likes it or not he is not able to avoid growing up. When Holden checks into the hotel and gets the prostitute, he rushes himself into an uncomfortable situation that he doesn’t know how to handle. While the prostitute named Sunny is trying to do her job Holden thinks to himself, “The trouble was, I just didn’t want to do it. I felt more depressed than sexy, if you want to know the truth. She was depressing. Her dress hanging in the closet and all” (Salinger, 96). Holden rushes himself into situations where he tries to act older or more mature than he really is, but when put into a situation where maturity is required Holden is not able to apply maturity since he is not ready to grow up himself. He is also going through a constant struggle of whether he is ready to grow up and start identifying himself. Many times throughout the book nostalgia saddens Holden and he often contemplates whether he is ready to find his selfhood. When Holden explains about how nothing at the museum changes he explains it by claiming “ The only thing that would be different would be you. Not that you’d be so much older or anything. It wouldn’t be that, exactly.…