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Individuality in the catcher in the rye
Individuality in the catcher in the rye
Compare ordinary people movie and catcher in the rye
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Holden in “The Catcher in the Rye” and Conrad in “Ordinary People” are very similar in a multitude of ways, but also differ in a some ways. They both are dealing with the death of a brother in many similar fashions. Holden and Conrad both keep most of their feelings to themselves and often feel lesser compared to their deceased siblings. Seemingly every action is affected by their brothers’ deaths and as a result, their maturity is drastically slowed. The difference in the two novels comes in the form of the ending and how they both learn to deal with their problems. Holden just begins to understand that his desires are beyond the realm of possibility, while Conrad comes to terms with his situation, changes his outlook and forgives himself. …show more content…
His parents hardly care for him, as well as Phoebe, as seen when their mother asks if Phoebe has been smoking. Phoebe lies and says that she has, their mother simply says that she “doesn’t like that”. Holden as a result, views them as phonies who don’t understand him and send him away so they don’t have to communicate with him. Holden also lacks communication with D.B. He has a respect for his writing but because he “sold out”, Holden doesn’t talk to him anymore. Conrad is similar to Holden in lacking communication with his family. Conrad’s father obviously cares about him, but because his mother constantly argues with his father about their treatment of him, they lack communication. This lack of communication is seen through the numerous times that they fight and argue over Conrad and many other things, such as a vacation. Additionally, Conrad’s lack of communication is seen when he quits his swim team and decides not to tell his parents about it for a month, similarly to Holden leaving school early. If both protagonists were to communicate with their respective families more, they could receive the love and support to help them through their emotionally unstable …show more content…
He is very immature and easily angered. When Sally declined Holden’s proposal to run away with him, Holden immediately became infuriated. Also, Holden feels the need for control through his conversations with people. He often acts impulsively and is a habitual liar, often lying for no reason. An example of Holden’s lack of control is his reaction to Allie’s death. Holden became angry and punched out the windows of his garage. Conrad also lacks self- control. Upon his brother’s death, Conrad attempts suicide. Once released from the hospital his friendships begin to deteriorate and he even fights one of his friends. Conrad let’s his emotions take over without the use of his brain, similarly to Holden. Conrad, unlike Holden, however, doesn’t lie and only lied one time before. Both characters experience a form of healing by the novel’s end. Holden has just begun his state of rehabilitation, while Conrad finds the strength to forgive himself and begin rebuilding
Holden’s callous personality and debauched attitude make making friends hard for Holden. Holden rejects trying to make friends and instead calls everyone phony. Holden states that his bad grades and no social life are due to the phonies that make up his school:
In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, cannot accept that he must move out of childhood and into adulthood. One of Holden’s most important major problems is his lack of maturity. Holden also has a negative perspective of life that makes things seem worse than they really are. In addition to Holden’s problems he is unable to accept the death of his brother at a young age. Holden’s immaturity, negative mentality, and inability to face reality hold him back from moving into adulthood.
The reason Holden has a hard time talking to people about his feelings is because in the time period he lives in people have a stereotypical image of not sharing emotional feelings with others. Losing his brother, Holden has to adjust to keep his composure without having the direct outlet of Allie to comfort
They say not to judge a book by its cover, as what is on the inside is more important than what is on the exterior. As a human race, one of the first things done is jumping to conclusions about people without knowing them thoroughly. The novels, The Catcher in the Rye and Prep by J.D. Salinger and Curtis Sittenfeld respectively, both portray this theme. Although the books do this in a different manner and convey different messages through this basic lesson, they both provide validity to the statement with realistic events occurring to teenagers. Sharing similarities in plot, the Washington Post makes a comment connecting the two protagonists saying, "Holden Caulfield would love this heroine." Holden and Lee, the male and female protagonists of the novels, both display the judgments people make through their narrations of the stories. Despite the similarities in the plot, characters and personality traits of the two, after getting to know Lee Holden would not want to pursue a friendship with Lee, by feeling negatively about her, contradicting the comment by the Washington Post due to her judgmental personality which mends easily to its surroundings.
In Catcher in the Rye, Holden loses his brother Allie at a young age just like Conrad. He cannot find a meaning in life afterwards. School and friends don’t matter to him anymore and he wanders through the city of New York searching for some kind of answer. In both books the characters are teenagers and still full of youth. Conrad is on the swim team and participates in activities while Holden is great at English and is a keen observer of life. After their brothers’ death they realize that they are not the same people anymore and that they have to start all over. They are struggling just to make it through the day and to find motivation to keep going. Conrad lays in bed in the morning thinking of a reason to get up, he tries to come up with a guiding principle to help him get through the day. He says to himself, “It’s all right to feel anxious. Allow yourself a couple of bad days now and then. (1)”
Holden’s apparent desire to be separated from the majority of his family and friends appears to have been triggered by the death of his younger brother Allie. From Allie’s there has been a downward spiral in Holden’s relationships, as he begins to avoid contact with others and isolate himself more. The reason I believe this is because we can see how immense his anger is after Allie’s death, ‘I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist’. The death of Allie has become like an awakening to Holden, and has alerted him how precious childhood innocence is, when Holden comes to this realisation he convinces himself to do everything within his power to protect the innocence of himself and those around him, to protect them from what he sees as a false adult world. Although Holden clearly fails to protect himself, as he falls into all sorts of situations which hardly boasts of innocence and virt... ...
Immediately after Allie’s death, Holden changes immensely. His very first act after Allie died was smashing all his garage windows with his fist. Following this aggressive act, he becomes a recluse and judges every person he crosses to- I assume- Allie, because of how much he still reminded Holden of innocence, and will for the rest of his life. Cynthia Barron states, “Holden is sixteen… in a unique position, caught in the limbo between childhood and adulthood. Thus faced with their inability to adapt to an adult world that is hypocritical and corrupt, both boys seek a return to the realm of childhood” (Barron). In my personal opinion, i believe that he ...
that he is trying to hide his true identity. He does not want people to know who he really is or that he was kicked out of his fourth school. Holden is always using fake names and tries speaking in a tone to persuade someone to think a cretin way. He does this when he talks to women. While he is talking to the psychiatrist he explains peoples reactions to his lies like they really believe him, when it is very possible that he is a horrible liar and they are looking at him with a “what are you talking a bout?” expression. Holden often lies to the point where he is lying to him self.
Holden feels as if he is stuck in his 13 year old self. Although he is aging he isn’t necessarily maturing the way his classmates and other people are around him. This is due to the fact that he never received closure when Allie died. When he starts picturing his own funeral because he might get pneumonia and die, he remembers D.B. telling him about his brother's funeral. He stated, “I wasn’t there. I was still in the hospital. I had to go to the hospital and all after I hurt my hand” (Salinger 171). Since he never attended the funeral he never got to say his final goodbyes to the one person he truly loved. Holden feels as if he can’t connect with anyone else in the world like he did with Allie. If he did then he would most likely push them away, so he wouldn’t have to experience the trauma of loss again, because it greatly impacted his life the first time. The trauma Holden experienced when he was younger resulted in him not being able to form stronger relationships with people which made him more depressed and
Holden has not have many friends. He feels like he is outside the society. He does not accept society, thinks that society is not sincere. So he thinks everyone is “phony”. “ ‘How'sa boy, Ackley?’ he said to Ackley. He was at least a pretty friendly guy, Stradlater. It was partly a phony kind of friendly, but at least he always said hello to Ackley and all.” (Catcher 30) According to quote, even though Holden thinks Stradlater is a friendly guy, he calls him phony. That is the problem of Holden. Holden always thinks that friendships are fake. He always thinks people are insincere, that is one of the reason why Holden is running away from being a part of the “society”. On the other hand, Charlie is happy with his new friends- Patrick and Sam but he had no friends before he meet Patrick and Sam. His one friend shot himself. “It’s hard to remember. But Dave with the awkward glasses told us that Michael killed himself. His mom played bridge with one of Michael’s neighbors and they heard the gunshot.”