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The catcher in the rye how does holden view life
Analysis of holden the catcher in the rye
The catcher in the rye how does holden view life
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Holden's Coming of Age
In the book The Catcher in the Rye the author, J.D. Salinger, writes about a boy named Holden and how he is currently in an asylum and is explaining why he got there to a therapist. The reader learns about Holden and his character through Holden's first person narration, and come to realize how he ended up in the Asylum. The book touches upon many different themes including the corrupt adult world, the journey and the grieving process, though most importantly Holden’s coming of age and how he believes he has to save kids from growing up and doesn’t recognize that he needs to grow up. Holden's coming of age experiences demonstrate that growing up is an essential part of the journey, the only aspect of this process
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He was over Mr. Antolini's house and he told Holden “you’re going to have to find out where you want to go.”(188) This hit Holden hard because the last time someone told Holden he needed to grow up he shut them out, though he finally opened up to Mr. Antolini and realized what kind of person he wanted to be, and he had to realize that he needed to grow up. As Holden’s realization started to hit him he starts to recognize the pain he was feeling he almost regrets getting close to people, he states “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”(Salinger 214) What he is saying here is more towards close friends and loved ones, he is upset that he got close with people and got into deeper friendships because people are not always gonna be there, he is potentially stating this towards Jane, who he almost wished he was never close with because now he can’t get his mind off of her and really wants to see her yet he is too afraid. As well he could be stating it towards Allie, whom he was very close to, yet he died and now Holden can never see him again and is always thinking about Allie and he wishes he had died instead of Allie.
The experiences Holden goes through during his coming of age stage in his life help him to see that growing up is essential towards his journey, and he must realize that he can’t control anyone else’s path in terms of coming
In the modern world, everyone must make the transition, no matter how scary or daunting it may be, into adulthood at some point in their lives. Most individuals are gradually exposed to more mature concepts, and over time, they begin to accept that they can no longer posses the blissful ignorance that they once had as a child. Others, however, are violently thrown from their otherwise pure and uncorrupted adolescent lives through a traumatic event that hurls them into adulthood before they are ready. The novel The Catcher on the Rye written by J.D. Salinger, explores the struggle children face to adapt to adult society through the main character Holden Caulfield, a teen that lost his innocence, and is still attempting to cope with the fact that everyone grows up.
phonies and all he hates. By being in the stage where he is, he manages to avoid change, control his world with his own hands, yet. creates a paradox between what he is, and what he wants to be. Possibly the main reason why Holden doesn’t want to become an adult. is his perception of ”phoniness” and hypocrisy surrounding adult.
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.
He cannot control or protect anyone, or himself, from the future. Holden’s last two sentences of the novel really capture the entire journey he has gone through: “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody” (214). This is Holden getting over everything that has happened to him. He understands that he can overcome what has happened from him in order to learn from his past and move forward to the future.
Growing up is not easy. The desire to slow down or stop the process is not unusual for adolescents. Resisting adulthood causes those who try to run away from it to eventually come to terms with the reality of life: everyone has to grow up, and fighting against it makes it much harder to accept in the end. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield often tries to resist the process of maturity in an effort to avoid the complicated life he might face as an adult, making him an unusual protagonist for a bildungsroman; this struggle, however, opens Holden’s eyes to the reality and inevitability of growing up, helping him realize that innocence does not last forever.
The transition from a teen to an adult is one of the major steps in life. This major transition can be really scary. Some people are so scared of becoming an adult, that they try to keep their inner child alive. One person in the book The Catcher in the Rye is Holden Caulfield, Holden is the main character in the novel written by J.D. Salinger. A prominent theme in his novel, The Catcher in the Rye is the painfulness of growing up. As this theme is going on through the novel, Salinger weaves in symbols that Holden happens to use and talk about throughout the novel.
I guess you can say he is trying to transition from adult hood but he can’t. He believes childhood is a beautiful and innocent thing where as adulthood is evil and corrupted. In the text Holden says “That's the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "Fuck you" right under your nose” Pg. 204 Another reason why Holden is stuck between adult hood and childhood is because he doesn’t understand the concept of sex. He doesn’t get how two adults can have sex without loving each other. Holden tells Luce "You know what the trouble with me is? I can never get really sexy—I mean really sexy with a girl I don’t like a lot. I mean I have to like her a lot. If I don’t, I sort of lose my goddam desire for her and all.”Pg148 Luce then later says “When are you going to grow up?"Pg. 144. This is another example how Holden can’t really grow up. Mr. Antolini brings up an examples that goes “this fall I think you’re riding for – it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling."Pg. 187. This quote is illustrating that Holden doesn’t know where to go, he’s lost and confused from the transition from childhood to
In a novel, the theme is the insight of real life. J.D. Salinger’s initiation novel, The Catcher In The Rye, describes the adventures of 16-year old Holden Caulfield, the protagonist and first person narrator, who refuses to grow up and enter manhood. The most important theme developed by Salinger is Holden’s problem of dealing with change; he has trouble dealing with death, he refuses to accept children’s loss of innocence as a necessary step in the growing-up process, and has difficulties with growing up.
