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Catcher in the rye how does holden view himself
Holden's struggles in the catcher in the rye
Catcher in the rye how does holden view himself
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The song “Use Somebody” by King of Leon shows Holden’s perception of the world. For example, Holden walks around New York and criticizes all he see’s. He says, “ New York is terrible, when somebody laughs on the street very late at night. You can hear it for miles. It makes you feel so lonesome and depressed” (Salinger 81). Holden thinks of everyone and everything in a depressing manor. Everything that other people do, makes him depressed and which makes them a “phony”. In addition, the band King of Leon feel the same way when they say, “ I’ve been roaming around/Always looking down at all I see” (King of Leon). Holden always sees things in a negative way and is looking down on life. Holden does not have the happiness that other people have
Since Holden was isolated from his family, in order to not get hurt again he tries to find hypocrisy in people to stop himself from trusting others. Holden feels isolated after being sent to a boarding school that “was full of phonies” by his parents (Salinger 90). Salinger’s message to the audience with this quote is that when
Holden experiences both alienation and disillusionment when meeting with people like Sally Hayes, Sunny and Ackley. Holden is so desperate to have human connection yet, when he starts to talk to them, he experiences them as ‘phonies’. This makes him more depressed, continuing his downward spiral. Holden is caught in a trap of his own making.
He's so used to the idea of being alone that it becomes what he wants. Holden is so petrified of losing the people he is closest to, so he decides to not be close with anyone. He is afraid of the same repercussions from Allie. He would rather keep to himself than risk contentment, rationality, and stability. He for so many days after his removal from Pencey would by himself go to bars alone and try to drink away his pain. “I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (Salinger 198). It’s during this time that Holden is falling down a dark, bottomless pit of depression and loneliness. It eventually almost became the death of him when he had isolated himself so much. He became sick, depressed, and full of anxiety. His decision to distance himself weakened him beyond his belief. “I still had that headache. It was even worse. And I think I was more depressed than I ever was in my whole life” (Salinger 252). His depression was starting to get the best of him and all he needed was to be comforted by someone other than
Eventually, however, toward the end of the novel Holden starts to realize that he misses all those that he interacted with in his time. “I sort of miss everybody I told about. Even old Stradlater and Ackley.” (214) He misses them because they were an anchor that his thoughts could attach too. Without people around to help him he falls into depression and his condition worsens. Even those that did not initially have a positive impact on him make a small positive difference. “I think I even miss that goddam Maurice, It’s funny.” (214) At the end of this novel Holden sympathizes with even Maurice, the man that beat him up for money. It shows that any type of interpersonal interaction he has with people helps him psychologically. These two instances of Holden's interaction show that all relations with people, positive or negative, are vastly important to his mental
Holden feels as if he is stuck in his 13 year old self. Although he is aging he isn’t necessarily maturing the way his classmates and other people are around him. This is due to the fact that he never received closure when Allie died. When he starts picturing his own funeral because he might get pneumonia and die, he remembers D.B. telling him about his brother's funeral. He stated, “I wasn’t there. I was still in the hospital. I had to go to the hospital and all after I hurt my hand” (Salinger 171). Since he never attended the funeral he never got to say his final goodbyes to the one person he truly loved. Holden feels as if he can’t connect with anyone else in the world like he did with Allie. If he did then he would most likely push them away, so he wouldn’t have to experience the trauma of loss again, because it greatly impacted his life the first time. The trauma Holden experienced when he was younger resulted in him not being able to form stronger relationships with people which made him more depressed and
He believes all adults possess an aura of "phoniness." His disgust with everyone around him reveals his fear of growing up. Holden exhibits insecurity, and to make himself feel better, he exercises the power to condemn people for the way they behave. He believes hypocrisy is evident in every adult he sees...
Holden Caulfield conveys his melancholy, sarcasm, and seclusion greatly through his dialogue; his vocabulary constantly consists of depression and loneliness. He expresses such agony all throughout the dialogue of the book. An example of this would be when Holden quotes, “When I finally got down off the radiator and went out to the hat-check room, I was crying and all. I don’t know why, but I was. I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (153). In this quote, Holden is expressing his confusion and unhappiness but mostly is just confused to why he is unhappy. He feels a severe amount of misery that devours him, all of which is shown greatly in all of his dialogue. He, at one point in the novel, feels like committing suicide because he cannot handle the pressure. He says that “I stayed in the bathroom for about an hour, taking a bath and all. Then I got back in bed. It took me quite a while to get to sleep- I...
