Goddamn Purgatory: Holden’s Search for the Significance of Life in The Catcher in the Rye The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, set in New York City in the mid-1900’s, tells the story of Holden Caulfield, a teenage boy who flunks out of Pencey, a well-known boarding school, and flees to the city. At Pencey, Holden is surrounded by people whose self-worth is derived from good grades and athleticism. Holden's values differ from those of his peers, and are based on finding truth within himself, within others, and within the world, leaving him isolated and without meaningful connection. This difference of values pushes him to analyze and criticize the meaning that his peers find through their obedient natures and their conventionality, in …show more content…
When Holden internally reflects on the nuns whilst they are eating their simple meals of toast and coffee, he “could tell, for one thing, that they never went anywhere swanky for lunch. It made [him] so damn sad…” (62). Although these nuns are without money, their happiness is portrayed in the pure simplicity of their lifestyle. The sadness Holden feels towards the nuns’ simple lifestyle while at the same time yearning for it, shows how complexity is embedded deep inside of him. Holden is very wealthy and presumably has always had the luxury to go to fancy restaurants for lunch, yet because of the value placed on his materialistic experiences, he never had the luxury to explore himself to find inner peace and acceptance. While Holden’s mind is a rich jumble of unclear ideas and unconnected connectedness, the nun’s minds are clear and they know what they are living for; they have a clear purpose. Holden’s extreme interest to talk to these nuns about life, and the flow of the interaction they have with each other, shows how Holden is eager to find any insight or clarity on the truths of the …show more content…
After he gets in a fight with Stradlater, Holden, face covered in blood, wakes up Ackley by saying, “Listen. What's the routine on joining a monastery? . . . Do you have to be a Catholic and all?" (27). Although Holden is not Catholic, he wants to be part of a community of like-minded people who understand each other on a deeper level. Catholics in monasteries don’t only agree with each other on a basic belief level, but their spiritualities are connected because of their understandings and interpretations of the world and occurrences in the world. At Pencey, and at the other boarding schools Holden has attended, violence has been validated and not hitting back has been considered weak. Holden’s values differ so greatly from those of his peers and he is stranded on an island, yearning to be part of a like-minded community, unlike the community of Pencey. Holden wants to find a way to connect with people who understand him and who he understands, and believes that he may find this within the monastery on his path to
J.D. Salinger, the author of The Catcher in the Rye, uses the behaviour of protagonist Holden Caulfield to shape his personality in the way he alienates himself from the rest of the world. Holden alienates himself from the society he lives in, his relationships with others and also the relationships he has with himself. Holden struggles to cope with the fact that eventually he will have to grow up, and so will everyone around him. Holden see’s the world not being perfect as a huge problem that he alone has to fix because everyone else is too much of a ‘phony’ to do it. The novel explores Holden’s weekend after he got kicked out of his fourth school, Pency Prep, and the struggles he faces with alienating himself.
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger's novel set in the 1950s, told the story of sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield. Deciding that he's had enough of Pencey, his fourth school that he'd failed, he goes to Manhattan three days before his scheduled return to home, not wanting to inform his parents that he'd been expelled and sent back. He explores the city, calls up some old friends, gets nicked by the elevator operator, and gradually becomes bitter about the world and people. He then visited his sister Phoebe. After fleeing from the house of Mr. Antolini, his former English teacher, because of mistaking his actions for a homosexual overture, Holden went to Phoebe's school and sent her a note telling her he was leaving home and to meet him at the museum. When Phoebe arrived, Holden angrily refused her request to take her with him and she ignored to speak to him. He then took her across the park to a carousel, bought her a ticket and watched her ride. Holden ended his narrative here, telling the reader that he was not going to tell the story of how he went home and got "sick". He planned to go to a new school in the fall and was cautiously optimistic about his future.
To conclude, Holden try’s desperately on holding on to his innocents. Triggered by the loss of his brother, Holden makes it his mission to protect kids from there inevitable maturity, sealing them from phony’s and. When he realised that he could not achieve the qoel of saving all children from growing up Holden has a nervous breakdown. He dosint understand the proses of life ad he can’t pick to stay a child for ever when in reality growing up is inevitable. ‘’We've let the blade of our innocence dull over time, and it's only in innocence that you find any kind of magic, any kind of courage.”
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.
Catcher in the Rye is one of the most famous books in American literature. Written by J. D. Salinger, it captures the epitome of adolescence through Salinger’s infamous anti-hero, Holden Caulfield. Holden Caulfield learns about himself and his negative tendencies, and realizes that if he does not do something to change his perspective, he may end up like his acquaintance James Castle whom he met at Elkton Hills. Holden tries to find help to mend his outlook on life through Mr. Antolini so he does not end up like James, who did not want to face the problems he created for himself. This is proven by the similarities between James Castle and Holden, Mr. Antolini’s willingness to try and help Holden, and Holden’s future being forecasted by James.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is an enthralling and captivating novel about a boy and his struggle with life. The teenage boy ,Holden, is in turmoil with school, loneliness, and finding his place in the world. The author J.D. Salinger examines the many sides of behavior and moral dilemma of many characters throughout the novel. The author develops three distinct character types for Holden the confused and struggling teenage boy, Ackley, a peculiar boy without many friends, and Phoebe, a funny and kindhearted young girl.
