Imagine a teenage boy who has flunked out of high school and is already dealing with a tremendous amount of sadness. Now imagine that being this boy and not having any adults to confide in or talk to about these emotions and struggles. This is the exact reality for protagonist Holden Caulfield in the novel The Catcher in the Rye by Arthur Miller. Struggling with depression and being expelled from his high school, Holden had no adults that he could confide in, and adults that try to support him he pushes away due to his failing relationships with other adults. His parents are absent in his life, for he goes to boarding school and they also struggle with their emotions. When he tries to confide in one of his favorite old teachers, Mr. Antolini, …show more content…
Antolini. Mr. Antolini was a former and favorite teacher of Holden, and he was also a close family friend. Hoping for someone to talk to, Holden looks through his phone book and says, “The trouble was, though, my address book only has about three people in it. Jane, and this man, Mr. Antolini, that was my teacher at Elkton Hills, and my father’s office number” (151). Holden is so desperate to find someone he can talk to about his terrible situation that he looks in his phone book to find anyone he can talk to. The fact that Holden has to try this hard to find anyone that can help him shows he lacks a caring and responsible adult in his life. He contacts Mr. Antolini, who is very excited to hear from Holden and invites him over so that they are able to discuss Holden’s situation. However once staying their, Holden becomes uncomfortable and says “I woke up all of a sudden. I don’t know what time it was, but I woke up. I felt something on my head, some guy’s hand. Boy it really scared the hell out of me. What it was, it was Mr. Antolini’s hand” (211). When Holden finally finds an adult he is willing to talk to and spend time with, he is unable to be comfortable because of Mr. Antolini’s irresponsible behavior. He makes Holden uncomfortable by patting his head in the middle of the night while he is sleeping. This interaction clearly damages Holden’s relationships with adults because he lost faith in one of the only adults he confided in. This proves that the adults Holden tries to find help in are not loving and available for what Holden needs to get through his sadness and struggles with his
As Eugene McNamara stated in his essay “Holden Caulfield as Novelist”, Holden, of J.D. Salinger’s novel Catcher in the Rye, had met with long strand of betrayals since he left Pencey Prep. These disappointments led him through the adult world with increasing feelings of depression and self-doubt, leading, finally to his mental breakdown.
In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, cannot accept that he must move out of childhood and into adulthood. One of Holden’s most important major problems is his lack of maturity. Holden also has a negative perspective of life that makes things seem worse than they really are. In addition to Holden’s problems he is unable to accept the death of his brother at a young age. Holden’s immaturity, negative mentality, and inability to face reality hold him back from moving into adulthood.
“Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is about a teenage boy struggling to get through the emotional ups and downs of life. He leaves readers with this quote at the very end of the book as a warning. He says this to prevent everyone from experiencing the lack of emotional support he felt for so long. Holden Caulfield feels as though sharing details from his life with others opens up the possibility of emotional endangerment and depression leading to self alienation to protect himself from being disappointed and heartbroken when the bond is broken.
Everyone has their own perception on what defines a hero; some may argue that they exhibit characteristics such as honesty or courage, while others may think that heroes have special power. Our society may have changed the values in which we associate heroes with, but one thing seems to have never changed: the main character of the book turns out as the hero. In my analyst, Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in The Catcher in the Rye, is put on trial as we see through our own eyes how Caulfield can not be considered a hero in modern society.
In the novel The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger,Holden the main character tries to take on adult and mature situations but finds himself in reality not getting very far. Holden Caulfield who goes to Pencey has failed four out of five classes and gets the notice that he is being expelled from the school. He leaves the school and goes out and tries to adventure into the real world. Holden takes on many challenges and obstacles throughout the book . Although Holden wants to be independent many people perceive Holden in numerous different ways to his actions and feelings. Faith and Stradlater both perceive Holden as irritating, when in reality he tries to distract himself from being depressed. For example when Holden was in the phone
In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, a sixteen-year-old boy named Holden Caulfield, gets expelled from his school and runs away before his parents find out. He goes to his home town, New York, and encounters many people. Throughout the novel, Caulfield is still coping with the death of his brother Allie. His attitude slowly decreases and various signs of a mental disorder are exhibited through his actions and thoughts. Some people believe that he does not have a mental disorder, he is just grieving; however, he has clear symptoms that he is suffering from depression and anti-social disorder.
During the 48 hours that Holden spent alone in New York, pity for him can be expected to develop quickly. He’s so desperate to communicate with someone-anyone-that he is reaching out to absolute strangers, oftentimes even considerably older than himself. When Holden was still at Pencey, he was feeling so dejected after fighting with Stradlater that he actually reached out to someone that he had painted a picture of as a poor hygienist, and as a social outcast, because surely ...
