For this essay, I would like to write about the book “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D Salinger. The main protagonist in the novel is Holden Caulfield, who is trying to mature and grow up in a world full of phonies. The novel mainly talks about Holden and how he tackles the difficulties of growing up, also problems regarding his transition from childhood to adulthood. Moving on from childhood to adulthood is the main focus of the novel. At a point of the book, situations help out Holden to change his lifestyle from being an irresponsible person to being really mature and independent. At the beginning of the book, Holden is an immature person. He never attends his classes, neither does he do any of his homework. One day he takes the decision of escaping his school, Pencey Prep. From then onwards, Holden spends money on hotel rooms, taxis, food and the nuns without thinking about anything. All this shows that he hasn’t grown up yet and doesn’t know how to manage his money. Holden not being able to get mature causes him a lot of problems throughout the book. He is physically mature, but mentally he is still like a child. …show more content…
Holden realizes that at a point of time every person has to move on from youth to adulthood and being a mature person. He perceives this by watching his sister, Phoebe ride the carousel. That is done when she is trying to reach the ring on the carousel. The ring appears as maturity for Holden, it is a symbol showing that she is trying to reach for maturity. That is what make Holden realize that he can’t let Phoebe be like a child, but he has to let her grow up. He realizes that he has to mature and and move on in his life. “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything.”(211,Salinger). This quote clearly explains the cause of Holden’s
phonies and all he hates. By being in the stage where he is, he manages to avoid change, control his world with his own hands, yet. creates a paradox between what he is, and what he wants to be. Possibly the main reason why Holden doesn’t want to become an adult. is his perception of ”phoniness” and hypocrisy surrounding adult.
... the other children on the carrousel reaching for their gold rings he realizes, “If they fall off, they fall off” (211). This is so significant because Holden becomes conscious of the fact that whatever happens, happens. He cannot control or protect anyone, or himself, from the future. Holden’s last two sentences of the novel really capture the entire journey he has gone through: “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody” (214). This is Holden getting over everything that has happened to him. He understands that he can overcome what has happened from him in order to learn from his past and move forward to the future.
Holden’s childhood was far from ideal, with Allie dying, his dysfunctional parents and the revelation that he had some “perverty” stuff happen to him when he was a kid. Due to this, he isn't ready to step into adulthood and leave his childhood behind. This is why Holden is mostly alienated from adults and connects more to the innocence of children like the girl at the park and his sister, Phoebe. However, Holden is disillusioned with both adulthood and childhood. He already knows how it feels to be an adult; drinking alcohol, being independent, living by himself and caring for Phoebe, but isn’t ready to immerse himself in it.
There will always be a moment where we all change, but most of us would prefer to hold on to remaining an adolescent. "Catcher in the Rye" written by J.D. Salinger, is a story about a high-school student, Holden, who looks for a reason to change and move on from his depressing page of life. The novel depicts the adventures of Holden as he processes a change. Through Holden's resistance to change, Salinger expresses that people sometimes crave for the past which impacts us negatively, but we would be better off if we learn to move on and find something special.
Before we can understand why Holden leaves on his journey at all, we must understand his struggle. Holden cannot find a way to succeed. Even Mr. Antolini says, “This fall I think you’re riding for – it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling” (187). This fall that Holden is heading toward has started with flunking out of school. Holden’s largest failure appears to be his inability to apply himself at school, which makes his life even harder. Also, Mr. Spencer is concerned about his ability to apply himself as he is failing 4 classes and “getting the ax is something he is familiar with” (4). Holden just wants someone to talk to and wants to break his depression by succeeding.
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.
I guess you can say he is trying to transition from adult hood but he can’t. He believes childhood is a beautiful and innocent thing where as adulthood is evil and corrupted. In the text Holden says “That's the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "Fuck you" right under your nose” Pg. 204 Another reason why Holden is stuck between adult hood and childhood is because he doesn’t understand the concept of sex. He doesn’t get how two adults can have sex without loving each other. Holden tells Luce "You know what the trouble with me is? I can never get really sexy—I mean really sexy with a girl I don’t like a lot. I mean I have to like her a lot. If I don’t, I sort of lose my goddam desire for her and all.”Pg148 Luce then later says “When are you going to grow up?"Pg. 144. This is another example how Holden can’t really grow up. Mr. Antolini brings up an examples that goes “this fall I think you’re riding for – it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling."Pg. 187. This quote is illustrating that Holden doesn’t know where to go, he’s lost and confused from the transition from childhood to
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.
From the protagonists’ point of view, the adult world Holden and Franny are entering and living in is a very superficial place. Holden who is sixteen years of age is going through a time of crisis where he is almost forced to become an adult. This concept is the very thing that makes Holden afraid, causing him to misbehave at school. His latest school, Pencey Prep, expels Holden due to his failing grades. When asked for the reason of his lack of academic enthusiasm, Holden simply states that he is not interested in anything. In every school he has attended, Holden has managed to find different reasons not to care and possibly even hate the institutions.
