Discuss the view that in - Behind the Scenes at the Museum - and
- Catcher in the Rye - Holden and Ruby can be regarded as unreliable
narrators.
In both “Behind the Scenes at the Museum” and “Catcher in the Rye”
there are obvious signs that Holden and Ruby are troubled and
unreliable characters. The informal conversational tone that Holden
uses is meant to be spontaneous and unrehearsed; so instead of getting
a focused autobiography, we get a scanty account of a few days that
often trail into other stories that are what we use to draw a picture
of Holden. Holden states his intentions from the beginning. He has no
intentions of telling his ‘whole goddam autobiography or anything’ and
states clearly that he doesn’t want to write ‘all that David
Copperfield kind of crap’. This also suggests that Holden has no
concern with what has happened previously, which we later see is not
the case. “Catcher in the Rye” is only spread over a few days unlike
“Behind the Scenes at the Museum” which can be seen as more of a
bildungsroman and appears to be a child’s viewpoint in an adults
voice. This is characterised by the use of vocabulary and descriptions
and also marked by the use of parenthesis. Parenthesis often follows
descriptions such as after the description of the guest bed Ruby adds
in brackets ‘much nicer than the camp bed’ which emphasizes the idea
that it is not just a child speaking. This technique draws the
reader’s attention to the artificiality of this fictional work. This
is unlike “Catcher in the Rye” that in some ways could be regarded as
non-fictional, as Salinger does not emphasize the fact that it is
fiction. However, it could be argued that the style of “Catcher in the
Rye” and the context make it obviously fiction, for example, the
detailed regurgitated conversations which would be not a
characteristic of non-fictional work. However, considering Holden’s
situation and the circumstances it is possible to see him as an
unreliable narrator.
In the first paragraph in “Catcher in the Rye” we know that something
has happened to Holden and he has been hospitalised for quite some
time, suggesting some form of psychological disturbance. However,
although we know that Holden is reflecting on events that lead to his
psychological breakdown, we do not feel that when he is telling the
story it is though the eyes of someone who we cannot trust and whose
judgement may be impaired. Likewise with Ruby, who as an omniscient
character seems most reliable until we are informed of Ruby’s
repression of the death of her twin sister Pearl and Ruby too has
Salinger went through many of the experiences Holden went though. Salinger much like Holden had a sister that he loved very much, in the novel Phoebe is the only person that Holden speaks highly of; both men also spent time in a mental institution; Holden is telling the story from inside a institution; they were both kicked out of prep school and most importantly they were both a recluse from society. This is why Salinger uses Holden as his persona all though out the book. The ‘catcher in they Rye’ is almost like an autobiography for Salinger. He is using Holden as his persona to let us, the reader, dive into his thought pattern and find out some of the thoughts that he kept locked up in there.
In the novel Holden is what you would call an unreliable narrator. The definition of unreliable is - a person or thing that cannot be counted on or trusted. You cannot trust Holden if you know that he lies all the time. Since the reader knows that he is a habitual liar you may never know the difference from when he is telling the truth or when he is telling another one of his stories. Holden goes in and out of mental lapses throughout the novel that affected his mind and psychological state greatly.
Thesis statement: The relationship Holden and Blanche have between family and people in society leads them to an inner turmoil, which eventually results in their psychological breakdowns.
Salinger describes Holden as someone who wishes and desires to have an intimate relationship with Sally, but based on Freudian theory, Holden’s slip of the tongue reveals that he is bothered by Sally and her counter-argument to his proposal of moving together out of New York. Another defense mechanism that is manifested by Holden is denial. In “The Psychodynamic Perspective,” Robert F. Bornstein from Noba informs readers that denial is the failure to recognize negative effects of an event or experience. While Holden fails to succumb to the realization that he must release himself from the negative effects of Allie's death, he also struggles to submit to another necessity: growing up. Salinger includes a conversation between Holden and his sister Phoebe on page 173, where Holden reveals to Phoebe that he would want to be a catcher in the rye, where he would stop children playing on a cliff in a field of rye from falling. In other words, the protagonist desires to prevent kids from maturing and losing their innocence. Holden deflects his
"Do not be mislead by what you see around you, or be influenced by what you see. You live a world which is a playground of illusion, full of false paths, false values and false ideals. But you are not part of that world" (Sai Baba). A world of illusion is an alluring, yet perilous place to enter. It can deceive the mind only to cause damage and distress. Holden Caulfield's life has led to. an atrophy through his struggle of conceiving illusions as reality. In J.D. Salinger's novel, "The Catcher in the Rye", Holden Caulfield battles the constant reminder of his brother, Allie's, death while he roams the streets of New York. Preceding his futile adventures, he is expelled from his fourth school, Pencey Prep. During his extent at Pency, he introduces us to Allie when he writes a paper for Stradlater, his roommate, about Allie's baseball mit. Stradlater shows no interest in this emotional yearning for help, leaving Holden to believe that his problems are nonessential. Holden has a perpetual need for affection, but refuses to allow others into his world of problems and agony. In an attempt at reconciliation, he goes to see his younger sister, Pheobe, after multiple debates with himself. Pheobe had encouraged Holden to see the world in a new perspective of both triumph and defeat. The three days of unavailing wondering had indubitably opened Holden's eyes to a world of genuineness. Salinger uses symbolism to portray that people should see reality as it is, instead of creating illusions to protect themselves from their problems.