Lies, failure, depression, and loneliness are only some of the aspects that Holden Caulfield goes through in the novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger. Salinger reflects Holden’s character through his own childhood experiences. Salinger admitted in a 1953 interview that "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book.… [I]t was a great relief telling people about it” (Wikipedia). Thus, the book is somewhat the life story of J.D. Salinger as a reckless seventeen-year-old who lives in New York City and goes through awful hardships after his expulsion and departure from an elite prep school. Holden, the protagonist in this novel, is created as a depressed, cynical, and isolated character and he expresses this attitude through his dialogue, tone, and diction.
J.D Salinger’s novel, Catcher In The Rye is about a teen, Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the narrative. Holden is full of unique problems and most of the time lost in his own world, that can’t face reality. The psychoanalytic theory arranges a lens of definition when working at Holden Caulfield. Holden is seen as a lonely, rebellious teen who flunked out of an all boys private school, Pencey Prep. Failing school exemplifies how Holden controls his own decisions in the real world. As stubborn Holden is, opening up his persona and experiences to people is very hard for him, “I’ll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me…” (Salinger 1). From a Freudian psychoanalytical perspective Holden would seem to keep all his thoughts all bottled up, not speaking, and opening up to people. “The preconscious holds information we’ve stored from past experience or learning. This information can be retrieved from memory and brought into awareness at any time.” (Nevid 469). Holden is one step closer to becoming a better changed person by speaking to his psychiatrist, and there is only way to find out if he did.
Many young people often find themselves struggling to find their own identity and place in society. This search for self worth often leaves these young people feeling lonely and isolated because they are unsure of themselves. Holden Caulfield, J.D. Salinger's main character in the book The Catcher In the Rye, is young man on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. One contributor to this breakdown, is the loneliness that Holden experiences. His loneliness is apparent through many ways including: his lack of friends, his longing for his dead brother, and the way he attempts to gain acceptance from others.
The catcher in the rye by J.D. Salinger is about a boy named Holden Caulfield and his struggles in one part of his life. Holden seem very normal to people around him and those he interacts with. However, Holden is showing many sighs of depression. A couple of those signs that are shown are: trouble sleeping, drinking, smoking, not eating right, and he talk about committing suicide a couple times during the book. On top of that Holden feel alienated plus the death of Holden’s brother Allie left Holden thinking he and no where to go in life.
Mr. Antolini?s theory as to what is wrong with Holden is right on, it?s just too bad he was unable to get through to Holden. Due to the fact that Holden has already given up on himself and is unwilling to apply the valuable advice he has been given. He has lost the substantial ability to find happiness in life and therefore can?t find the energy to motivate himself in anything he does. It?s a tragedy that someone as bright as Holden Caulfield is unable to find the strength within himself to persevere in a world of insanity.
Teenage years are, without argument, the most confusing and difficult years of a person’s life as they prepare to go into adulthood. A wave of anxiety filled teenage year’s leads to an anxiety filled adulthood, followed by a variety of prescription drugs and therapy sessions along the way. Throughout the “Catcher in the Rye” novel, Holden shows several signs of depression in various areas of his life such as lying, thoughts of suicide and the constant repetition of the word “depressing” in its self. Lying usually becomes second nature to those who suffer from depression as they feel the need to shield themselves from the world. Holden assumes to lie to just about any adult he encounters so he can obscure insecurities and shelter his lack of inspiration in life.
Jerome David Salinger’s only novel, The Catcher in the Rye, is based on the life events shaping main character, Holden Caulfield, into the troubled teen that is telling the story in 1950. The theme of the story is one of emotional disconnection felt by the alienated teenagers of this time period. The quote, “ I didn’t know anyone there that was splendid and clear thinking and all” (Salinger 4) sets the tone that Holden cannot find a connection with anyone around him and that he is on a lonely endeavor in pursuit of identity, acceptance and legitimacy. The trials and failures that Holden faces on his journey to find himself in total shed light on Holden’s archenemy, himself.
Holden and the Complexity of Adult Life What was wrong with Holden, the main character in The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D.Salinger, was his moral revulsion against anything that was ugly, evil, cruel, or what he called "phoney" and his acute responsiveness to beauty and innocence, especially the innocence of the very young, in whom he saw reflected his own lost childhood. There is something wrong or lacking in the novels of despair and frustration of many writers. The sour note of bitterness and the recurring theme of sadism have become almost a convention, never thoroughly explained by the author's dependence on a psychoanalytical interpretation of a major character. The boys who are spoiled or turned into budding homosexuals by their mothers and a loveless home life are as familiar to us today as stalwart and dependable young heroes such as John Wayne were to an earlier generation. We have accepted this interpretation of the restlessness and bewilderment of our young men and boys because no one has anything better to offer.