The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, describes a period of time in a young boys life. This boy is repeatedly gets kicked out of schools and he does again in the beginning of the book. He leaves a few days before Christmas vacation starts, before his parents get notice that he has gotten kicked out of his school. He doesent want to go home early, so he just goes back to Manhattan and tries to survive on his own. Holden Caulfield is a 16 year old boy. One character trait he has is insecurity. He seems insecure due to the fact that he repeats himself often. It seems as though he feels people aren’t listening to him. He is also very lonely. He states that when one of his friends, Luce, he meets to have a few drinks with, says he has to leave. Holden is also unstable. Throughout the book, his mental, physical and emotional state decreases. He gets beat up, goes through a breakdown, and gets very sick. Another trait Holden has is his insistence to care for the vonerable. Examples of this is the way he cares for and worries about Pheobe, his old friend Jane Gallager, all young children, and the ducks in the pond at Central Park. One theme of this book could be you can’t have control over everything. Holden wants everything to stay the same always. One example of that is when he talks about The Museum of Natural History. He also wants to be able to protect everyone, especially anything or anyone vonerable. This is shown when he says to his sister Pheobe that he wants to be the catcher in the rye when she asks him what he wants to do in his life. Holden realizes that he can’t have control over everything when his younger sister tells him to shut up. He realizes that things have changed and she has gotten older and changed herself, and he can’t make anything go back to the way it used to be.
tries to make her disinterested in him so that again, he may concentrate on the
job that he would like to have-- "a catcher in the rye." He would stand at the edge of a
out in his cage, and she let's him out. He leads her through the jungle to a hut that belongs
In 1950 J.D. Salenger captures one of society’s tragedies, the breakdown of a teenager, when he wrote The Catcher In The Rye. Holden Caulfield, a fickle “man” is not even a man at all. His unnecessary urge to lie to avoid confrontation defeats manhood. Holden has not matured and is unable to deal with the responsibility of living on his owe. He childishly uses a hunter’s hat to disguise him self from others. The truth of his life is sad and soon leads to his being institutionalized. He tries to escape the truth with his criticisms. Knowing he will never meet his parents’ expectations, his only true friend is his eight-year-old sister Phoebe, to whom Holden tells that he really wants to be ‘the catcher in the rye”. Holden admits his only truth and shows that Phoebe is his only friend. Another form of escape for Holden is his acting, which he uses to excuse the past. Holden has tried to lie, hide, and blame his way through life; when he finds that it is not the answer he collapses.
cheerful disregard and that there is nothing wrong with him. He also feels that Holden’s
It isn't just what he says but the way he says it. He goes through life
Holden is not just abnormal, he has problems that other teenagers, including the students at Pencey, experience going through adolescence. An example of this is Holden's jealousy towards Stradlater when he finds out he is going on a date with Jane Gallagher, “Boy,was I getting nervous” (42). Every teenager has bouts of jealously especially about the opposite sex, and Holden is no different. Holden's rebellious nature, to an extent, is typical for a teenage boy. His rebellious nature of smoking when it is not allowed, “You weren't allowed to smoke in the dorm...I went right on smoking like a madman.” (41-42). Holden is also anxious about change, which again to an extent is normal, “Do you happen to know where they go, the ducks...”(60), and he has the right to be; change,especially during adolescence, is a terrifying but exciting ride into the unknown, and similar to other adolescents Holden is afraid but intrigued about the unknown.
about her new job. He finds it hard to admit that she has become a
Catcher in the Rye is a complicated book about a young man going through, what appears to be a nervous break down. This is a book about the boy’s negative self-talk, horrible outlook on life, and a life itself that seems to keep swirling down the toilet. He keeps trying to fill his life with something, but the reality of it is he doesn’t exactly now what he needs. It’s complicated to understand at parts, because all he does is think of things in the worst possible conditions.
who he is in life but is just indifferent to it. He did not care if
Holden Caulfield can be analyzed through his thoughts, actions and circumstances which surround his everyday life. Holden acts like a careless teenager. Holden has been to several prep-schools, all of which he got kicked out of for failing classes. After being kicked out of the latest, Pency Prep, he went off to New York on his own. Holden seems to have a motivation problem which apparently affects his reasoning. The basis of his reasoning comes from his thoughts. Holden thinks the world is full of a bunch of phonies. All his toughs about people he meets are negative. The only good thoughts he has are about his sister Phoebe and his dead brother Alley. Holden, perhaps, wishes that everyone, including himself, should be like his brother and sister. That is to be intelligent, real and loving. Holden’s problem is with his heart. It was broken when his brother died. Now Holden goes around the world as his fake self, wearing his mask. Holden is looking for love, peace and understanding. He is scared to love because he is afraid he might lose it like he did with his brother. That is the reason for Holden's love of the museum, he feels safe because it never changes it always stays the same. Holden is troubled with the pain of death, it effects every aspect of his life causing him to not care about the future, himself or anyone, except Phoebe and Alley.
J. D. Salinger presents an image of an atypical adolescent boy in The Catcher in the Rye. Holden is much more than a troubled teen going through "a phase." Indeed Holden is a very special boy with special needs. He doesn’t understand and doesn’t wish to understand the world around him. In fact most of the book details his guilty admissions of all the knowledge he knows but wishes he didn’t. Though his innocence regarding issues of school, money, and sexuality has already been lost, he still hopes to protect others from knowing about these adult subjects.
In J.D. Salinger’s controversial 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, the main character is Holden Caulfield. When the story begins Holden at age sixteen, due to his poor grades is kicked out of Pencey Prep, a boys’ school in Pennsylvania. This being the third school he has been expelled from, he is in no hurry to face his parents. Holden travels to New York for several days to cope with his disappointments. As James Lundquist explains, “Holden is so full of despair and loneliness that he is literally nauseated most of the time.” In this novel, Holden, a lonely and confused teenager, attempts to find love and direction in his life. Holden’s story is realistic because many adolescent’s face similar challenges.
...e most troubling times he kept everything and put it to good use. In the present, he still saves everything and tries to exchange the things that he no longer needs.
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