Holden agreed to do the composition for Stradlater about a descriptive thing such as a house. However, since he ‘couldn't think of’ anything Stradlater wanted, Holden chose to write something that was barely related to the topic, a baseball mitt. There is a saying that writing reflects the writer’s personality. Holden’s essay revealed a lot of himself. He didn't care about the topic; instead, he just followed his random thoughts.…
Holden Caulfield is J.D. Salinger’s main character in The Catcher in the Rye. We learn several interesting things about Holden, however, while learning the these we are not experiencing or seeing what Holden is. We learn about it through Holden’s perspective throughout the entire story like, for example, the death of his younger brother, Allie or the time James Castle committed suicide by jumping out of the school window. Most of these experiences have a significant meaning behind them and we find these out by reading the book. We get to know Holden in a personal way. While reading, comprehending, and understanding Holden’s emotions towards the encounters he has with the characters in this book, which makes it very interesting.…
In his room he interrogates his roommate, Stradlater, about one of Holden's old friends, Jane. Stradlater just got back from a date with Jane and Holden was worried sick. "I'm thinking now of when Stradlater got back from his date with Jane. I mean I cant remember exactly what I was doing... I probably still looking out the window, but I swear I cant remember. I was so damn…
Holden’s first contradiction becomes clear in the first few chapters of the book. When it comes to attending movies, he claims that he does not enjoy the company of Robert Ackley or going to see movies. Yet, he attends a show with Ackley. On Friday night, while Stradlater was on a date with Jane, Holden made his own plans. Holden,…
Holden, the main character in The Catcher in the Rye spends his whole life with his family until his younger brother Allie died. After that his family becomes broken with grief after losing their youngest son. His parents send Holden to boarding school in hopes that he would be in a better environment. The school only makes things worse, by leading him to alcohol smoking and isolation. Despite his age, he turns to substances to numb the pain. Smoking becomes a regular habit of escapism for him. Holden always looks for someone to love him but at the same time never wants anyone to get close, fearing that they may reject him and he will be hurt. He continues to isolate himself from anyone that could potentially help him and continues to smoke and drink attempting to find solution in that. When Holden arrives at Penn Station he wants to talk to someone but never does: “So I ended up not calling anybody. I came out of the booth, after about twenty minutes or so.” (Salinger, 91) Holden is looking for help but doesn't have the courage to actually go and ask someone for help. Fear of rejection and being hurt again holds him back from asking for the help he needs. He also doesn't have a very strong group of friends or family a key support system to help overcome a loss. He always wants to call his friend Jane to seek comfort, but he never does because he is too worried that she will reject…
In Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield deals with society in an unusual way. When his brother Allie died, four years before his story, he decided to break windows with anger. Doctors observed this action physically and mentally. I think that the doctors help him cope with his feelings for Allie because they try to fix any problems he might have. Also, when he was expelled from Pency Prep, he rented a hotel for the night. He should have stayed at the school until they picked him up in a few days, but he didn’t. While at the hotel, this 17-year-old boy orders a prostitute, since he was depressed, but decides he is not in the mood for sex when she arrives. In addition, Holden also smokes a lot and is a heavy drinker, and this doesn’t help him with his depression. For example, “ I ordered a scotch and a soda, and told him not to mix it,” proves that he drinks under age. I think that when Holden is in NYC he cannot manage and cope with his feelings of his brother Allie because he is so depressed and keeps thinking of his deceased brother. Another method Holden uses to cope with society is to be sarcastic. An example of this is shown when he tells the mother of a kid he finds obnoxious, that he was kind shy, and adaptable in his school, just for his pleasure. A quote from the book that explains this is, “Well, a bunch of us wanted old Ernie to be president of the class.” This way of joking makes him feel better but is a wrong thing to do. A last example of Holden’s actions to deal with society is that he plans to become a deaf mute and live out west .He thought that if he did this it would solve his problems and keep him away from the “crumby” people in society. All of his actions and plans show signs of immaturity in him and that his choice making to deal with things is not very successful.…
The initial publisher of Catcher in the Rye thought Holden Caulfield was insane. In the story “Catcher in the Rye” by, J.D. Salinger, Holden was a 16 year old boy who kept being sent to different boarding schools. He had gotten kicked out of a few, before wanting to run away and not go back to the schools. His reason for being kicked out is because everyone in his schools were phony and he did not like it. Holden and society are a misfit, but Holden is the problem in this story. One example, Holden does not think before he does something. He blurts things out without thinking of the consequences of his actions. The second example is, he alienates himself from the rest of the world. He does not like a lot of people because he feels they are phony. Oddly enough, he himself has also been phony in the story. Lastly, he tries to drink his problems away. All of these signs add up to what makes Holden a misfit.…
