Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Salinger was drafted into the army, serving from 1942-'44. His short military career saw him land at Utah Beach in France during the Normandy Invasion and be a part of the action at the Battle of the Bulge. Salinger continued to write, assembling chapters for a new novel whose main character was a deeply unsatisfied young man named Holden Caulfield. Salinger did not escape the war without some trauma, and when it ended he was hospitalized after suffering a nervous breakdown…
The main character in the novel the Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield, is often debated; some believe he has a mental disorder, while others argue that he is a normal teenaged boy. The novel is told from Holden’s perspective, and shows his take on the few days before Christmas in the 1950s, during which he is expelled from Pencey Prep., a boarding school in Pennsylvania, travels to New York City, goes on a date with an old friend, and finally decides to run away, the only thing making him stay is his younger sister, Phoebe. In the final chapter of the novel, the reader learns that Holden was admitted into a mental institution, and he has been seeing a psychoanalyst. Holden’s voice is very prevalent throughout the entire novel, and the first person perspective, as well as the author’s diction, create a very judgemental tone; Holden finds fault with every activity and almost everyone. Though this may seem to be the behavior of an ordinary teenager, more abnormal traits and events stand out to the reader;…
“Nobody’s around – nobody big, I mean – except me” clearly reveals this statement. People are not where they are suppose to be, at least not paying attention. There is a gnawing scene in the book – Holden is wandering aimlessly along the Broadway and there is a little boy and his parents walking in front of him. ”The cars zoomed by, brakes and screeched all over the place, his parents paid no attention to him and he kept on walking next to the curb and singing ‘if a body catch a body coming through the rye’”(Salinger 115). At the end of the story, when Holden takes his sister to carrousel, worrying Phoebe falling off the horse, Caulfield watched her carefully as a catcher. Suddenly the rain pours, and “all the parents and mothers and everybody went over and stood right under the roof of the carrousel , so they wouldn’t get soaked to the skin or anything”(Salinger 212). All these description are epitomes of the world in which adults abandoned their responsibility of taking care of the children. As a 16-year-old child, Holden experienced expulsion three times. He lies, makes fun of Ackley and pretends to be outsider from the world around him only to conceal the fact that he is fragile. He doesn’t receive any warm cares or even any attempts to understand his willings from the adults. Holden’s Lawyer father always wants him to go to Yale or Princeton and cares nothing else; His mother messed up with his gifts – Holden wanted a speed skating but received a figure skating instead. Even coming home Holden has to hide in the closet to void his parents getting home from a party and stealthily sneak out before being noticed. Clearly, Holden no longer trust his parents, who don’t play the role as catchers to their children…
"Bishop Long takes his spot back at the podium. He speaks haltingly, starting out slow. "I know all about it... I know all about what you're up against..."…
“Growing up is losing some illusions, in order to acquire others”(Virginia Woolf). Childhood is a stage in life that impacts your future and who you become as an adult. In the book Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist Holden Caulfield, went through tough childhood that later on in his adult life impacted him. During his childhood he lost someone important, Allie, Holden’s brother. Holden had two brothers Allie and D.B. as well as he had one sister, Phoebe. D.B. was a famous writer in hollywood yet, at first he was a normal writer, who didn’t wrote movie scripts or plays. Holden goes to Pencey college, where he gets an ax or in other words gets kicked out, for failing all of his classes except…
In this novel, Holden Caulfield gets kicked out of his school and stays in New York for a couple of days before returning home. During his travels Holden does not maintain any relationships and he associates most adults with being phony. He is constantly trying to protect himself and his sister Phoebe from being exposed to the harsh adult world. In The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger uses rhetorical devices to explain Holden’s struggles and establish the theme of preserving his own innocence and the innocence of those around him.…
He also details that the events occurring last winter were what inspired him to reach out for help. By doing this, Holden is contrasting the vast majority of the actions he makes throughout his madman experience. One of his main grievances with the people around him are that they are, as he frequently claims, “phony.” To Holden, just about everybody can be called a phony, particularly those his age and above. Of the many people he has opportunities to form relationships with, Holden only appears to care about two people: his deceased brother Allie and his younger sister Phoebe, both of whom are prepubescent children. These relationships exist to emphasize Holden’s lack of ability to let go of the past and develop as a person over the course of the book. He has an unhealthy admiration of their childlike innocence, which prompts him to act as immaturely as possible. Subsequently, he tries to show his maturity by making exceptionally poor choices such as getting drunk and hiring a prostitute. Whenever his actions have consequences, he blames the “phony” world around him instead of himself, which motivates him to alienate himself from others. Salinger’s main goal in characterizing Holden is to show how…
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.…
Everyone has had a dream job since they were small, it might have changed over time but it was always something they loved. In “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger we meet Holden whose dream job is to be a catcher in the rye. Holden states that in his dream job he would “catch everyone if they start to go over the cliff- I mean if they’re running and they don’t see where they’re going I have to come out of somewhere and catch them.” (Salinger, 173)…
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.…
Throughout the book The Catcher in the Rye, and the movie Dead Poets Society, there are many themes portrayed that the characters deal with and learn from. Of the many themes displayed in the movie and novel, three that stood out were loneliness, dealing with change, and the pain of growing up. These three themes are vital and important, and play a significant role in the characters throughout the novel and movie. The struggles of loneliness, dealing with change, and growing up are difficulties faced by the characters that are both similar and different in the movie and novel.…
Imagine what it feels like to be a teenager. Is a teenager considerate and open minded? The novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger talks about a teenager named Holden Caulfield who tells his story about a school named Pency Prep in Pennsylvania, away from his sister and parents. Throughout most of this book, Holden explains his inner thoughts regarding everyone he knows, and most of them are judgmental. Holden is considered to be a typical American teenager in this novel. First of all, teenagers like to express their thoughts. In Sylvia Plath’s article “Sylvia Plath at Seventeen”, she begins saying,“As of today I have decided to keep a diary again―just a place where I can write my thoughts and opinions when I have a moment. Somehow I…
In The Odyssey, translated by Andrew George and Metamorphoses translated by Stanley Lombardo, Odysseus and Arachne strength’s coincide with the goddess Athena’s. Excelling at their strengths, Odysseus and Arachne’s hubris causes trials for both, one being a long journey as well as a contest against Athena herself. Interestingly, despite Odysseus’ and Arachne’s mastery of their skills, their relationships with the goddess of their talents have a stark difference; the aforementioned Odysseus having more a friendship with Athena unlike Arachne’s rivalry. Although both Odysseus and Arachne being unparalleled in the strengths of Athena, their relationships with the goddess differ.…
Many authors that write about the depressing life of a teenager try to make the character’s everyday life exciting. Unlike in J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye the main character Holden Caulfield, a high school drop out, stays humorous throughout the novel even though he has to deal with many troubles and personal issues.…
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger it is about Holden the troubled teen. Holden finds that the world around him is almost unbearable and because the thought of growing up scares him, he tries to protect himself from adulthood that is coming to him. Holden has this mindset of not caring about his responsibilities in life. Also, he is scared for what the future has to bring him. In addition, he is scared of transitioning into adulthood. Though the book is about growing up, Holden never reaches that high level maturity.…