In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden’s actions demonstrate that he is a typical teenager who deals with his problems and stress in a normal teenage way. Firstly, instead of confronting his problems, Holden chooses to run away and avoid them. After deciding to leave Pencey early Holden states, “I figured my parents probably wouldn’t get old Thurmer’s letter saying I’d been given the ax till maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. I didn’t want to go home or anything till they got it and thoroughly digested it and all” (Salinger 51). After being kicked out of school Holden chooses to be on his own for a few days and avoid his parents so he will not have to deal with confronting them. Holden is behaving like a typical teenager by trying to rid himself of the responsibility and stress of …show more content…
While trying to fall asleep after getting beat up by Maurice, Holden thinks of what he would rather be doing, “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would’ve done it, too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn’t want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory” (Salinger 104). Holden does not understand the world around him and would like to find a way where he can escape it and not have to deal with it. By killing himself Holden would have a way where he could escape his surroundings and responsibilities. Furthermore, Holden has a fear of growing up and wants to avoid it. While out with Sally, Holden states, “What we could do is, tomorrow morning we could drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont, and all around there, see… We’ll stay in these cabin camps and stuff like that till the dough runs out. Then, when the dough runs out, I could get a job somewhere with a brook and all and, later on, we could get married or something. I could chop all our own wood in the wintertime and all” (Salinger
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.
In the beginning of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is an immature teenager. Holden gets kicked out of his school, Pencey Prep, for failing four out of five of his classes. He says, “They kicked me out. I wasn’t supposed to come back after Christmas vacation … I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself and all” (Salinger 4). Holden does not yet realize the severity of his actions. He does not comprehend that when he does not apply himself, he does not do well. This could partly be due to the fact that when he gets kicked out of one school, he knows that his family will just pay for him to be allowed into another boarding school. Part of the irony in Holden’s story is that physically, he looks mature, but mentally, he is still very much a child: “I act quite young for my age, sometimes. I was sixteen then, and I’m seventeen now … I’m six foot two and a half and I have gray hair ” (9). There is no middle ground, adolescence, for Holden. He can only be an adult, physically, or a child, mentally. Holden’s history teacher, Mr. Spencer, tries to appeal to him by using a metaphor: “Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules” (8). Holden then reflects on this to hims...
In J.D. Sallinger's Catcher in the Rye, is based on the sullen life of Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old teen-ager is trying to find his sense of direction. Holden, a growing adult, cannot accept the responsibilities of an adult. Eventually realizing that there is no way to avoid the adult life, he can only but accept this alternative lifestyle. What Holden describes the adult world as a sinful, corrupted life, he avoids it for three important reasons: His hatred towards phonies and liars, unable to accept adult responsibilities, and thirdly to enshrine his childhood youth.
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
However, his feelings suggest that the true reason for his depression is his loss of Innocence. When he was 13 years old, he lost his little brother Allie to leukemia. Allie meant a lot to Holden. He even becomes a symbol in the book. Allie is the one who keeps Holden from falling of the cliff, he’s the reason that he hasn’t lost his innocence yet. “Every time I came to the end of a block and stepped off the goddam curb, I had this feeling that I'd never get to the other side of the street. I thought I'd just go down, down, down, and nobody'd ever see me again. Boy, did it scare me. You can't imagine. I started sweating like a bastard—my whole shirt and underwear and everything. Then I started doing something else. Every time I'd get to the end of a block I'd make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I'd say to him, "Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Please, Allie." And then when I'd reach the other side of the street without disappearing, I'd thank him.” (Sallinger) In this part, Allie plays the role as the Catcher in the Rye and keeps Holden from falling of the cliff. This is why i believe that Holden wants to become a “ Catcher in the Rye”. He wants to help people like Allie has helped him. He feels that it's what he’d meant to do with his
Holden is a pessimistic, remote, and miserable character and he expresses this attitude through dialogue, tone, and diction. Throughout the book he has remained to be a liar, a failure, a loner, and lastly, a suicidal guy who feels like he has no purpose in life. Perhaps Salinger expressed his perceptions and emotions of his teen years in this book and it was a form of conveying his deep inner feelings of his childhood. Readers can see this clearly shown in The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger.