(Perks 4) Charlie is affected by his friend Michael’s death. He feels sorry for him. He cries and gets angry to guidance counselor. “Then, I started screaming at the guidance counselor that Michael could have talked to me. And I started crying even harder.”(Perks 5) Charlie cares about friend relationships more than Holden. He feels sorry for him, gets sad, cries… Charlie is pretty emotional about what happens around his friend life. Michael’s death affected Charlie to feel sad because Michael was a good friend of him. Charlie always thought nobody ever will notice him after Michael. He was outside the “society”. So his emotions about friend life was pessimistic after Michael’s death. Both Holden and Charlie feel alone and outside the “society” in some points. Holden has some problems finding a friend, he always thinks friendships are fake. On
Holden struggles with himself mightily and cannot fulfill his responsibilities. One of Holden’s struggles is that he has a bad attitude towards everyone. For example, at the school he goes to, he hates his roommates and his teachers. In addition to not liking anyone, Holden
Holden’s self-punishment had landed him in the hospital, forcing him to miss Allie’s funeral, which could have offered him an immense amount of comfort. Instead, Holden is left with survivor’s guilt that is even greater than before. While D.B. had begun to help Holden in the healing process, he is unable to see it through to completion. Holden is incapable of coming to terms with Allie’s death, just as he wasn’t able to see Allie’s burial. This lack of closure enables his past guilt to stay with him into the future, leaving Allie’s death as something Holden must always contend with. It has shaped and molded him into the extremely unhealthy and bereaved person that he is during the events of The Catcher in The Rye. His guilt has forced him closer and closer to a mental break down, and eventually, after Holden’s first full day in the city, the mental collapse sets in. Holden enters a deranged state and believes he is about to die of pneumonia as he sits in Central Park next to the lagoon of ducks, which is representative of Holden’s fear of change. “In this fantasy he acts out his anger against his parents and inflicts upon them the ultimate punishment, his death” (Miller). Holden’s
The battle of Gene with himself and Holden with himself creates the similar major conflicts between the novels. In this case, Holden has it much more difficult in The Catcher in the Rye because he has to struggle with a great depression and he constantly tries to escape it through drinking, sexual intimations, his awful attitude, and attempts of being out going after he leaves Pencey Prep early. The cause of this depression is the death of his younger brother Ally. In the novel, he describes that h...
Events in Holden's life lead him to become depressed. Holden's depression centers on Allie. The manner that Holden sees himself and how he sees others leads him to be expelled from school. The speaker expresses, "One thing about packing depressed me a little," (51). Holden expresses these feelings when he packs his bags after being notified that he is expelled. Holden leaves school and heads for New York City, where he finds himself to be more lonely and depressed than ever. He is all alone and he laments, " What I really felt like doing was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out of the window," (104). Holden says this while he is all alone in his motel room. He is too ashamed of himself to return home, he knows that his mother will be upset and his father will be angry with him. He also adds that " I wasn’t feeling sleepy or anything, but I was feeling sort of lousy. Depressed and all, I almost wished I was dead," (90). Holden states this during one of the first nights that he is staying in New York. Holden expresses many thoughts of depression.
He complains about his school, saying that it is just like any other school and uses language that makes him sound very obnoxious. Holden seems to focus on girls quite a bit, just like any other teenage boy. He seems to focus on one girl in particular, a girl named Jane. We soon learn that Holden’s personality is not your average personality. Holden does seem to have some friends but he does not fall into many peer groups with the type of personality he has. Holden isn’t able to read social cues like most teenagers learn to do. For this reason, he seems to play around a lot in the wrong situations. Even his friends have matured enough to recognise that Holden needs to ‘grow up’. Holden’s resistance to emerging adulthood is the cause of many of the problems he is faced with during the