Preview

The Significance Of Holden's Fantasy In 'Hi Princess'

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
115 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Significance Of Holden's Fantasy In 'Hi Princess'
Hi Princess,

You bring up an interesting topic when it comes to Holden's fantasy. In my opinion, a positive aspect of Holden's fantasy is that it shows Holden to be both a caring and thoughtful individual who is primary goal is to protect and assist innocent children. While this may be considered a positive, there are a few negative aspects that can be said about Holden's fantasy. Holden had some difficulties growing up and he much preferred living in a dream world as opposed to reality. Unfortunately, this can prevent Holden from maturing into a mentally stable adult and he unfortunately wound up needing to spend time in a hospital to receive some psychiatric

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Holden said yes and lied about his age. The when the prostitute came to his room, he changed his mind and asked her to leave. Another example of Holden’s hypocrisy is that he criticizes people but still asks them to sit down and have a little drink and talk! The only good thing that he does is that he visits his sister Phoebe once in awhile. He says she’s the only person he truly loves. It doesn’t stop here, he made numerous mistakes throughout the novel. One mistake he made is, when he was kicked out of Pencey, he didn’t tell his parents and when the found out that he was kicked out, he got in more trouble. Thinking before making a decision is a good thing to do. Another example is when Sally was crying, he started laughing for no reason, and that made Sally feel even worst. He needs to think about the consequences before doing something…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Symbol of Allie in the book Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger is very important. Allie links to the theme of being able to stay young and carefree forever. Due to the fact that Allie died as a child he no longer can grow up and he does not have to face the problems that come along with it. Holden’s view of Allie starts out as Holden not being able to accept his death. His view of Allie changes into him accepting the death and realizing that Allie can never come back. Allie represents not having to deal with the problems and decisions of the adult world.…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This causes him to want to preserve other children's innocence. Holden's innocence is seen through the fact that he is still a virgin. At his age most kids are already sexually active, making them more adult in a way. The reason for this being that they are exposed to many things that younger, and more innocent children are not. With the protection of his virginity comes his innocence. Holden's innocence is slowly being taken away as the novel goes on. When he goes to New York he is exposed to many things that normal kids are not used to seeing. He sees prostitutes for one thing, people who are the opposite of innocent and clean. Holden also has to be around a lot of phonies who make him realize hat the world isn't perfect and that people lie and cheat to receive what they want. This is seen with Mr. Ossenburg, who takes advantage of other people while they are mourning their loved ones. He takes their money, which is supposed to go to a grave, but just ends up keeping it and throwing the bodies in a ditch. Holden meets many more phonies, and doesn't want other children to be exposed to their dishonest…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    He was also sort of a nasty guy. I wasn't too crazy about him, to tell you the truth.” Holden most likely hung out with people he did not like so that if he got kicked out of school he would not miss anyone he would leave behind. Throughout the book Holden also stated many times how he wanted to go out West and live in a cabin in the woods. The details in his fantasy of living in the West were constantly changing since he sometimes wanted to live in a cabin with Sally but other times he wanted to live as a deaf mute showing how he is not able to even commit to an imaginary future. At the end of the book Holden is walking in the street and can barely make it to each side of the road while he thinks about his dead brother Allie. This symbolizes Holden’s life since he only focuses on the present and struggles to make it through day-to-day life since he cannot commit to a future. Holden’s little concern for his future makes it more apparent that he cannot devote himself to a certain life style and even had a hard time maintaining a certain attitude due to the fact that he constantly reassured himself and said things like: “really” or “for…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    When Holden gets older, he cannot seem to snap out of such a subconscious focus on Allie. Depressingly, Holden has often said, “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window” (117). From this, he means he wants to stop transitioning into adulthood by giving up all together. Holden views this as a good outcome because he thinks no one could fault him for being a phony if he never lived long enough to become one. He also uses words like “that kills me” which can go so far to say that he wants to join Allie in death. Likewise, Holden often used self-degrading words towards himself which is also a symptom of depression. Interestingly, Holden seems to have a focus on Allie or Phoebe even when he faces more adult scenarios such as alcohol and potential sex encounters. From the moment Allie dies, Holden is stuck in a state of focusing on the purity in things which is why people like Jane and Allie seem so nice. Holden also has trouble growing up because he has no male role models in his life due to his lack of a father-son relationship. At the time, it was normal for more wealthy families to send off their boys to some prep school. From there, he never fully connected with any teacher or any older boy of whom he could shadow the healthy behaviors. Perhaps his father sent him away because he did not want to bond to…

    • 1410 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The things he would actively do are of no concern to him; he doesn’t care about what job he would have as long as “people didn’t know me and I didn’t know anybody”(218). He would pretend to be deaf so that he “wouldn’t have to have any goddamn stupid useless conversations with anybody”(218). Even the seemingly positive aspects of Holden’s fantasy are phrased in terms of what they are not. His cabin would be “near the woods, but not right in them”(219) rather than simply in the sun. Holden’s loving wife and family are not even integral to his dream.…

