The main reason Holden is viewed by us as sympathetic is because we know know his backstory unlike most of the other people who meet him. Holden is a troubled kid who said, “This is about the fourth school I've gone to.” You can only infer that there is something under the surface he isn’t just a bad student. Holden honestly…
In the book holden gets asked to come over to a table with his brothers ex girlfriend and he turns her down even though he is feeling lonly. He always ends up isolating himself throughout the book despite feeling lonly. Even when Holden finds someone to talk to they usually…
In the books The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, each author portrays how the life of the main character is changed after the loss of a close family member. Lily, the main character in The Secret Life of Bees, lost her mother at the young age of four. In an gun accident, Lily shoots her own mother. To seek closure and forgiveness of her mother's death, she runs off with her caretaker to find out more about her mom. Holden, the main character in Catcher in the Rye, is sent off to boarding school after he loses his younger brother Allie. Holden deals with the loss by attempting to smoke and drink to cope with the pain. Lily becomes successful while Holden ends up in a mental hospital. Loving people…
Holden himself is very closed off from everyone and it's just a part of his personality from the very beginning. It isn't till Holden had wrote the composition for Stradlater that we breakthrough this wall and distance that he’s created between not only all the other characters in the book itself but the reader as well. As Holden talks about his brother allie and baseball mitt it's easy to imagine a young boy out in the field enjoying the poetry written on his mitt. “He had poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere. In green ink. He wrote them on it so that he'd have something to read when he was in the field and nobody was up at bat” (Salinger 77). To hear Holden talk about his brother led him to have a new fond tone that had been far…
Holden often acts “inappropriate in social interactions” (McQuade and Hoza). Holden “was talking a little too loud” when meeting Luce that he asked him to “keep [his] voice down” (Salinger 147). During his date with Sally Hayes, he started “shouting” in the middle of the conversation, called her “a pain in the ass” and started “laughing” while she was crying (Salinger 130;…
Holden purposely alienates himself from others and doesn’t hold many close relationships. He displays lack of interest in his education. It is not straight forward, but Holden believes he has no future, does he even want one? Detachment is also represented when he fails out of every school he is sent to. He rebels against those who wish for him to have a decent life. Mr. Antolini was one of those who cares and stated “ the mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one” which Holden takes advantage of . Holden is particularly introverted (Salinger 188). He wanders the city, passing hundreds of by standards, he is still all alone. Sure he wants to talk to people but he doesn’t know how to hold a proper conversation. He is a constant critic of others actions although his actions make him come off as an arrogant pest, therefore Holden isolates…
In the early chapters of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is seen talking with friends such as Stradlater and Ackley. Throughout the book, he is separated further from his friends. Later in the book, Holden meets one of his friends named Luce from one of his old schools, but he “has to tear”. Holden is once again alone. Salinger changes Holden’s interactions with strangers to show his loneliness. Evidence of this is seen when Holden asks a taxi driver if he would like to “stop on the way and join me for a cocktail”. The fact that Holden asks someone he’s never met, and likely never will meet again for a drink, shows his desperation for friendship. Salinger ultimately leaves him with no friends, and only then does Holden “sort of miss everyone”, “even old Stradlater and…
Holden knows that his plan is impossible, it is a comforting daydream born out of desperation; Holden resorts to fantasy because his desires ultimately contradict. Holden begins this passage gripped by paranoia that he will “never get to the other side of the street”(217) and that “nobody’d ever see [him] again”(217). Sweating through his shirt, he becomes so distressed that he begins to plead with Allie to save him, despite the fact that he considers the interaction “make believe”(218). Although Holden does not believe that Allie can really help him, he is driven to praying to him out of lack of better options. Holden is “still sweating”(218),meaning that his anxiety persists, as he decides to “go away”(218).…
“She’s super annoying.” “He is literally the dumbest person I know.” “She’s a fake.” The problem with most of these high-school judgments regarding other people is that they lack evidence, and rely on others’ preconceived notions, that may not be accurate. I admit, even I may judge a person solely based on what I hear from my friends or just because I do not like him, without any actual concrete proof of his actions. But not Holden. Even though Holden is judgmental and critical, often calling people phony or unintelligent, he “never lets anything stand by itself.” Holden doesn’t care if he’s criticizing his best friend or worst enemy, as long as he has the appropriate evidence to back it up. That is the key to his authority. Holden is able…
Holden is still trying to get a grip at maturity as he is regardless a rebellious teenager, just as shown though our adolescents today. This kind of behavior and attitude grasps onto most high schoolers as they are trying to grow up faster. Most are missing what’s behind them and aren’t realizing what they have left. “Sometimes I act a lot older than I am--I really do--but people never notice it. People never notice anything” (Salinger 22). Holden has been trying to get away from the life he has, and wants to be grown up for all the freedom they are allowed to have. There comes a point in everyone's life where they just become…
In J. D Salinger 's novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist, Holden, goes through many hardships in his journey to self-knowledge. In the beginning, Holden has to deal with being kicked out of school and not having any place to call home. He is also struggling with the unfortunate tragedy of the death of his beloved younger brother Allie. At the same time, Holden is trying to deal with growing up and accepting the adult world. Throughout the novel Salinger addresses the conflicts faced by a young man struggling with the trials and tribulations of growing up while also confronting personal loss and loneliness along the way.…
Holden thinks that most girls are dumb and when they become to passionate they lose their brains and he thinks the opposite of guys and guys don’t lose their brains when they get to passionate.…
From the way he speaks to the way he carries himself, Holden, while presented as an outsider of his own society, represents the internal struggles faced by teenagers as they transition from childhood into the responsibilities of adulthood. As teenagers, it is exceptionally easy to feel as though we are different from everyone around us, despite that often not being the case. The influences of social norms, school policies, and societal structures are a strong negative influence on Holden throughout the novel, just as they are a massive weight upon almost all teenagers. I do not mean to imply that one well-written character could speak for entire generations of young people, however, it is the universality and multitude of the problems manifest in Holden that make him such a ubiquitously resonant character in our minds. Holden is a complex young man whose past is convoluted and whose experiences have made him wary. As previously mentioned, Holden uses strong language, such as “goddam” to excess throughout the novel, a mannerism very similar to teenagers today (Someguy). This constant use of swears as a modifier actually serves to highlight a deeper lack of understanding toward the thing being cursed in the first place. With Holden, it is plain to see that his view of the world…
Throughout the novel Holden fights to protect his innocence from the cruel society around him that is just so… phony. He hates all of society for the phony things it does, he hates sex because that may make him feel that he too is apart of the adult life, and he hates change because change is just a recipe for a child to step into the new life, the older more mature life. The one that comes with responsibilities that Holden is not ready to…
Friends are what make it possible to get through life. Holden might not admit that he has any, but at the end of the book he thinks about all the people that he told us about and says, "About all I…