Literary Analysis Essay On The Catcher In The Rye
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden is quite a peculiar kid. He tends to change his mind on a lot of things. However, the one thing he changes his mind about the most is whether he is ready to grow-up or not. Throughout the book he tries to do such adult like things, because he is sick of his usual life style. Then he gets sick of the unusual adult life. He talks to his sister, Phoebe, one night about the poem by Robert Burns, and Holden gets to thinking about innocence. How he wishes he could be the catcher in the rye. Stopping all the kids from losing that sight of innocence. He begins to regret all the adult things he did and wishes he could go back to the way his innocent childhood was. Holden talks about how he wants to be the …show more content…
catcher in the rye. Like, he could protect the children from growing up and losing that innocence. In The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Ponyboy, the main character, is always trying to act like all of the other guys. Being the only fourteen year old makes that difficult. AT the time, being in a gang, all the guys have to have these tough personalities. So, Ponyboy, tries to act like that which gets him into some legal trouble with other guys. He and Johnny, another member of his gang, run off to an abandon church. They try to find things to waste time with and one morning Ponyboy tells Johnny the poem Nothing Gold can Stay by Robert Frost:
“Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.” This poem is, basically, saying that innocence won’t last forever.
Johnny then realizes that Ponyboy has the innocence that none of the other guys have.Ponyboy sees the world as you don’t have to fight with each other forever, that the guy that got them into legal trouble wasn’t a bad guy, he was just lost. Johnny near the end of the book tells Ponyboy to “stay gold”, which he’s telling him to stay innocent, stay exactly the way he is. So, in the Catcher in the Rye, Holden wishes he could of back to the days of innocence. Holden hopes that Phoebe will stay exactly the way she is; innocent. Although, Yesterday by the Beatles is mostly about a guy who loses a girl. If you look at it as losing childhood innocence, it makes sense. “Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.” I kind of see it like when you were a kid everything was so much easier. “ Now it looks as though they’re here to stay.” Now being an adult all the difficulties and such come to surface. So, with Holden, he wishes that he could take back all the ridiculous things he did while he was in New York. He hopes to stop other kids from regretting what they do and preserve their
innocence. “Life is tough. Our culture can be cruel. The images on television, advertisement and the internet bombard kids with pictures of adult gratification and violence, thus zapping their time of purity. The quest for material possessions, success, fame, beauty, stardom becomes a godlike goal for too many of our kids.”(Protecting Our Children’s Innocence) You kind of have to jeopardize your innocence to get those things. You have to do whatever it takes to get there. You notice that many kids are like, “I can’t wait until I grow up.” Hoping that they will reach those goals, hoping that they won’t be viewed down upon anymore. I think, that’s what Holden was feeling. He was tired of being viewed as a bad kid, and didn’t what to be looked down on. So, he went to New York to kind of say, like, I can do this on my own. He can establish himself without any of the adults. But at the end you always hear those people who wanted to grow up so fast, “ I wish I could go back.” That always seems to be the case, and that’s how Holden feels. He wishes he could go back to Phoebe’s age and see the world with “rose-colored” glasses. He just wants that piece of innocence back. Holden , is just a lost kid, not a bad kid. His personality is the way it is because he feels lost. He was stuck on the idea of being an adult that he lost sight of one of the most important things; childhood innocence. The way you look at the world as a kid can affect you for the rest of your life.
Holden is quite a peculiar kid. He tends to change his mind on a lot of things. However, the one thing he changes his mind about the most is whether he is ready to grow-up or not. Throughout the book he tries to do such adult like things, because he is sick of his usual life style. Then he gets sick of the unusual adult life. He talks to his sister, Phoebe, one night about the poem by Robert Burns, and Holden gets to thinking about innocence. How he wishes he could be the catcher in the rye. Stopping all the kids from losing that sight of innocence. He begins to regret all the adult things he did and wishes he could go back to the way his innocent childhood was. Holden talks about how he wants to be the …show more content…
catcher in the rye. Like, he could protect the children from growing up and losing that innocence. In The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Ponyboy, the main character, is always trying to act like all of the other guys. Being the only fourteen year old makes that difficult. AT the time, being in a gang, all the guys have to have these tough personalities. So, Ponyboy, tries to act like that which gets him into some legal trouble with other guys. He and Johnny, another member of his gang, run off to an abandon church. They try to find things to waste time with and one morning Ponyboy tells Johnny the poem Nothing Gold can Stay by Robert Frost:
“Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.” This poem is, basically, saying that innocence won’t last forever.
Johnny then realizes that Ponyboy has the innocence that none of the other guys have.Ponyboy sees the world as you don’t have to fight with each other forever, that the guy that got them into legal trouble wasn’t a bad guy, he was just lost. Johnny near the end of the book tells Ponyboy to “stay gold”, which he’s telling him to stay innocent, stay exactly the way he is. So, in the Catcher in the Rye, Holden wishes he could of back to the days of innocence. Holden hopes that Phoebe will stay exactly the way she is; innocent. Although, Yesterday by the Beatles is mostly about a guy who loses a girl. If you look at it as losing childhood innocence, it makes sense. “Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.” I kind of see it like when you were a kid everything was so much easier. “ Now it looks as though they’re here to stay.” Now being an adult all the difficulties and such come to surface. So, with Holden, he wishes that he could take back all the ridiculous things he did while he was in New York. He hopes to stop other kids from regretting what they do and preserve their
innocence. “Life is tough. Our culture can be cruel. The images on television, advertisement and the internet bombard kids with pictures of adult gratification and violence, thus zapping their time of purity. The quest for material possessions, success, fame, beauty, stardom becomes a godlike goal for too many of our kids.”(Protecting Our Children’s Innocence) You kind of have to jeopardize your innocence to get those things. You have to do whatever it takes to get there. You notice that many kids are like, “I can’t wait until I grow up.” Hoping that they will reach those goals, hoping that they won’t be viewed down upon anymore. I think, that’s what Holden was feeling. He was tired of being viewed as a bad kid, and didn’t what to be looked down on. So, he went to New York to kind of say, like, I can do this on my own. He can establish himself without any of the adults. But at the end you always hear those people who wanted to grow up so fast, “ I wish I could go back.” That always seems to be the case, and that’s how Holden feels. He wishes he could go back to Phoebe’s age and see the world with “rose-colored” glasses. He just wants that piece of innocence back. Holden , is just a lost kid, not a bad kid. His personality is the way it is because he feels lost. He was stuck on the idea of being an adult that he lost sight of one of the most important things; childhood innocence. The way you look at the world as a kid can affect you for the rest of your life.