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The catcher in the rye summary essay
The catcher in the rye literary criticism
The catcher in the rye literary criticism
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1. The Catcher in the Rye was written by J.D. Salinger and is a fictional coming of age story.
2. Holden Caulfield is a teenager who has been kicked out Pencey Prep School for failing almost all of his classes. Holden goes to visit the teacher of one of his classes at Pencey Prep where his teacher advises him on what to do with the next step of his life. Holden then returns to his room and talks with his roommate, Ward Stradlater, and another student, Robert Ackley. Stradlater leaves on a date and when he returns, he and Holden get into a fight. Holden decides to leave Pencey after the incident. He takes a train to New York City and talks to the mother of one of the boys who went to school with Holden. Holden reaches New York City and
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Loneliness is a motif found through out the book. Holden’s loneliness is evident in this passage “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. Then, when I went out to the checkroom…the hat-check girl was very nice…I sort of tried to make a date with her…She said she was old enough to be my mother and all” (153). Holden is lonely throughout the book and constantly searches for companionship. A majority of his actions are an attempt to shake the loneliness, such as attempting to make a date with the hat check girl, calling Jane and the scene with the …show more content…
The scene in which Holden talks to Phoebe is a key scene to the book. Holden reveals that he imagines “I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff…I’d just be the catcher in the rye” (173). This scene is important because it explains the title and it conveys Holden’s wish to matter in life.
Another key scene is the scene with Mr. Antolini on page 186 in chapter 24 when Mr. Antolini tells Holden that he is destined for a big fall. This scene leads Holden to reconsider his decision to run away. Holden decides to return home and attend school in the fall.
The final key scene is the scene in the museum on page 121 when Holden thinks to himself about how he desires no change. This idea is central to the book and show Holden’s struggle with growing up and changing.
9. One satire in the book is phoniness in people. Holden refers throughout the book to the phoniness those around him, making fun of them and thinking about how much he dislikes the phoniness.
Another theme is how hard growing up is. Holden deals with the conflicts of intimacy, change and work
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger is a popular novel that was originally published in the 1950’s. In the book, Salinger explores various themes through the main character Holden and his interactions with others. Some of these themes include, alienation, loss and betrayal. Holden constantly feels betrayed throughout the novel by several people, including his roommate, teacher, and sister.
... the other children on the carrousel reaching for their gold rings he realizes, “If they fall off, they fall off” (211). This is so significant because Holden becomes conscious of the fact that whatever happens, happens. 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.
4) This moment seems to be important because it sums up Holden's true feelings that he hid throughout the book.
Holden alienates himself by believing he is better than everybody else. Every time Holden meets or talks about someone he is judgemental. Even when he is talking about someone he spends time with, he cannot help but ridicule them, “I never even once saw him [Ackley] brush his teeth....he had a lot of pimples. Not just on his forehead or his chin, like most guys, but all over his whole face. And not only that, he had a terrible personality. He was also sort of a nasty guy. I wasn't too crazy about him, to tell you the truth.”(Salinger,14 ). Ackley is probably the closest thing to a friend Holden has. Yet he criticizes him is a very nitpicky way, convincing himself he does not like
This reveals Holden’s fantasy of an idealistic childhood and his role as the guardian of innocence. Preventing children from “going over the cliff” and losing their innocence is his way of vicariously protecting himself from growing up as well. Holden acknowledges that this is “crazy,” yet he cannot come up with a different lifestyle because he struggles to see the world for how it truly is, and fears not knowing what might happen next. Holden’s “catcher in the rye” fantasy reflects his innocence, his belief in a pure, uncorrupted youth, and his desire to protect it. This fantasy also represents his disconnection from reality, as he thinks he can stop the process of growing up, yet
Holden's brother died when he was growing up and throughout his life he has always been getting kicked out of school. Later, he then goes to New York for a couple of days so that he doesn't have to go home early and explain to his parents that he got kicked out. He then goes to his sister Phoebe's school to give her a letter and finds something inappropriate written on the wall and scrubs it out. At the end of the book, Holden and his sister Phoebe go to the carousel.
