A World of Phonies
The “Catcher in the Rye” is a novel about Holden Caulfield and his awkwardness and insecurity. The novels shows what it’s like to be an average teenager crossing the threshold from childhood to adulthood, but also shows the awkward experiences we have all gone through into that journey into adulthood. Holden Caulfield relays his disgust throughout the book with everything and everyone who is “phony” in the world. Is the adult world “phony”, or is our childhood the one who lies to us?
Holden Caulfield is the main character in J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye”. He is someone we can all relate to, since we have all been him at one point in our own lives. Caulfield paints himself as an awkward and insecure teenager who
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He describes himself and his family. He comes from a middle-to-upper class family with an older brother, a younger brother, and younger sister. He goes into detail about the death of his younger brother, Allie, and tells the reader how much Allie is adored and missed by everyone. He portrays Allie to be what I think he would have liked to have been himself, “You 'd have liked him.......He was terifically intelligent.......But it wasn 't that he was the most intelligent member in the family......He was also the nicest, in a lot of ways”. (J. D. Salinger. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE (Kindle Location 666). Little, Brown and Company). He also talks about his older brother, D.B., but doesn’t seem to have the same high regard for D.B. that he does for Allie. He tells the reader D.B. is in Hollywood, but used to be a writer, and laments about the loss of D.B. being genuine after he moved out to Hollywood, “He wrote this terrific book of short stories, The Secret Goldfish,......Now he 's out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute”. (J. D. Salinger. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE (Kindle Location 24). Little, Brown and …show more content…
He meets a classmate’s mother on the subway; he can’t stop lying to her while he is talking to her. He meets a jaded prostitute named Sunny and thinks he wants to sleep with her, but after he pays for her services – he realizes he can’t go through with it and gets beaten up by her pimp for allegedly short-changing her. He tries to socialize with a group of women in a lounge, and ends up being mocked by the women and stuck with the bill for their drinks at the end of the night. He also tries to go on a couple of dates with different girls closer to his own age, but those end up in disaster as well. The only woman he idolizes and sees as “real” is his old neighbor, Jane Gallagher. He describes her several times throughout the book with only praise for what makes her genuine and unique from all the
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.
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.
Holden Caulfield, portrayed in the J.D. Salinger novel Catcher in the Rye as an adolescent struggling to find his own identity, possesses many characteristics that easily link him to the typical teenager living today. The fact that the book was written many years ago clearly exemplifies the timeless nature of this work. Holden's actions are those that any teenager can clearly relate with. The desire for independence, the sexually related encounters, and the questioning of ones religion are issues that almost all teens have had or will have to deal with in their adolescent years. The novel and its main character's experiences can easily be related to and will forever link Holden with every member of society, because everyone in the world was or will be a teen sometime in their life.
In J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, is a rather negative teenager who has been kicked out of yet another boarding school. Set in the late 1940s, he decides to leave his school, Pencey Prep, early and takes a trip to New York City. As Holden adventures through New York City, he seems to have a fixation on his brother, Allie’s, death. Allie dies a few years prior to the novel, and this tragedy has seemed to leave a long-lasting, negative impact on Holden. Because he has seen the harsh realities of adulthood, too early, Holden has tried not only to not grow up himself, but to also prevent others from having to face the sadness that comes with maturity.
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.
The novel, The Catcher in the Rye, written by JD Salinger, touches on the themes of innocence, death, and the artifice and the authenticity in the world, while following the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, through his weekend trip to New York City. As the story unfolds, Holden, as narrator, becomes more vulnerable to the reader, and starts to express his feelings surrounding the death of his brother, Allie, as well as his feelings about himself. Holden is faced with a truth that has haunted him for many years: adulthood. Many of the qualities Holden exhibits, which he sees as negative, are those of the average person: struggle, loneliness, deep sadness. He is one of many classic protagonists that encourages the reader to relate to them on
In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield, a seventeen-year-old boy, transitions from childhood to adulthood. The death of Holden’s little brother signifies the beginning his loss of innocence and growth of maturity. As he enters adulthood, Holden views society differently from his peers by characterizing most of his peers and adults he meets as “phonies.” Thus, Holden takes the impossible challenge of preserving the innocence in children because he wants to prevent children from experiencing the corruption in society. The Catcher In The Rye embodies Holden’s struggle to preserve the innocence of children and reveals the inevitability of and the necessity of encountering the harsh realities of life.
To be called a phony is to be called fake, something that no one wants to be recognized as. Throughout one’s life it is inevitable that one will meet a person who fits the criteria of a phony, which is generally one person’s idea, rather than a set definition. Some base phoniness off of certain actions and behaviors, such as hypocrisy and frequently lying, although for others it is pushed to the extreme, in which phoniness, can be found in everyone, through any action. As for Holden Caulfield, a seventeen year old boy who is thrust into adulthood, after being kicked out of Pencey Prep School in Pennsylvania, and decides to stay in New York City for a few days before going home, he finds himself surrounded by phonies. Holden is able to call people out on their phoniness, after knowing how it feels to be genuinely cared for by people he loves. Though pointing out other’s phoniness has become an automatic reaction after meeting new people, although one can see that there are characteristics of Holden that fit his personalized criteria of a phony. However, through the novel, it seems the author does not intend for all of Holden’s claims of phoniness to be taken seriously, as out of all of the people he has met, only a few are seen as genuine. In J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”, the novel’s protagonist, Holden Caulfield, by being forced to grow up, has become extremely judgemental of others, and while he calls other’s phonies, he himself is one.
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.
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 Caufield is the child trying desperately not to grow up into a "phony". He feels alone because the only people he sees in the world are phonies and children. Struggling for an adult role for himself he invents the "Catcher in the Rye", always saving children from the consequences of their mistakes. It is ironic that Caufield's ambition is probably shared with some of the people that have tried to censor this book. Holden gives people with this ambition a very wise piece of advice:
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.
Holden Caulfield, the teenage protagonist of Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, struggles with having to enter the adult world. Holden leaves school early and stays in New York by himself until he is ready to return home. Holden wants to be individual, yet he also wants to fit in and not grow up. The author uses symbolism to represent Holden’s internal struggle.
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.
This novel by J.D Salinger is about a rebellious teenage, Holden Caulfield. Holden's brother, Allie death affects Holden academics and future. Holden goes through many different experiences that make his pyschoanalytic traits stand out.