One thing that Holden believes is that the world is unscrupulous and is full of phonies. An example of this would be, “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That's all. They were coming in the goddam window. For instance, they had this headmaster, Mr. Haas, that was the phoniest bastard I ever met in my life. Ten times worse than old Thurmer” (Salinger 13). In three sentences, Holden talked about multiple people being phonies. This could contribute to depression, the feeling of hopelessness for society and himself. Holden values very little, but one thing he did value was his relationship with Phoebe, an example of this was when they were talking, "’Wait a second—take the rest of your dough, too.’ I started giving her the rest of the dough she'd lent me.’You keep it. Keep it for me,’ she said. Then she said right afterward—’Please.’ That's depressing, when somebody says ‘please’ to you. I mean if it's Phoebe or somebody. That depressed the hell out of me. But I put the dough back in my pocket” (Salinger 211). Holden values that Phoebe is always there and wants to give the money back to
Throughout the book Holden admits he doesn't like change. Holden fear of growing up , becoming an adult and thinking of of it disgust him. For example the museum, Holden like it because the exterior of it did not change and says the only thing that would change would be you.In the text Luce says “Same old Caulfield.When are you going to grow up already?”(144). Holden wants things to stay how they are and how his life is. Holden considers adults phonies and he doesn’t want to be consider phony as well. When he describes the museum he says the best part about it is that it never changes, only you do.Holden bonds with his sister taking her to the zoo, museum and the carousel.He wants to Phoebe to experience what he did and to get the memories alive. “What I have to do, I would have to catch everyone if they start to go over the cliff- what I have to do, I mean if they are running and they don't look where they are going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That is all I have to do. I would just be the catcher in the rye”(173). This quote show how by holden is catching them from falling down the cliff which symbolizes stopping them from adulthood. “Thousand of little kids and nobody’s around- nobody big , I mean except me”(173). This quotes implies how young innocent kids won't be exerted by adults
From the start of the novel Holden makes several wrong choices. He runs away from Pencey without telling his parents not thinking of how much more trouble he will be in for not being honest with his parents. Holden is known for lying to people throughout the book, showing how he still is immature. Later in the novel Holden makes many more actions where he just acts without thinking. When he attends a date with Sally Hayes he scares her by telling her with a very stern voice that they should get married and move in together He urges her to do it which causes her to cry and call him crazy. Holden just thinking about his actions not only hurts him but others too, Holden also spends money very immaturely, He spends money on taxis, hotel rooms, food, dates, and the nuns. He does not think about managing his money which causes him to be broke and steal his sister Phoebe’s money that she had for Christmas gifts. Lastly, Holden tries and plans to run away but ends up getting stopped by Phoebe. Him running away is an example of him not thinking because he had no money for hotels or food to be able to run away. Holden never learns to think out his actions showing how he remains
He has nothing but nice things to say about her and wants to protect her. She makes many adult observations that you would not expect a ten year old to notice, yet still acts like a ten year old. She realizes that Holden got kicked out of school, and then responds by repeating, “Daddy’ll kill you!”(214). She corrects Holden about the words in a Robert Burns poem and realizes that Holden does not like anything, yet at the same time acts like a ten year old. She resembles Holden in the way she goes between adulthood and childhood. She is like a younger version of Holden. Holden wants to protect her and keep her from ending up like him. Holden gives his hunting hat to Phoebe, this shows how much he cares about her. He is able to give up the symbol of his independence and accept that he has ties to his family. The only time Holden is happy during his trip is when he takes Phoebe to the carousel. After deciding not to run away Holden realizes, “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off,” (274). At this point he realizes that growing up might not be the worst thing in the world and that even if he gets hurt in the process it is something he needs to
When he is talking to Phoebe, he tells her he knows what he wants to be when he grows up. However, it isn’t a realistic job like a doctor or lawyer, instead he goes on about a fantasy where there is a field of rye where kids play in, and “[he has] to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff” (224) where he will always stand to make sure no one goes over. This can be interpreted as Holden having trouble with growing up, because he wants to protect childish innocence, such as that of Allie. He also tells Phoebe of Veteran’s day at Pencey, where old alumni come to visit the school. A fifty year old man tells Holden that Pencey was the greatest time of his life, which in turn “depresses [Holden]” (219). Another example of Holden clinging to childish behavior is his multiple counts of acting like a movie star, like at the hotel with Maurice or when he calls Sally Hayes. It is extremely clear through the novel that Holden has a negative connotation with growing
There is one event that unites all human beings. This event is the process of growing up and becoming an adult. The transition into adulthood from childhood can be very long and confusing. As a kid most of them can not wait to become an adult but once you experience adulthood you miss your childhood. The novel Catcher in the Rye shows how a teenager on the break of entering adulthood can get scared. Through the main protagonist Holden Caulfield, J.D. Salinger captures the confusion of a teenager when faced with the challenge of adapting to an adult society. Holden is faced with many problems as some teens