“When people treat you like they don’t care, believe them… they don’t.”(Courtesy of Anonymous). Throughout the novel, The Catcher in The Rye, by J.D Salinger, we witness Holden Caulfield, the main character’s, life and experiences through his perspective. Holden Caulfield, a 16 year old male, who is in constant judgement of his society and environment. This was clearly portrayed throughout the novel when Holden communicates to others. In the novel, he criticizes and philosophize about people who are boring, insecure, and, above all, people who are “phony.” He tends to maintain his distance from all interaction with others and is extremely isolated from society, on top of that, his beliefs opposed others. This connects to Holden being unable …show more content…
Salinger’s attitude showed how Holden didn’t want to be part of what people did in society. Throughout the story, Salinger repeats words such as Phony, and …show more content…
This quote emphasizes the tone Holden expresses when he is left out from the team he is supposed to be apart of, by using the word ‘ostracized’ Salinger gives a sad and depressed emotion from it. In addition, another example of this is, "I just didn't want to hang around anymore. It made me too sad and lonesome" (Salinger 51). The usage of sad, lonesome, and not wanting to hang around anyone not only shows the characterization of how Holden but also how Salinger shows sadness for Holden’s situation. “It wasn't that I didn't use to take him with me when I went somewhere. I did. But that one day I didn't. … I keep thinking about it anyway, when I get very depressed”(Salinger 110) In this quote we see how Holden is feeling depressed and regrets his past mistakes with his brother Allie. Salinger's tone throughout the novel has been sad and depressing about Holden’s life, yet again, Salinger makes clear is the sarcasm he uses within his writing and the judgemental jokes he portrayed through Holden. Holden’s ostracization was also shown through mood in the novel. Many young people often find themselves struggling to find their own identity and place in society. This search for self worth often leaves these young people
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.
Since Holden was isolated from his family, in order to not get hurt again he tries to find hypocrisy in people to stop himself from trusting others. Holden feels isolated after being sent to a boarding school that “was full of phonies” by his parents (Salinger 90). Salinger’s message to the audience with this quote is that when
The way that Salinger writes gives the audience a very personal and insightful look into what Holden is feeling. It’s told in the first person, in a confessional style, and utilises digression. This creates a sense of closeness with the protagonist. It’s like Holden is talking directly to the reader.
In the novel The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger,Holden the main character tries to take on adult and mature situations but finds himself in reality not getting very far. Holden Caulfield who goes to Pencey has failed four out of five classes and gets the notice that he is being expelled from the school. He leaves the school and goes out and tries to adventure into the real world. Holden takes on many challenges and obstacles throughout the book . Although Holden wants to be independent many people perceive Holden in numerous different ways to his actions and feelings. Faith and Stradlater both perceive Holden as irritating, when in reality he tries to distract himself from being depressed. For example when Holden was in the phone
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
In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger develops Holden Caulfield as a morally ambiguous character. Throughout the book, Salinger speaks as Holden and introduces him as a callous and subjective individual. However, the author permits the reader to be within Holden’s mind, giving the audience an alternative perspective of Holden’s true character. Without the obscurity of Holden’s personality, the work would lack a crucial element. As the protagonist, Holden serves as an equivocal adolescent that is relatable for the reader.
In a perfect world, everyone would be happy with the way they are and everyone would accept the differences of others. Unfortunately, the world we live in is not perfect and not everyone accepts who they are . Is there a reason why people cannot be content with their lives or with the differences of other people? The answer is yes, and the reason for the discontent is society. With society telling the masses what is, and is not acceptable, it is no wonder that people seem “lost”, and are desperately searching out their place in the sun. This search for identity seems to be the case in JD Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye. Through settings in the novel and symbolism, Salinger illustrates that while the main character, Holden Caulfield, needs the support of the environment around him, the environment also needs Holden as a person. Holden Caulfield is out of place in any environment in which he is placed. At Pencey, his school, Holden gets excluded from the activities of his classmates. At the very beginning of the novel, Holden becomes expelled because his grades are not up to Pencey’s standards and also because he does not feel like he belongs there. Holden separates himself from his classmates for the most part by not becoming involved in the school. Although Holden is the equipment manager of the fencing team, he distances himself from his companions by losing the equipment, showing that he does not fit in, and he really does not want to. As he reflects back on his final day at Pencey he says: “ They kicked me out. ...I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself at all. They gave me frequent warnings to start applying myself...but I didn’t do it” (Salinger 4). The school is throwing Holden out because he is not what they want to represent to potential students. They want to show examples of fine, upstanding young men, instead of giving off the image of the failing, confused young man. Salinger uses Pencey as a mock society of some sorts. Holden does not fit in at Pencey, and he most definitely does not fit in as seen in the later settings of the novel. A second example of Holden’s isolation from his classmates can also be seen when he stands alone on the top of the hill during the “big game”.
Salinger also depicts Holden's immaturity through the judgment of his peers and elders. Holden's disillusionment of good people alters the true personality of each person he meets. Holden even criticizes his new classmates, whom he has not even meet yet. "It's full of phonies/.../and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day"(131). Just because Holden is uncomfortable in his school, he feels the need to disapprove of everyone. Salinger exploits this immaturity to illustrate the reason for Holden's loneliness and confusion.
Holden Caulfield is a peculiar teenager. He's hypocritical, cynical, dishonest, and most of all...confused. All of these traits add up to an unreliable narrator, to say the least. You can never take what Holden says at face value: you have to read between the lines. In between the lines lies the fact that he is extremely lonely, and that his fear of abandonment causes him to isolate himself in opposition to that. He often tries to cover this up from both himself and outsiders, hence the lying and contradictory nature of his thoughts. The problem is, he doesn't know why he's lonely. He feels cut off from the rest of society; feels as though he is all alone in this world of supposed phonies. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden's loneliness shines through in the way he frequently reaches out to complete strangers for companionship (strangers he generally dislikes, too, which shows just how desperate he is for company). True to his contradictory nature, he also tries to isolate himself at the same time, for he fears abandonment. Abandonment, as a matter of fact, is at the very root of his issuance with creating connections: he reaches out to people and then immediately proceeds to push them away, for he is terrified of getting hurt by them.
Nobody is perfect. This makes it easy to judge people around us. In the book Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, the main character, Holden Caulfield, is extremely harsh when judging others. Judging people is a natural thing to do, however, you should not judge people so critically. Before judging others people should look at themselves. Holden is often pushing people away because of the unrealistic expectations he has. He doesn’t look at the problems he has, but instead looks at everyone else's problems. Holden judges people by their appearance and every little action they do. I do not admire Holden and his beliefs.
Holden is like most teenagers: he’s trying to find his place in society without having any sort of direction. One of the main reasons this is hard for Holden is because he doesn’t have any role models and is misguided. His brother D.B. lives all the way in Hollywood “being a prostitute” (Salinger 2) and he resents his parents. Everyone around him seems to be “phonies “and Holden is continuously trying to be different but notices that the lifestyle he wants just doesn’t fit in the world he lives in . He constantly rejects certain ways of living but can’t seem to find the purpose for his own and because of this he criticizes the life of the...
In the novel The Catcher In The Rye, the protagonist Holden Caulfield views his surroundings with hypocrisy and contempt in an attempt to avoid the corruption of adulthood. Holden places himself above the crowd because he believes everyone acts phony. In the process, Caulfield reveals his true problem: his refusal to change.
Holden is a pessimistic, remote, and miserable character and he expresses this attitude through dialogue, tone, and diction. Throughout the book he has remained to be a liar, a failure, a loner, and lastly, a suicidal guy who feels like he has no purpose in life. Perhaps Salinger expressed his perceptions and emotions of his teen years in this book and it was a form of conveying his deep inner feelings of his childhood. Readers can see this clearly shown in The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger.
Many young people often find themselves struggling to find their own identity and place in society. This search for self worth often leaves these young people feeling lonely and isolated because they are unsure of themselves. Holden Caulfield, J.D. Salinger's main character in the book The Catcher In the Rye, is young man on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. One contributor to this breakdown, is the loneliness that Holden experiences. His loneliness is apparent through many ways including: his lack of friends, his longing for his dead brother, and the way he attempts to gain acceptance from others.
At first glance, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye simply tells the story of Holden Caulfield, who is often characterized as annoying and whiny by the people around him. The anti-hero frequently speaks on impulse, making quick and often inaccurate observations of others. Holden’s immature and overly critical attitude turns off those he encounters, who are displeased with how callow he is. However, what these characters fail to understand is that there is actually a sort of sophistication behind Holden’s reasoning. In fact, throughout the novel, Holden disguises his maturity through outward displays of childishness.