    • 486 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Holden Self Quotes

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages

    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
  • Better Essays

    Holden vainly seeks for innocence in society only developing anger and depression as a result. Holden acts disturbingly at the thought of Jane, his childhood friend, having a casual encounter with his room…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Holden relates to the fantasy because although he says he wants to catch kids from falling off the cliff, that’s exactly what he needs. He is out of control, which is proven by finding out at the end of the novel that he has been telling this story from his room in the mental hospital. He has been through some traumatizing moments in the past few days, which is the last thing that he needs, and he is becoming desperate to find someone that can rescue him. Phoebe helps Holden a little at the time by stopping him from running away and becoming a deaf-mute. He is so unstable at the time that he does not even realize how ridiculous that is. Phoebe helps him by saying that she would come with him, which snaps him back to reality. Without Phoebe’s help, Holden could have made a terrible choice. Instead of dreaming of running away, Holden can dream about being the catcher in the rye. If he had decided to run away, he might have fallen off of the cliff. Holden uses this fantasy to sub-consciously say that what he really needs is someone to save him, instead of him saving people.…

    • 1092 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Throughout the story Holden has been given many opportunities to show his mature side. He helped children by marking out the graffiti at his sister's school. He also talked to his sister about wanting to be The Catcher in the Rye is because he wants to help kids who are rushing into their adulthood and not enjoying their childhood. He wants to catch them before they make the jump into adulthood. Holden himself is a very unique character. He occasionally shows that he cares even though it is thought that he doesn’t care about anything. Holden often tries to hide his nice side in order to portray as if he doesn’t care. All of these are shown in the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger he goes into detail to…

    • 2510 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    It’s actually ironic how Holden wants to save the innocence of the children yet, he uses foul language often, he appears to be a pathological liar, and he drinks alcohol. When Holden wakes up to Mr.Antolini stroking his head Holden reacts harshly. Although it was wrong holden went to Mr.Antolin for help and that's what he thought he was doing. many of the characters and the audience understand that Holden needs mental help, Holden himself is completely oblivious to it. So while his reaction understandable even justifiable, his reaction was childlike, because he could have found a better way to handle it, instead he decides to run away from his problems. This helps understand Holden the teenager as the narrator, who still hangs on to the fringes of his childhood. Holden seems to want to retain his innocence but he also believes he’s ready to be an adult as evidenced by the drinking and the many abandoned sexual encounters. His maturity level seems to fluctuate, for example on the train ride after leaving pencey and he’s talking to the mother you would think he was much older than a teenager, but on the other end of the spectrum, picking fights with your roommate out of jealousy is childlike and…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Holden Caulfield

    • 987 Words
    • 4 Pages

    After being with Mr. Antolini, Holden had an anxiety attack. He said, “When something perverty like that happens, I start sweating like a bastard. That kind of stuff’s happened to me about twenty times since I was a kid.”(PDF 95). He vaguely explained why he was sweating and freaking out. It was because at at least twenty points in his life he was sexually abused. The reaction that Holden has, for example the sweating, is a normal side effect to having gone through what he has. For children who have been sexually abused, one of the biggest things that they lose is trust. Especially with family members, the main reason trust can be lost with family is because the victim can blame them for not protecting them or because their abuser was family. By losing trust with the people in the world, one can turn to substance abuse. For Holden he did this, he drank many times till he was completely gone. Also, depression and suicide behavior is common. Both of which Holden encountered. Some could argue that Holden has every right to act the way he does and that it is normal and right to run to substances to cope with what happened. But, no matter what kind of traumatic abuse one goes through in their lives, it is not one’s fault. It is necessary to understand that the person/persons that abused you need to be held accountable for what happened, not oneself. It is never too late in life to begin the healing…

    • 987 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    They are able to continue along with their lives, and Holden will be there to protect them and their innocence. Holden sees this as his fantasy because a catcher would have caught his little brother, Allie, or failing to do so, would have caught him and saved him from his pain and loneliness. Holden understands that what he wants to do with his life is unreasonable but would rather do so then grow up to be a phony. This shows that Holden would rather see the world as his own fantasy than deal with the realities of the world around him. The real world goes on in quite an ordinary and predictable way while Holden immerses himself in his fantasies to escape from these realities. Holden is too caught up in his own fantasies to realize his mind is just not right. Although, the other characters find Holden to be caught up in his fantasies and his actions to be out of the ordinary, Holden feels they are…

    • 1809 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    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…

    • 1574 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Insanity in a Sane World

    • 1444 Words
    • 6 Pages

    from his dead brother, and unreasinable lies to cope. Holden may think the world is insane because of the injustice of losing his brother, but Holden deals with this by immersing himself in unreasonable fantasies. Holden thinks his fantasy world will be perfect in every imaginable way. The real world goes on in quite an ordinary, predictable way, and Holden is too caught up in his own fantasies to realize his mind is just not right. With Sally Hayes, he imagines the two of them going up to a cabin in New England, getting married, and becoming self-sufficient. Sally thinks it’s irresponsible, rightly so, and dismisses Holden. Holden imagines things so out of the ordinary that they are downright bizarre; but to him they are reasonable and he acts upon them. He pretends he was shot by Maurice, and then…

    • 1444 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays