As I was reading this book, I realized how much this book is similar to “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”. In “The Catcher in the Rye”, the story is about Holden’s journey through adolescent, who is navigating through life, finding out more about himself and the world that surrounds him. Charlie and Holden are really similar yet different in some ways. They are both outcasts. Charlie is a wallflower, the one who is not noticed but sees and understands everything that happens. He tries to understand life from his own experience, which is also Holden’s case. The difference is that Holden is alone and does not really have anyone who supports him while trying to figure out himself. Charlie, on the other hand, finds friends who support him and love him. At moments, Charlie feels “infinite” (pg. 42) with his friends, thinking life could be better. Holden did not have any moments like that throughout the book, except with his sister once and he says, “I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around...I don't know why. It was just that she looked so damn nice…” (pg. 275). Charlie and Holden, both end up in a mental hospital because of how bad their mental state gets, but both books end with them recovering from their mental illness with a hope of a better future. …show more content…
He never truly forms a bond with anyone his age nor connects to anyone. This made him struggle through certain events in his life. I do not like Holden as a person at all and I do not find myself to relate to any of his personality traits, however, I too struggle to connect with people and find it hard to talk to people my age. We both find it hard to bond with people but for entirely different reasons. Holden struggles with this, due to his immaturity issues but, for me it’s because I am extremely shy and quiet. To me, this is about the only thing I have in common with
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. Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child.
This metaphorically explains how he feels about Allie. Holden wishes he could somehow save him from leukemia, even though it is uncontrollable. Also, when his sister, Phoebe, rides the carousel Holden thinks about telling her to be careful and not fall, but he refrains because he realizes if she falls, she falls; there is nothing he can do about it. This is significant because it shows how he is learning to understand that he has to let children live their lives and grow on their own. Holden initially wants to be a guardian for all children protecting them from pain, but he later learns that his approach of being overprotective is not
Holden’s childhood was far from ideal, with Allie dying, his dysfunctional parents and the revelation that he had some “perverty” stuff happen to him when he was a kid. Due to this, he isn't ready to step into adulthood and leave his childhood behind. This is why Holden is mostly alienated from adults and connects more to the innocence of children like the girl at the park and his sister, Phoebe. However, Holden is disillusioned with both adulthood and childhood. He already knows how it feels to be an adult; drinking alcohol, being independent, living by himself and caring for Phoebe, but isn’t ready to immerse himself in it.
Holden’s apparent desire to be separated from the majority of his family and friends appears to have been triggered by the death of his younger brother Allie. From Allie’s there has been a downward spiral in Holden’s relationships, as he begins to avoid contact with others and isolate himself more. The reason I believe this is because we can see how immense his anger is after Allie’s death, ‘I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist’. The death of Allie has become like an awakening to Holden, and has alerted him how precious childhood innocence is, when Holden comes to this realisation he convinces himself to do everything within his power to protect the innocence of himself and those around him, to protect them from what he sees as a false adult world. Although Holden clearly fails to protect himself, as he falls into all sorts of situations which hardly boasts of innocence and virt... ...
“That's the whole trouble. When you're feeling very depressed, you can't even think.” (Salinger) In both the novels, Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, the main characters Holden Caulfield and Charlie are depressed and troubled teens. Although both teenagers grow up in different time periods they share many similar teenage difficulties. Both novels portray a male protagonist growing up while trying to find his identity, yet constantly loathing their lives.
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.
He has a few friends, but even they do not seem to really like him. He is very lonely, but does not like to show it. He pretends to be fine; however he is not. He suffers from depression for many reasons, one being his brother Allie dying. He is very judgemental about everyone; even if they are completely normal, he finds something wrong with them. He does not have any confidence in himself because of how he has been raised and how his life is going. He seems very childish, like when he likes to pretend that he has been shot. Holden has a big mouth, even when he knows he cannot win he continues to run his mouth. Holden is very close with his siblings, he talks about them a lot and how much they mean to him. His parents on the other hand are not so big in his life. He resents them because they just send him to new schools. They do not act like his parents they act like they do not want him around, however he talks about how forgiving they are to
Throughout the history of literature, a great deal of authors has tried to reveal a clear understanding of the American Dream. Whether it is possible to achieve lies all in the character the author portrays. The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye stand as prime examples of this. F. Scott Fitzgerald and J.D. Salinger, the authors of these titles, respectively, fashion flawed characters, Jay Gatsby and Holden Caulfield, with one vital desire: the longing to gain what they can’t have; acceptance and the feeling of belonging. Each retaining characteristics that shows their differences and similarities in opinion of the world around them.
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
The way Holden speaks about him just portrays how much he meant to him. One of the first things he says about Allie is “He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody. […] God, he was a nice kid, though. He used to laugh so hard at something he thought of at the dinner table that he just about fell off his chair”(Salinger 38). Holden seems to connect innocence to Allie and he feels like his was taken away from him when he passed away. The more Holden speaks about his brother the better it makes him feel because instead of drowning in the pool of despair he constantly feels he is in, he can look back on a happier time and feel some sort of relief. Some think that “Holden does not refuse to grow up so much as he agonizes over the state of being grown up”(Galloway 79-80). Some of the hesitancy he has over growing up stems from his childhood, he had been so naive to all the horrors of the world and he had fresh eyes to view life with but after the death of Allie his mind seemed to almost stop growing with him and everything that “normal” kids would want to do as they grew older seemed to become very hard for him like how he could never follow through with a sexual act with anyone no matter who it was. Allies dying stunted Holden’s growth in all ways because he just wanted to
The Catcher in the Rye is about a young boy named Holden Caulfield who is going
One reason is that Holden drinks and smokes at a young age. However, he gets past this because of his height and his gray hair. Another reason is that he does not care about his education. Even after failing school after school he still does not care whatsoever. He also said that he does not have much concern for his future either. In addition, Holden tries to flirt and date with older women that he does not know. Furthermore, Holden likes runs away from all his problems instead of facing them. For example, instead of telling the truth about his grades at Pency to his parents, he decides to stay on the run until he runs out of money and gets sick. Lastly, Holden repeatedly lies a lot throughout the book such as his name or even where he is going. In conclusion, I am certain that Holden is a problem
He complains about his school, saying that it is just like any other school and uses language that makes him sound very obnoxious. Holden seems to focus on girls quite a bit, just like any other teenage boy. He seems to focus on one girl in particular, a girl named Jane. We soon learn that Holden’s personality is not your average personality. Holden does seem to have some friends but he does not fall into many peer groups with the type of personality he has. Holden isn’t able to read social cues like most teenagers learn to do. For this reason, he seems to play around a lot in the wrong situations. Even his friends have matured enough to recognise that Holden needs to ‘grow up’. Holden’s resistance to emerging adulthood is the cause of many of the problems he is faced with during the
While societal attitudes attitudes may change over time, the challenges associated with the transition from childhood to adulthood remain constant. The ideas of individuality, alienation and loss of innocence fortify the theme of coming of age across the texts The Catcher in the Rye and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The Catcher in the Rye, a bildungsroman novel written by J.D. Salinger in 1951, focuses on teenager Holden Caulfield’s transition from childhood to adulthood in 1950’s America, whereas the film The Perks of Being a Wallflower directed by Stephen Chbosky in 2012 follows teenager Charlie experiencing a similar transition in 1990’s America. Despite their varying contexts, these ideas are presented in both texts through the use the
In many ways The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and “The Perks of being a Wallflower” movie face similar circumstances coping with the loss of innocence. Protagonists Holden and Charlie both emerge the hardship of dealing with maturity. However, with unlike perspectives, disparate relationships with the society, and different processes of moving from ignorance to knowledge. Holden changes by seeing not only darkness but beauty in the world, while Charlie has been enlightened to be himself and sees the world as a new opportunity.