Holden Caulfield is a sixteen-year-old who explores New York City after he is expelled from his prep school (Salinger). He cannot return back home because he is afraid of his parents’ response and takes no responsibility for his actions whatsoever. Holden hates the adult world, where he calls all adults “phonies.” In his world, one can’t go back to childhood, but one can’t grow up because that will make one a phony (Bloom, The Catcher in the Rye 124). Holden is stuck in between a world, where he doesn’t want to remain a child or grow up into the adult he is expected to become. According to Chen, Holden fears the “complexity, unpredictability, conflict, and change” of the adult world. He occasionally acts like an adult, when he hires a prostitute (Salinger 119), checks into a hotel room (Salinger 79), and takes care of his sister, Phoebe. As a result of Holden’s immense fear of growing up, he tends to partake in childish tendencies, such as wearing a bright red hunting hat. These actions are his way of isolating and protecting himself. Holden is stuck in his own little world. These actions are very immature; Holden does not accept the adult world for what it is. He needs human contact, care, and love, but he has built a barrier, preventing himself from these interactions (Chen). He also acts like a child by acting out “pretend” scenarios even when no one is
Lies, failure, depression, and loneliness are only some of the aspects that Holden Caulfield goes through in the novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger. Salinger reflects Holden’s character through his own childhood experiences. Salinger admitted in a 1953 interview that "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book.… [I]t was a great relief telling people about it” (Wikipedia). Thus, the book is somewhat the life story of J.D. Salinger as a reckless seventeen-year-old who lives in New York City and goes through awful hardships after his expulsion and departure from an elite prep school. Holden, the protagonist in this novel, is created as a depressed, cynical, and isolated character and he expresses this attitude through his dialogue, tone, and diction.
Holden spends the majority of the novel on his own. Despite meeting many interesting characters throughout the entirety of the novel, he is never shown making any sort of connection with these characters. With the exception of Phoebe and the nuns, the characters who Holden meets or interacts with only cause him to feel lonelier, which brings Holden even closer to the eventual destruction of his mental state. Holden’s experience at his prestigious high school, Pencey Prep, is impactful to him as it’s the last time in the novel that he was at a school prior to his mental breakdown. As Holden leaves the campus to travel to New York, he reminisces about his experience by saying “I stood for awhile next to the stairs and took a last look down the goddamn corridor.
Holden?s loneliness is apparent in more than just his lack of friends. His loneliness is made apparent by the way he misses his deceased brother, Allie. Holden makes several references to Allie and how the two used to get along and acted more like friends than brothers. Holden deeply misses his brother and even talks to him out loud to comfort himself because he still feels a void inside of him. Holden misses his brother more than others because Holden never had the final closure to his brother?s death, Holden never went to Allie?s funeral, and because Holden didn?
Holden's idealism is first brought forth when he describes his life at Pency Prep. It is full of phonies, morons and bastards. His roommate, Stradlater, " was at least a pretty friendly guy, It was partly a phony kind of friendly..." (26) and his other roommate, Ackley is "a very nosy bastard" (33). Holden can't stand to be around either one of them for a very long time. Later, he gets into a fight with Stradlater over his date with Jane. Holden is upset because he thinks that Stradlater "gave her the time" and that he doesn't care about her; 'the reason he didn't care was because he was a goddam stupid moron. All morons hate it when you call them a moron' (44). Holden not only sees his roommates as phonies and bastards, but he also sees his headmaster at Pency Prep as a "phony slob" (3). This type of person is exactly what Holden doesn't want to be. He strives to be a mature adult; caring, compassionate, and sensitive.
At the beginning of his story, Holden is a student at Pencey Prep School. Having been expelled for failing four out of his five classes, Holden leaves school and spends 72 hours in New York City before returning home. There, Holden encounters new ideas, people, and experiences. Holden's psychological battle within himself serves as the tool that uncovers the coming-of-age novel's underlying themes of teen angst, depression, and the disingenuous nature of society. The novel tackles issues of blatant profanity, teenage sex, and other erratic behavior.
Holden tries to preserve his own innocence, and the innocence of others by not letting go of childhood memories and through his desire to suspend time. Holden views the adult world as corrupt and full of phonies. He admires childhood because of how it is free of corruption, and untouched by the adult world. IN order to preserve his own innocence Holden often attaches himself to childhood memories. The Museum of NAtural History is one of Holden’s favourite places . He mentions that his grade one teacher Miss. Aigletinger used to take his class there every saturday. While writing about the museum he says, “The best thing, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was” (121). This shows how Holden wants to preserve his innocence because he expresses how he likes how everything stayed the
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.
Throughout the novel Holden evolves to have the feeling of being needed by those around him. He comes to a sense of conclusion that he must help those around him, he must be the ‘catcher in the rye.’