In the Catcher in the Rye, Holden is an immature boy. Holden’s immaturity cause him many problem throughout the book. He is physically mature but not emotionally mature. He acts like a child. “All of a sudden I started to cry. I’d give anything if I hadn’t, but I did” (p. 103). Holden shows his emotional unstableness.
Throughout the history of literature, humans have learned from one another, using examples from their elders to help compose stories of their own. The novel The Catcher in the Rye, written by J. D. Salinger, is a coming of age story about a teenager named Holden Caulfield. Salinger was well known for representing teenagers for who they are, young people who were not perfect and had secrets. Many authors since Salinger have agreed with this notion. Salinger's character Holden is the renowned archetype, an original model or type after which other similar things are patterned, that many authors use today to model their characters after. The character Charlie from Stephen Chbosky's novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Holden Caulfield are
The plot of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye consists of a troubled sixteen year old boy named Holden Caulfield and his three day quest to find himself after he is kicked out of Pencey Prep for bad grades, mainly caused by his lack of motivation. According to Mollie Sandock the reason why Holden is always having trouble in school life is his lack of communication skills. This is definitely the best explanation of why holden is having trouble in that the three literary critics produced.
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, following with a variety of prescription drugs and therapy sessions along with 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 away 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. Holden is “the most terrific liar you ever saw,” (16) when it came to people wanting to assist him in finding his way in life. His frequent used technique was to shove people away by telling them “don’t worry about me…I’ll be all right, I’m just going through a phase” (18) when in reality Holden is screaming, hoping someone will s...
In the article “Depression in Teens” it says “symptoms of depression may include [...] thoughts of suicide, suicide attempt.” Although Holden never tries to kill himself, he does have some thoughts. Wishing he was dead was one of Holden’s thoughts. After Holden was hurt badly by Maurice, an elevator man in the hotel where Holden was staying, he took a bath and got into bed. Holden than states “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would’ve done it, too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed,” (Salinger 104). Holden felt really bummed out after he had been treated very harshly by Maurice. He was now not only alone, but hurt with no one to help him. Also, Holden uses the word “suicide” six times and the word “kill” 64 times in the novel (“Catcher in the Rye: Student Resource”). Holden’s choice of words tells the readers where his thoughts are. Holden’s use of words related to death conveys Holden’s suicidal thoughts, therefore, his dejection can be clearly
In J.D. Salinger’s controversial 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, the main character is Holden Caulfield. When the story begins Holden at age sixteen, due to his poor grades is kicked out of Pencey Prep, a boys’ school in Pennsylvania. This being the third school he has been expelled from, he is in no hurry to face his parents. Holden travels to New York for several days to cope with his disappointments. As James Lundquist explains, “Holden is so full of despair and loneliness that he is literally nauseated most of the time.” In this novel, Holden, a lonely and confused teenager, attempts to find love and direction in his life. Holden’s story is realistic because many adolescent’s face similar challenges.
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.
Growing up poses challenges to most people at some point in their lives. 16-year-old Holden Caufield is no exception. He is an apathetic teenager who’s flunked out of many schools. Underneath the cynical exterior though, Holden is troubled. He has different methods for escaping his problems but in the end they just cause him more problems. 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.
In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden’s vision of nature of childhood and adulthood are not as separate as Holden believes them to be. Holden tries to battle through the pressures of adulthood while staying in his childish frame of mind. He feels that if he acts childish, he can go back to that. He also feels the need to be an adult and do his own thing. Holden is at war with himself trying to see what he really is- a child or an adult. Although, Holden thinks he is being an adult by drinking and smoking, he is actually becoming more childish.