Even though “The Catcher in the Rye” was written and set in the 1950s, Salinger's story about an observative, conscious teen who is struggling to find his own identity, maintains much interest and is suitable to readers today. Many teenagers can relate to Holden Caulfield's opinionated and sentimental personality, as well as the problems he faces. These problems include sexually related rendezvouses and eagerness for independence. Holden goes against the adult world around him, which to Holden is loaded with "phonies", searching for righteousness and truth, even though several of his actions would depict him as a "phony" himself. Towards the end of the book, Holden finds it harder to deal with living in the society he is in, while dealing with his worsening depression.
Our daily lives emotionally affect us as individual persons in society. What happens in our daily life, changes our emotional life and changes our perspective towards life. Society has an impact on individual persons. According to The Catcher in The Rye and The Perks of Being a Wallflower; what happens to Holden and Charlie at school, at home and with their friend relationships affect them negatively and complicates their perspective towards life. Both Holden and Charlie are affected negatively by the society. Their emotional life is shaped by their social lives as like as ours.
After his younger brother Allie passed away and Holden was exposed to the harsh realities of the real world, he constantly tries to pretend like nothing ever happened and attempts to run away from his new life as an adult. During Holden’s visit to the park while he is trying to find Phoebe, he begins to reminisce about the museum that he used to visit with his class and says, “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was” (121). The museum is a very special place to Holden because it offers him an escape from the tedious responsibilities, as well as the tragedies of the adult world, because unlike reality, nothing in the museum ever changes and nothing bad can ever happen. Later on in the day, while Holden watched Phoebe ride the carrousel, he thought to himself, “I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around” (213). Similar to the museum, Holden appreciates how the carrousel will ne...
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.
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.
The book, Catcher in the Rye, has been steeped in controversy since it was banned in America after its first publication. John Lennon’s assassin Mark Chapman, asked the former Beatle to sign a copy of the book earlier in the morning of the day he murdered Lennon. Police found the book in his possession upon apprehending the psychologically disturbed Chapman. However, the book itself contains nothing that might have lead Chapman to act as he did. It could have been just any book that he was reading the day he decided to kill John Lennon and as a result, it was the Catcher in the Rye, a book describing a nervous breakdown, that caused the media to speculate widely about the possible connection. This gave the book even more recognition. The character Holden Caulfield ponders the thoughts of death, accuses ordinary people of being phonies, and expresses his love for his sister through out the novel. So what is the book Catcher in the Rye really about?
Salinger continues his use of installing reality in fiction by Holden’s hospitalization. The reader finds out within the first chapter that Holden is being hospitalized due to a recent mental breakdown (Salinger). Interestingly enough, Salinger was also hospitalized shortly after his combat in WWII for his mental breakdown (Biography). Clearly, Salinger was making a major connection to himself through Holden by giving his character his
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
J.D. Salinger’s, The Catcher in the Rye successful in many respects, from its popularity among adolescent readers, to its 29 weeks spent on the New York Times Bestseller List. One part of The Catcher in the Rye that was not successful is its main character, Holden Caulfield. Holden mentions at a certain point in the novel that he aspires to be a “Catcher in the Rye”. Whether he achieved his goal is controversial amongst many readers. I believe that in the end, Holden was not successful in becoming, the “Catcher in the Rye” because he cannot change the the lives of others by protecting their innocence.
Holden is drawn to the consistency of the Natural History Museum because of the feeling of stability and security that it provides for him. For most of his life he has lacked a definite place where he felt like he belonged. In his life Holden has gone to 4 different schools and has lost his little brother to cancer which had fostered feelings of distrust and had made him feel like there is nothing in his life to rely on. A majority of the place and people Holden has encountered as well as the experiences he has had have only depressed him. So far, everything Holden has ever describe has made him angry or sad, but after an encounter with a little girl reminds him of the Natural History Museum, Holden reminisces about the elementary school