Stephen Lee Ms. Bonnell AP English Language, period 4 13 September 2015 On Being an American: Catcher in the Rye To be an American is to be hopeful, grateful and able to pursue one’s own dreams and achieve happiness with hard work and determination without being persecuted. It is to be an individual governed by natural rights stated in the Bill of Rights. Holden the troubled boy in J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye does not embody those American ideals. He is troubled by uncertainty about the world at seventeen years of age and is bleak, and innocent about people, things, around him. Holden is not an American at heart because he doesn’t put in effort and determination nor is he hopeful or grateful. In New York Holden wants to go skating but he complains that the skates his mother bought him were not the right kind and made him unhappy, “She bought me the wrong kind of skates-I wanted racing skates and she bought me hockey - but it made me sad anyway.”( Salinger 52). The …show more content…
Antolini one of Holden’s old teachers is visited by Holden one night, Holden wants to speak with him. They discuss Holden’s state of being. Holden then brings up how he hates Pencey Prep but he misses the people there as well. Mr. Antolini being knows Holden is without hope and direction his life won’t go well if he keeps going on this way, he tells Holden, “This fall I think you’re riding for- it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind.....The whole arrangement’s designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn’t supply them with.”(Salinger 187). Unless Holden changes his attitude towards the world around him he’ll fall and keep falling and that those who do are those who gave up, “They gave it up before they ever really even got started.”(Salinger 187). At seventeen Holden is still young and he is about to become an adult but he is still hopeless and ungrateful nor has he made drives to ameliorate the situation
J.D Salinger gives his personal vision of the world successfully through his persona Holden Caulfield in the ‘Catcher in the Rye’. Caulfield struggles with the background of New York to portray Salinger’s theme – you must live the world as it is, not as you would like it to be. There by exposing Salinger’s vision on the world.
1) This quote is an example of an allusion because Holden is referring to the book, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Moreover, it doesn't describe it in detail, its just a brief comment.
Antolini during chapter 24 and chapter 25 because the scene shows key factors of a depressive episode. As stated on SparkNotes plot overview of The Catcher in the Rye, “ Mr. Antolini asks Holden about his expulsion and tries to counsel him about his future. Holden can’t hide his sleepiness, and Mr. Antolini puts him to bed on the couch. Holden awakens to find Mr. Antolini stroking his forehead. Thinking that Mr. Antolini is making a homosexual overture, Holden hastily excuses himself and leaves, sleeping for a few hours on a bench at Grand Central Station”. This serves as a basic summary of Holden’s interactions with Mr. Antolini. And during Holden’s time in Grand Central Station, he states in the novel that he may have misjudged Mr. Antolini. At this point, on pages 214 and 215 of the novel, Holden becomes indecisive about whether or not to go back to Mr. Antolini’s apartment. “The more I thought about it, though, the more depressed and screwed up about it I got” is how Holden describes these thoughts. Some of the symptoms shown are, as quoted from PsyCom’s article, “indecisiveness”, “feelings of fatigue”, and “anxiety”. Furthermore, Holden’s mood swings seem to be in rapid cycling throughout the course of The Catcher in the Rye, further hinting at him being
In J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is seen by some critics a a drop out student destined for failure in life, but I see him as a symbol of an adolescent who struggles to adapt to the reality of adulthood.
Holden is afraid to leave his precious/innocent childhood behind and enter the corrupted, evil society adults and ha trouble accepting adults and society. Mr. Antolini basically is saying He’s falling down the rye, and still hasn’t hit rock bottom because he can’t fully understand adults and society. Everything doesn’t make sense to him, from adults being complete phonies to sex. He can’t understand adults which is why his transition from childhood and adulthood is very difficult and complex for him. His own actions and decisions often contradict itself due to, to opposing “worlds” of Holden. Childhood and
In J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, the main character Holden Caufield believes that innocence is corrupted by society. He exposes his self-inflicted emotional struggles as he is reminiscing the past. For Holden, teenage adolescence is a complicated time for him, his teenage mentality in allows him to transition from the teenage era to the reality of an adult in the real world. As he is struggling to find his own meaning of life, he cares less about others and worries about how he can be a hero not only to himself but also to the innocent youth. As Holden is grasping the idea of growing up, he sets his priorities of where he belongs and how to establish it. As he talks about how ‘phony’ the outside world is, he has specific recollections that signify importance to his life and he uses these time and time again because these memories are ones that he wont ever let go of. The death of his younger brother Allie has had a major impact on him emotionally and mentally. The freedom of the ducks in Central Park symbolize his ‘get away’ from reality into his own world. His ideology of letting kids grow up and breaking the chain loose to discover for themselves portrays the carrousel and the gold ring. These are three major moments that will be explored to understand the life of Holden Caufield and his significant personal encounters as he transitions from adolescence into manhood.
