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Themes in the catcher in the rye essay
The Catcher in the Rye Symbols, Motifs and Themes
Essays on the theme of the catcher in the rye
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The Fallout In the Novel, The Catcher in the Rye, salinger is an expert on using literary devices such as symbols, motifs, and themes to drive messages into a reader’s mind. One of these symbols is falling. in certain parts of the story falling comes up either swiftly or rather bluntly. the symbol of falling is an important, but at times, hidden symbol. Firstly, Holden tends to fall down flights of stairs many times. Holdens dramatic downfall begins with him getting kicked out of Pencey. As he heads out of the dorm, he shouts, “Sleep tight, ya morons!” and he says as he runs out, “Some stupid guy had thrown peanut shells all over the stairs, and I damn near broke my crazy neck.” The next time Holden falls is when he buys a prostitute from Maurice, the man operating the elevator in The hotel holden is staying in. As Sunny the prostitute knocks on Holden’s hotel door, he trips and says, “When I went to open it, I had my suitcase right in the way and I fell over it and damn near broke my knee.” Holden also falls later in the book when leaving his parents apartment after sneaking in ...
This book is a good book. "What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by. I mean I've left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse. ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 1
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.
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.
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, describes a period of time in a young
“I was crying and all, I don’t know why, but I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (53), Holden says. As humans, we have a hard time belonging in society. This is the same case for Holden Caulfield, the main character from the Catcher in the Rye. The Catcher in the rye, a novel by J.D Salinger, is about Holden, a lost boy in desperate need of help. Throughout the novel, Holden seems to be excluded by the world around him. He continually attempts to try and belong in a world in which he is isolating from. In this novel, Salinger uses symbols such as the red hunting hat, the ducks and Allie’s glove to support the theme, belonging and isolation.
In JD Salingers' Catcher in the Rye, a troubled teenager named Holden Caufield struggles with the fact that everyone has to grow up. The book gets its title from Holden's constant concern with the loss of innocence. He did not want children to grow up because he felt that adults are corrupt. This is seen when Holden tries to erase naughty words from the walls of an elementary school where his younger sister Phoebe attended. "While I was sitting down, I saw something that drove me crazy.
Holden is a pathological liar. He lies, some times for no reason. Holden says his name is Rudolf Schmidt, who is acutely the janitor, to Mrs. Morrow on the train. He continues to lie throughout the conversation and avoids getting together by saying he has a tumor in his brain. This is the type of lies Holden tells. One reason for this might be
Mr. Antolini brings to our attentions another image of falling when he talks with Holden about his behavior. He tells Holden that Holden is due to fall. “This fall I think you’re riding for—it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom.” (Pg. 187) Mr. Antolini brings to our attention the fact that Holden is going to “fall” or loose his innocence soon if he already hasn’t. During the book when Holden is going mad it sure seems like he keeps falling and falling but he can’t feel himself fall or hit bottom. He drinks constantly to escape the problems he has with his life. He tries to find people and things to make him happy, but he can’t anymore. Allie made him happy, but now Allie is dead.
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.
Another poignant example of Holden’s penchant for stagnation is when he sits on the museum steps and two kids ask him for help to find the mummy exhibit. Strangely enough, he is able to find it quickly regardless of the fact that he hadn’t been there in years. The boys are driven away by fear of the dead bodies that hadn’t decayed and Holden is left alone with the preserved corpses. He experiences a moment of peace there, possibly due to the silence and being encompassed by humans whose bodies are frozen in
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?
He even condemns people he doesn’t know as phonies, such as the man that his
Holden Caulfield, the main character in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, is a troubled teenager living in a society full of “phonies”. Throughout the course of the book Holden is trying to protect children from losing their innocence, playing his role of the catcher in the rye. What Holden ends up learning is that growing up is necessary and we all end up falling. Salinger demonstrates use of physical description of falling which leads to a metaphorical fall for Holden.
Events in Holden's life lead him to become depressed. Holden's depression centers on Allie. The manner that Holden sees himself and how he sees others leads him to be expelled from school. The speaker expresses, "One thing about packing depressed me a little," (51). Holden expresses these feelings when he packs his bags after being notified that he is expelled. Holden leaves school and heads for New York City, where he finds himself to be more lonely and depressed than ever. He is all alone and he laments, " What I really felt like doing was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out of the window," (104). Holden says this while he is all alone in his motel room. He is too ashamed of himself to return home, he knows that his mother will be upset and his father will be angry with him. He also adds that " I wasn’t feeling sleepy or anything, but I was feeling sort of lousy. Depressed and all, I almost wished I was dead," (90). Holden states this during one of the first nights that he is staying in New York. Holden expresses many thoughts of depression.
The novel “The Catcher in the Rye,” revolves around the protagonist Holden Caulfield as the story is told from his perspective. J.D. Salinger constructed Holden Caulfield as a cynical person who cannot accept to grow up. Throughout “The Catcher in the Rye,” J.D. Salinger uses symbolism to reveal and reinforce critical aspects of the protagonist Holden Caulfield. Three important aspects Holden acquired through Salinger’s use of symbolism are: his stubborn, uncompromising mentality; his softer, more caring respectful side; Holden’s cowardly way of acting and thinking.