It is evident that Holden Caufield has specific moments where he can recall and apply them wherever he is in life. His unleashing of children and their ability to explore the world without assistance has helped him transition to the real adult world. His fascination with ducks has made him realize that nothing is ever permanent and no one can always be there for when ever one falls. Lastly, the passing of a loved one can be times of despair but learning to grow and fight the internal struggle can help bring ease. Holden has really transformed from an egoistic individual to a genuine gentleman, he has grown from his experiences and is able to tolerate more pain. The reality has struck Holden no matter how distorted the outside world is to him, maturing is inevitable and using these moments will always be something for him to live for.
Growing up and becoming mature can be an intimidating experience; it is difficult to let go of one’s childhood and embrace the adult world. For some people, this transition from youthfulness to maturity can be much more difficult than for others. These people often try to hold on to their childhood as long as they can. Unfortunately, life is not so simple. One cannot spend their entire life running from the responsibilities and hardships of adulthood because they will eventually have to accept the fact that they have a role in society that they must fulfill as a responsible, mature individual. The novel “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger follows the endeavours of Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old teenage boy who faces a point in his life where he must make the transition from childhood to adulthood. In an attempt to retain his own childhood, he begins hoping to stop other young children from growing up and losing their innocence as well. As indicated by the title, “The Catcher in the Rye” is a book that explores a theme involving the preservation of innocence, especially of children. It is a story about a boy who is far too hesitant to grow up, and feels the need to ensure that no one else around him has to grow up either. His own fear of maturity and growing up is what leads to Holden’s desire to become a “catcher in the rye” so he can save innocent children from becoming part of the “phoniness” of the adult world.
Life is one of the hardest things to change in the world. In JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is trying to change his life through a series of events, but fail to become a successful man and stays with his immaturity from the beginning of the novel. The Novel itself uses Holden as an example of how growing up is a difficult situation. In real life, Many people became more of a successful person after learning experiences. In the novel, Holden has been through a series of events about growing up as an adult, but it turns out that he didn't learn from these experiences. In fact, his thoughts still remain childish and violent. Throughout the novel, Holden imagines himself protects Jane, to kill people, see women as phonies, personal future, and his own behaviors.
As any death of a loved one would, Allie’s death had a particularly strong and devastating impact on Holden. Allie died on July 18, 1946, of leukemia, and the significance that his death had on Holden was immediate. The night of Allie’s death Holden reacted violently, “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it. I even tried to break the windows on the station wagon...” (Salinger 39). This outburst was simply the beginning of the problems Holden has because of Allie’s death. Holden, most noticeably has taken on an overall negative outlook on life resulting from the misfortune, included in this is a general distrust of people. After Allie died, Holden does not know who he can trust, for this event was so catastrophic for him. In reference to being annoyed by his brother’s friend, Lillian Simmons, Holden says, “People are always ruining things for you” (87). Regarding Holden’s general depression, he speaks of his sadness when packing his Christmas present, “Almost ev...
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.
There is one event that unites all human beings. This event is the process of growing up and becoming an adult. The transition into adulthood from childhood can be very long and confusing. As a kid most of them can not wait to become an adult but once you experience adulthood you miss your childhood. The novel Catcher in the Rye shows how a teenager on the break of entering adulthood can get scared. Through the main protagonist Holden Caulfield, J.D. Salinger captures the confusion of a teenager when faced with the challenge of adapting to an adult society. Holden is faced with many problems as some teens
He is continuously saying he is lonely or depressed because no one is ever around. Everytime he goes to call someone, he does not feel like calling anymore. For example, he attempts to call Jane a lot throughout the story, but does not do it because he is never in the mood for it. He gets so close to doing it and then a switch flips in his mind and he does not have the patience anymore. He also asks about the ducks in central park. He cannot stop thinking about it, so he asks the cab driver. The ducks reflect the stage of growing up which Holden fails to grasp. He wants things to stay the same for him and everything around him.