More handpicked essays just for you.
Holden caufield mental state
J.D. Salinger the catcher in the rye analysis
Holden caulfield mental health in the catcher in the rye
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Holden Caulfield is an intriguing character. He comes across as an alienated, confused, and depressed teenager. It is easy to draw conclusions about him based on how he presents himself on the outside. However, beyond the apparent, there is a reason behind the troubled teen that Holden seems to be. As illustrated in Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is a deeply troubled young person who is struggling with a fear of transitioning from childhood to adulthood. He often attempts to act like adults because he desires to be a grown up, however, his actions and thoughts expose his immaturity. Holden desires to be the perfect adult who preserves children’s innocence, it is almost as if he is attempting to rectify an error that was made in his own …show more content…
Each person is absorbed in their own world, they hardly check on the next person. In the article, The Books of the Times it is stated that, “Holden is bewildered, lonely, ludicrous and pitiful. His troubles, his failings are not of his own making but of a world that is out of joint”(Nash K. Burger). Holden’s only friends are children and even then, he cannot really identify with them. He does not have many friends of his own age, he has no one to confide in. This has also played a major role in the person he is. He has no one he identifies with, however his desolation is partly because of his own doing. Holden pushes people away because he does not want to get too attached to them. He does not want to miss people in the event that they abandon him. Holden’s defense mechanism has caused him to distance himself from other people and miss out on opportunities to build new …show more content…
The act of exiting from the rear door of the bus to accommodate others hardly qualifies as a discontent of civilization” (Peter Shaw). It is understandable that Holden’s attitude towards life upsets people. His life seems so unrealistic that it is hard to label him as a relatable character. He comes across as an immature over privileged teen who always complains. Despite his immaturity, it is crucial to understand the place that he is coming from. Not only is Holden a teenager going through changes, he is also struggling to deal with the death of his brother. For that reason, it is considerable to be more compassionate towards
As Eugene McNamara stated in his essay “Holden Caulfield as Novelist”, Holden, of J.D. Salinger’s novel Catcher in the Rye, had met with long strand of betrayals since he left Pencey Prep. These disappointments led him through the adult world with increasing feelings of depression and self-doubt, leading, finally to his mental breakdown.
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
It takes many experiences in order for an immature child to become a responsible, well-rounded adult. In J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger’s main character Holden Caulfield matures throughout the course of the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Holden is a juvenile young man. However, through his experiences, Holden is able to learn, and is finally able to become somewhat mature by the end of the novel. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield’s story represents a coming of age for all young adults.
In J.D. Sallinger's Catcher in the Rye, is based on the sullen life of Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old teen-ager is trying to find his sense of direction. Holden, a growing adult, cannot accept the responsibilities of an adult. Eventually realizing that there is no way to avoid the adult life, he can only but accept this alternative lifestyle. What Holden describes the adult world as a sinful, corrupted life, he avoids it for three important reasons: His hatred towards phonies and liars, unable to accept adult responsibilities, and thirdly to enshrine his childhood youth.
Holden experiences both alienation and disillusionment when meeting with people like Sally Hayes, Sunny and Ackley. Holden is so desperate to have human connection yet, when he starts to talk to them, he experiences them as ‘phonies’. This makes him more depressed, continuing his downward spiral. Holden is caught in a trap of his own making.
... is apparent that he is a troubled young man through not only what is said and done, but what is also left as unspoken thoughts inside his mind. Holden Caulfield is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, mentally unstable. He is not classified as a "crazy person" or a "loon" but he is a young man who, as a child, had innocence and purity ripped away with no warning or mercy. Instead of reacting more positively and growing older at a young age, the tragedies caused him to year for the innocence of childhood that he knew in some dark corner of his mind had been long gone and was never returning regardless of how much faith and stubbornness he had.
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.
Holden’s psyche throughout the novel is similar to those who are struggling to find their place in the world. J.D. Salinger finds his voice through his character, Holden Caulfield, by using Holden’s behavior as a symbol for the unstable adolescent in todays world. Holden speaks to his audiences because he reaches outside his comfort zone even though it leads to failure. Holden is not an average popular teenager, he is simply a confused individual learning the cruel ways of the world. The Catcher in the Rye itself is the narrative of an idealistic American innocent who is filled with doubt, anger and disappointment as he begins to reach the mature society he is expected to fulfill (Steinle 140).
Everyone’s mother always told them that childhood innocence is the best thing in the world, but for Holden it is the world. When reading The Catcher in the Rye some people disdain Holden, because they think he’s cynical and immature, but really he is a representation of us all. Unlike other books, the protagonist isn’t someone you want to be friends with, it’s someone you realize you are. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is Holden’s chronicle of running away from his boarding school and living on his own in New York City. While there, he meets interesting people that he calls phony but in reality reflect characteristics of himself and the appalling qualities of the culture he lives in. At first he’s pessimistic towards everyone and everything but by the last scene, when he’s watching his sister on a merry go round, he does a complete 180 and starts feeling better, the sun comes out from behind the clouds and it’s a new and better Holden. It’s this last scene that sets the stage for the future of Holden. He changes in a good way, now less cynical and more open minded, a better and healthier person.
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.
In the Catcher in the Rye, Holden is an immature boy. Holden’s immaturity cause him many problem throughout the book. He is physically mature but not emotionally mature. He acts like a child. “All of a sudden I started to cry. I’d give anything if I hadn’t, but I did” (p. 103). Holden shows his emotional unstableness.
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.
In the novel, Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield is an example of a prosaic rich adolescent boy,with a pedestrian set of problems, but a psychoanalysis reveals that Holden has a plethora of atypical internal conflicts. Internal conflicts that other students at Pencey, such as Stradlater and Ackley, would not normally experience.
Holden doesn’t like the complexity of life and relationships. This is why he distances himself from his family and friends. After Holden is expelled from his school, he tries to stay away from his parents for fear of their reaction, even though learning of his expulsion is inevitable. He visits his sister Phoebe in their home multiple times throughout the novel because due to her young age, his sister and his relationship is simple. "For instance, within Holden, the desire to reject others conflicts with the desire to be accepted by others: he doesn't want to lend Stradlater his coat, but his overt actions belie this covert, warring want: he despises Ackley, but he invites him to see a movie; he hates movies, believing them to foster phoniness in society” (Mitchell). Holden struggles to “catch” others because he believes he is not accepted by others.
Holden is shown as a judgemental and somewhat mature young person, which makes him relatable to most of the audiences that read this book. Part of the reason that Holden is so relatable is the fact that he is lonely. Holden “fe[els] so lonesome” and he feels this way often and he also is so lonely he reaches out by inviting the cab driver to “join [him] for a cocktail” (Salinger 62, 79). Holden shows that he is lonely often and that he is also desperate for company from just about anyone. Holden also tries to distance himself from people in odd ways which relates to the teenagers who read this book. Holden tells Ackley that his hat is not used while shooting deer, but for “shoot[ing] people”, which causes Ackley to back off a little bit and change the subject (Salinger 30). Several teenagers now will feel somewhat lonely and in need of company and also just wanting people to leave them alone, making Holden one of the most relatable characters to teenagers who will read this