Holden struggles with himself mightily and cannot fulfill his responsibilities. One of Holden’s struggles is that he has a bad attitude towards everyone. For example, at the school he goes to, he hates his roommates and his teachers. In addition to not liking anyone, Holden
Throughout the novel, Holden struggles emotionally as an outsider, gradually becoming more unstable as time passes on. He’s an outsider at school and in society so he doesn’t have many friends. In his eyes, everyone is letting him down, which causes him to think very low of himself. Earlier in his life, he had a brother named Allie, but he died due to his leukemia. The collateral damage from that caused him to break emotionally. The night of Allie’s death, he slept in the garage
Holden’s breakdown illuminates an obsession with death that Allie has left him with. His off-hand comments about feeling lonely and wishing he were dead culminates in his fantasy of actually dying and joining Allie, allowing him to finally feel reprieve from the survivor’s guilt he has lived with for three years. This fantasy also serves as a way for Holden to punish those around him. His family would have to deal with another death and the guilt that Holden has dealt with. This penalty is especially directed at his parents for their inability to save Allie all those years ago and for abandoning Holden in his grief. Holden believes that if he is dead, he may actually get the attention that has been denied to him by his absent father and nervous mother. His rage towards the world takes form as anger against his parents. He needs someone to feel the guilt that he feels, and his parents make excellent targets, but in the end, Holden realizes that his own death is futile. It is only him that hasn’t moved on from Allie’s death, and the rest of his family would mourn him just as much as they mourned Allie. It is only Holden who feels this gargantuan
Holden experiences loneliness and the fear of change throughout the novel, where they both stop him from moving forward and they co-exist in his personal experiences. The fear of the change stops Holden from moving forward in ways that deal with when he was younger and his parents, for he does not want to move on from his childhood and have his parents change him. While Holden is stopped from moving forward by loneliness, because he refuses to let more people into his life and learn more about him. Though the fear of change and loneliness both create a unique pattern in Holden’s life where there are times when he does not want to be lonely, but because of his fear of change, he refuses to open up to others. Everyone deals with change and loneliness on a daily basis, even Holden.
Holden Caulfield can be analyzed through his thoughts, actions and circumstances which surround his everyday life. Holden acts like a careless teenager. Holden has been to several prep-schools, all of which he got kicked out of for failing classes. After being kicked out of the latest, Pency Prep, he went off to New York on his own. Holden seems to have a motivation problem which apparently affects his reasoning. The basis of his reasoning comes from his thoughts. Holden thinks the world is full of a bunch of phonies. All his toughs about people he meets are negative. The only good thoughts he has are about his sister Phoebe and his dead brother Alley. Holden, perhaps, wishes that everyone, including himself, should be like his brother and sister. That is to be intelligent, real and loving. Holden’s problem is with his heart. It was broken when his brother died. Now Holden goes around the world as his fake self, wearing his mask. Holden is looking for love, peace and understanding. He is scared to love because he is afraid he might lose it like he did with his brother. That is the reason for Holden's love of the museum, he feels safe because it never changes it always stays the same. Holden is troubled with the pain of death, it effects every aspect of his life causing him to not care about the future, himself or anyone, except Phoebe and Alley.
The song that I choose to do this assignment on is Fight the Power by Public Enemy. Fight the Power was written in 1989 and quickly became a street anthem for millions of youths. It reflects with issues dealing with both the Civil Rights Movement and to remind everyone that they too have Constitutional Rights. This particular song is about empowerment but also fighting the abuse of power that is given to the law enforcement agencies. It gave citizens of the U.S a more modern outlook on the many struggles that not only the African American community is up against but the other minority groups as well. The song’s message was eventually supposed to bring people together and make the world a better place, even though some teens saw it as a way
J.D. Salinger, in his novel The Catcher in the Rye, shows that often times when an individual faces problems in their life they will try to find a means to escape, instead of solving them. Throughout the novel, Holden seems to be excluded from any group. He feels alienated from the rest of society, but I believe that Holden stays bitter on purpose. He keeps a cynical, sarcastic outlook on life so as to escape his true feelings. This is not uncommon for people who have trouble accepting their problems.
Rap music has given me personally something to look up to. Not a role model but hope of continuing my dreams because rappers successfully made it. “For what’s money without happiness, or hard times without the people you love” is from a song called “Love Yourz” by J. Cole. He clearly understands how there is “beauty in the struggle and ugliness in the success” because he’s lived that life. Other songs such as “2Face” or “The Autograph” were instantly relatable to me because he has been through several struggles from the beginning of his childhood. Cole’s father left when he was six leaving his mother and younger brother alone. Cole became “the man of the house” but becoming a rapper is not as easy as it seems. Cole’s messages in these two songs are relative because I too, have had several issues with my mother and father creating a sense of lonesome. Hearing music like Coles helped me overcome my