From the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the youthful protagonist Holden Caufield, employs the word “phony” to describe the behavior of a number of characters including Mr. Spencer and Ossenburger, however it is not them who are“phony”, it is the young main character. First, Mr. Spencer, Holden’s ex- history teacher, is not described as phony, but according to the adolescent, his choice of words are. Secondly, according to our main character, Ossenburger is not the generous philanthropist he portrays himself to be, but rather a greedy undertaker. Lastly, the protagonist could quite possibly be the authentic phony. All in all, the main character’s use to describe many other characters in the book is with the single word phony, when in fact the word phony would be the most probable word to describe the lead character.
Salinger, Holden tries to escape adulthood by holding onto his innocence. An example of this occurings in Mr. Antolini’s apartment where “I knew the part about pretending to be a deaf-mute was crazy, but I liked thinking about it anyway. But I really decided to go out West and all”(258). Holden is a depressed teen who struggles with class expectations and family. His culture and family expect him to be reasonably successful at a prestigious prep school like Pencey Prep and move on to an Ivy League college. At the same time, Holden also realizes the world is an evil and corrupt place and does not want to become an adult. Instead, he seeks refuge in his wild, spontaneous fantasies. His fantasies represent his desires and feelings of being trapped in New York. First, he wants to run off with Sally Hayes, an attractive, old friend, and get married. Of course, Sally thinks the idea is absurd and rejects it. This quote is another one of Holden’s fantasies which are quickly shut down by Phoebe. She unknowingly helps him face adulthood by offering to come along, but Holden refuses, believing that he will only take away her childhood. Another example of Phoebe helping Holden is when Holden takes Phoebe to the carousel: “All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, so was old Phoebe, and I didn't say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab the gold ring, you have to let them do it”(273). His acceptance of Phoebe's
Some people feel all alone in this world, with no direction to follow but their empty loneliness. The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D Salinger, follows a sixteen-year-old boy, Holden Caulfield, who despises society and calls everyone a “phony.” Holden can be seen as a delinquent who smokes tobacco, drinks alcohol, and gets expelled from a prestigious boarding school. This coming-of-age book follows the themes of isolation, innocence, and corrupted maturity which is influenced from the author's life and modernism, and is shown through the setting, symbolism, and diction.
He often wonders about the ducks in central park and where they go in the winter. Holden asks a cab driver, “does somebody come around in a truck or something and take them away, or do they fly away by themselves - go south or something?” (107). Just like the ducks must somehow escape winter, Holden must escape the pressure he feels as he struggles with his independence. Should he fly south and escape his life, or get provided for by his parents?
Holden continuously makes explicit remarks regarding the phony actions adults commit. For instance, in the beginning of the story, he talks about parent visiting days in his former school and the way his principal would always charm the richer parents and disregard the poorer parents. (Salinger 14) In addition, Holden makes many remarks regarding the phony characteristics of adults throughout the book. Ironically, while Holden looks down upon being superficial and “phony”, he subconsciously hosts this trait himself. This is shown many times throughout the story, but most particularly when he speaks of his former roommate’s cheap suitcases. The difference in wealth between him and his roommate were highlighted through the quality of their suitcases, and Holden felt uncomfortable while rooming with him because after a while, the apparent difference in class drove a large rift between them. Holden states, “…I hate it when somebody has cheap suitcases.” (108) This is incredibly ironic, because it shows that despite Holden’s catty remarks about the phoniness hosted by many adults, he is subconsciously growing to become like them, despite fervently not wanting to grow up. At the same time, the contradictory discourse of Holden’s idealistic world comes out into play as he conceives scenarios where he runs away to live away from the prying eyes of society. He attempts to convince Sally to run away with him while on their date, however when she is not on board with his idea, he attempts to realize his mission by himself later on, although he does not end up going through with it. Holden also formulates the idea of wanting to become the catcher in the rye after witnessing a boy singing “if a body catch a body in the rye” and having a vision of him catching playing children in a rye field from falling off of a cliff. This
Jerome David Salinger’s only novel, The Catcher in the Rye, is based on the life events shaping main character, Holden Caulfield, into the troubled teen that is telling the story in 1950. The theme of the story is one of emotional disconnection felt by the alienated teenagers of this time period. The quote, “ I didn’t know anyone there that was splendid and clear thinking and all” (Salinger 4) sets the tone that Holden cannot find a connection with anyone around him and that he is on a lonely endeavor in pursuit of identity, acceptance and legitimacy. The trials and failures that Holden faces on his journey to find himself in total shed light on Holden’s archenemy, himself.
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.
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 had anything better to offer. It is tragic to hear the anguished cry of parents: "What have we done to harm him? Why doesn't he care about anything? He is a bright boy, but why does he fail to pass his examinations? Why won't he talk to us?"
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