Holden Caulfield is a teenager who is struggling to fit into adult society. This is evident from very early on in the book when Salinger immediately characterises Holden as a very judgmental and cynical person. Examples from the very first page include when Holden refers to his brother D.B as a prostitute because he writes scripts for movies. He then continues “I there’s one thing I hate, it’s the movies. Don't even mention them to me”. He doesn’t even give his brother the benefit of the doubt over his occupation, and it is through phrases like this where Salinger creates the characterisation of Holden as a judgmental and stubborn personality. This is further continued throughout the novel where Holden continually uses the phrase “phony”, to refer to other people. He perceives the world as superficial, whereas it is his views on society that are lacking depth. This immediate characterisation of Holden by Salinger…
In The Catcher in the Rye,Holden Caulfield reveals the never changing tapestry that is a man’s personality. He begins as a contemptuous adolescent, critical of all those around him. Regarding everyone as a “phony”, Holden isolates himself from his surroundings. Continually dwelling in the past, Holden refuses to move forward. He is judgmental of those around him, beginning with his classmates and peers. As he progresses in the novel, his attitude toward life does not change. He regards his teachers as phony as well, claiming they only act like teachers. Holden reveals a highly superficial nature in his judgements toward others, for he disregards deeper judgments in favor of superficial ones. This is further highlighted in his social commentary, when he simply categorizes people. Holden sees himself as an adult, but he is merely an child in adult’s clothing, as throughout the novel, Holden does not realize his own superficiality, and this becomes one of his defining characteristics. Holden seeks out imperfections in others, rendering himself incapable of the slightest change. Holden ends his journey on the same note and with the same personality which he begins with: a quick to judge, superficial one.…
While facing the aspect of school, a topic Holden would rather avoid, he was tasked with writing a composition for Stradlater. He relayed the fond memory of his younger brother’s baseball mitt in extreme detail. This began an opening into Holden’s past, beginning with Allie. Allie became an image of innocence to Holden, “But it wasn't just that he was the most…
He sees adults and friends who succumb to these norms, and he outwardly looks down upon them and call them phonies of society. As an author, J.D. Salinger created Holden Caulfield as a character to challenge the expected norms of this time period, and as a whole, the novel addresses the challenge of accepting societal norms and diverging from norms to create a different lifestyle. For Holden, although many other reasons attribute to his refusal to accept society, he mainly believes that the 1950’s American Dream culture valuing marriage, family and education is not one that he wishes to be associated with. It is also crucial to note that by the end of the novel, Holden ends up in a mental institution, the location from which he narrates Catcher in the Rye. This element of the novel is crucial to our understanding of Holden as a character; he seems to have rejected the values and views of the post-war era so intensely, he is literally unable to function and has been…
Stradlater “thinks he’s a real hot-shot...[and everyone’s] crazy about [him],” so he is “always asking [Holden] to do him a favor” because he thinks that “[Holden’s] just dying to do [him] a favor” (27-28). Holden “sees through [Stradlater’s facade] quickly...clearly...[and] unforgivingly” (Menand) and is not so easily influenced by others’ opinions of Stradlater as the “handsomest guy in the Western hemisphere” (27). Living in such close proximity to Stradlater, Holden has seen the true Stradlater, the one that is only interested in “very sexy stuff” and “madly in love with himself” (32, 27). Because we see Stradlater through Holden’s eyes, we, in turn, see Stradlater for a womanizing, superficial, conceited, phony. We wholeheartedly believe Holden because for everything he states about Stradlater, he shows it. Holden doesn’t care that Stradlater “[isn’t] too bad,” which is almost a compliment to Holden, because it’s what Stradlater does and thinks that determines Holden’s view about…
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…
“Nothing can bring a sense of security into the home except true love.” (Billy Graham). In the book The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden, the main character, is looking for something. He is very depressed and always feels insecure about almost everything he does in the novel. Throughout the novel, Holden is looking for companionship, friendship and acceptance from others.…
J. Donald Walters once wrote, "Self-acceptance comes from meeting life 's challenges vigorously. Don 't numb yourself to your trials and difficulties, nor build mental walls to exclude pain from your life. You will find peace not by trying to escape your problems, but by confronting them courageously. You will find peace not in denial, but in victory." J. Donald Walters was right. You have to stand up and face your hardships, not pack them away to deal with later, if you ever want to find peace. This is something Holden Caulfield learned through experience.…