Holden has been to three different boarding schools before he attended Pencey. At Pencey, Holden was rooming with Stradlater, who Holden thought lived his life as a secret slob and a moran. Stradlater and Holden do not see eye to eye on most things. One Saturday night, Stradlater had plans to go on a date with Holden’s friend Jane. Jane was very close to Holden and Holden knew that Stradlater would try and put the moves on her just like he does on every other girl. After the date, Holden and Stradlater are talking and Stradlater ignores his questions. Their conversation gets heated and it results in Holden cutting up his face and then exiting his room and entering Ackley’s. Ackley, who is asleep, gets woken up by Holden and Holden asks if he can spend the night in his room. As they both lied in their beds, Holden asks Ackley, “‘What’s the routine on joining a monastery?’”(Salinger 50). After Ackley gets mad for Holden asking questions, Holden changes his mind about the monastery, “Aah, go back to sleep. I’m not gonna join one anyway. The kind of luck I have, I’d probably join one with all the wrong kind of monks in it. All stupid bastards. Or just bastards.” (Salinger 50). Holden believes that the world is full of bad, crumby people even in the places that have good people. Holden wants to get away from people like
The Catcher in the Rye was written by J.D. Salinger. The main character is Holden Caulfield. Holden is a troubled student, who is most of the time depressed. The book starts out with him somewhere like a medical center for depression and his health. Holden lives in New York. He starts out telling you about his brother D.B. who is a writer and lives in Hollywood. He then goes on to tell you how it all started. He has gotten kicked out by many schools, and his latest school, Pencey, is no different. The only subject he does well in is English. Everything else he does not care for. He is supposed to leave wednesday, but it is saturday. He has just gotten back from a fencing game which his team had to forfeit, because Holden forget the foils. His neighbor in their dorms, Ackley, keeps bothering him. Ackley does not take care of his hygiene and hates almost everybody except Holden. But Holden's roommate, Stradlater, comes in, causing Ackley to leave. Stradlater has a date with Jane, a friend of Holden's. Stradlater gets ready then leaves Holden. Holden, Ackley, and another boy go out to eat, but none of them want to go to the movies, because Ackley and the other boy have already seen it. Holden does not care, because he hates movies. They go back to their dorms. Ackley goes to bed, and Holden just stares out the window. Stradlater comes in soon, and Holden asks him about his date. Stradlater will not say much which freaks out Holden. Holden and Stradlater then get into a fight and Stradlater beats him up. Holden then decides to leave early. His grandma has given him a whole bunch of money, so he goes to a cheap hotel. He leaves the hotel to go to a club, because he cannot sleep. He drinks a bit then goes to another club where he meets ...
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger is a coming-of-age novel set in New York during the 1940’s. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the story, is a detached seventeen-year old boy harboring feelings of isolation and disillusionment. He emphasizes a general dislike for society, referring to people as “phonies.” His lack of will to socialize prompts him to find nearly everything depressing. He’s alone most of the time and it’s apparent that he is very reclusive. This often leads him to pondering about his own death and other personal issues that plague him without immediate resolution. Holden possesses a strong deficit of affection – platonic and sexual – that hinders and cripples his views toward people, his attitude, and his ability to progressively solve his problems without inflicting pain on himself. The absence of significant figures in his life revert him to a childlike dependency and initiate his morbid fascination with sexuality. In this novel, Salinger uses Sunny, Sally Hayes, and Carl Luce to incorporate the hardships of discovering sexual identity and how these events affect adolescents as they try to understand their own sexuality.
The Catcher in the Rye focuses on Holden Caulfield’s journey to New York City after he learns that he has flunked out of the fictional Pencey Preparatory School. Caulfield, a troubled sixteen-year-old boy, is totally alienated from his environment and from society as a whole. (Telgen 120) Caulfield is not alienated by others, rather he chooses to alienate himself. He feels a desire for isolation sometimes because he cannot stand the company of others, or because he becomes disappointed with their company, and at other times because he feels a need to drive others away. (Engel 53)
From the protagonists’ point of view, the adult world Holden and Franny are entering and living in is a very superficial place. Holden who is sixteen years of age is going through a time of crisis where he is almost forced to become an adult. This concept is the very thing that makes Holden afraid, causing him to misbehave at school. His latest school, Pencey Prep, expels Holden due to his failing grades. When asked for the reason of his lack of academic enthusiasm, Holden simply states that he is not interested in anything. In every school he has attended, Holden has managed to find different reasons not to care and possibly even hate the institutions.
To begin with, Holden’s love for the innocence and purity of childhood makes him very hesitant to transition into an adult life. Generally, he finds children to be straightforward, easygoing, and simply pure in every way. This is because they always say what they mean, and never try to set a false façade for...
Holden Caulfield, the teenage protagonist of Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, struggles with having to enter the adult world. Holden leaves school early and stays in New York by himself until he is ready to return home. Holden wants to be individual, yet he also wants to fit in and not grow up. The author uses symbolism to represent Holden’s internal struggle.
This event exposes his unfounded view of the world, where his obsession with sex and egotistical attitude block rational thinking. Holden’s interactions with Mr. Antolini reveals Holden’s desperate need for guidance, while also exposing traumatic incidences of Holden’s past, which help us to understand Holden more fully as a person.
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, is a classic novel about a sixteen-year-old boy, Holden Caulfield, who speaks of a puzzling time in his life. Holden has only a few days until his expulsion from Pency Prep School. He starts out as the type of person who can't stand "phony" people. He believes that his school and everyone in it is phony, so he leaves early. He then spends three aimless days in New York City. During this time, Holden finds out more about himself and how he relates to the world around him. He believes that he is the catcher in the rye: " I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in a big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around-nobody big, I mean-except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What have I to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff..." (173). He briefly enters what he believes is adulthood and becomes a "phony" himself. By the end of the story, Holden realizes he doesn't like the type of person he has become, so he reverts into an idealist; a negative, judgmental person.