J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in The Rye illustrates Holden Caulfield 's life, and his rough transition from an innocent child to a young adult. Caulfields past experiences with death, and his resentment towards others proves that he is no longer a pure, angelic child, but is now a depressed teen who sees no bliss in the daunting life he lives, and wants to shield himself from all of the “phonies” surrounding him. Holden has a dilemma with the fact that things are constantly changing in his life, and despises the fact that there are fast paced, challenging obstacles that come with being an adult. One thing that Holden admits to loving is something that never changes, the Museum of Natural History. He says, “The best thing, though, in that museum …show more content…
With this comes his resentment towards everyone around him. Holden Caulfield, with a few exceptions, has never seen someone for who and what they truly are, but instead looks at everyone as a phony. He states, “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That 's all.” (17). Holden especially has a true resentment towards his parents that is caused by Allies death. In 1946, Holden 's little brother Allie died and his world crumbled, putting him into an angry and depressed state of mind. Caulfields parents made the situation much worse, by practically getting rid of Holden and sending him to a boarding school. This proves that they did not want to deal with him, and ultimately wanted him out to mask some of their problems. This becomes a very strong reason that proves Holden 's hatred for his parents. There are a variety of examples to prove the uneasy transition that Holden goes through, but his resentment towards others truly shows the loss of innocence by showing that he is no longer a happy kid. He instead jumps to the conclusion that everyone, and everything is …show more content…
Holden says, “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all... And I 'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff...I 'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it 's crazy, but that 's the only thing I 'd really like to be.” (191). Holden is saying that he wants to catch kids who are about to fall of the cliff. What he means by this is he wants to save kids before they lose their innocence. Holden does not want any kids losing their innocence, and he says his dream is to just be there, at that cliff to save anyone who gets into something that is awful and depressing. Another quote in the book that shows holden does not want kids to lose their innocence is when he sees a vulgar word scratched into a wall, visible to kids at a school. “Fuck you" on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they 'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them – all cockeyed, naturally – what it meant, and how they 'd all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days. I kept wanting to kill whoever 'd written it.” (221). Holden truly worries about the kids seeing this word because he doesn 't want them to have any fear or uneasiness. He
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. Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child.
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.
J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye exposes the main character, Holden Caulfield, to the adult world; a world in which Holden does not want to believe in. Faced with many obstacles, Holden is forced to enter into an adult-like state of mind, something in which he can not manage on his own. Holden’s many failures, including, his relationships with others and getting kicked out of multiple prep schools greatly contribute to his longing to remain a child. Holden states once on a museum trip that, “Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. I know that’s impossible but its too bad anyway.” He loves the displays, because they never change, they are reliably permanent (Barlow). Salinger develops Holden into a teenage boy on the brink of adulthood who despises the thought of growing up.
In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden’s outlook in life is either the innocence of childhood or the cruelty of adulthood. He believes that the innocence of childhood is very valuable and it should be protected from the cruelty and phoniness of the adult world. Therefore Holden has a desire and is compelled to protect a child’s innocence at all costs. This is revealed when Holden tells Phoebe that he wants to be the catcher in the rye. Holden says to Phoebe, “What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they’re ru...
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger is not just a story about a teenage boy, going through hardships and complaining a lot. It is truly a tale about growing up, where you as a reader learn more about yourself and how you view others. J.D. Salinger uses Holden Caulfield, as a sort of bridge that teaches us about human nature, feelings and difficult times. J.D. Salinger achieved this very well because Holden is such a unique character but nevertheless we can all relate to him in some way. In this essay/analysis I will go through some of the underlying themes of the novel, that create it more than just a story about some kid in New York.
Catcher in the Rye is J.D Salinger's most famous work. This tale follows Holden Caulfield as he wanders through New York as he attempts to make connections with various characters. While in New York Holden also tries his best to preserve the innocence of children everywhere .Though Holden desperately tries hard to preserve the innocence of the people around him, by the end of the novel, Holden began to realize that change is inevitable. He first shows us his desire to do this when he sees a young boy but he then gives up on his dream while watching his sister change before his eyes.
One of the main problems Holden struggles with is being understood, starting with his family. Ever since his brother Allie died, his parents do not give Holden the love and attention he really needs. They obviously still
We see during the novel that Holden wants to be able to protect innocence in the world, however by the end of the story he lets go of that desire. This is a point of growth for Holden. He finds that it is impossible and unnecessary to keep all the innocence in the world. While with Phoebe Holden says, “I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye...I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff...That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye” (173). In this moment Holden wants to be able to preserve all the youth and innocence in the world. He doesn’t accept that kids have to grow and change and that they can’t stay innocent forever. Later on in the story when Holden is with Phoebe at a carousel again he thinks, “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the golden ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them.” At the end of the novel Holden realizes and comes to terms with the fact that kids grow and lose their innocence. He moves from his want to be the “catcher in the rye” to...
It is indicative of Holden’s childlike nature and attitude towards the world. Since the onset of Holden’s journey, he demonstrates very childlike mannerisms in all situations. He is sarcastic, funny, and, at times, somewhat rude, much like a child is to his peers and other people. Holden’s conversation with Phoebe highlights this symbolic characteristic of his.. When Phoebe asks Holden about his dream job, he, “keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around-nobody big, I mean-except me. And I 'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff-I mean if they 're running and they don’t look where they 're going and I have to come out somewhere and catch them” (Salinger 173). This notion of “catching everybody if they start to go over the cliff” is a symbol of something greater and more powerful than a dream job. It is Holden’s life-long dream and innate desire to protect anyone and everyone he knows from the dangers and vices of adulthood. Throughout the novel, Holden can be seen displaying childlike behavior. That behavior is an indicator of one of Holden’s desires to quench his thirst for eternal youth, to spend the rest of his life in Neverland, to ultimately live forever in the
Change is an inevitable process of life and often it can be extremely difficult to deal with. A change can be as small and insignificant as changing a habit, or maybe even as huge as switching schools or death. The Catcher in the Rye is a novel about the main character’s, Holden’s, journey of growing up. He experiences many varying types of changes. Holden is afraid of change and in many situations throughout the novel, he resists both change and the process of maturity. In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the motif of the Museum of Natural History is the main object that helps to develop the theme of Holden’s fear of change, and it is obvious that he fears change and complexity more and more as the story progresses, eventually resulting in him becoming irritated by even the slightest of changes.
Throughout this book Holden’s main quest is to try and preserve the innocence in both him, and in everyone around him. He knows that adults have already taken the path leading to “phoniness”, but he tries to save children from this fate that toward the end of the book he sadly realizes is almost completely inevitable. In order to keep the “phoniness” from infecting the children’s life, and his, he thinks he needs to preserve the innocence of himself and of the children. The biggest example of his need to preserve the innocence in himself and in all the children he meets in the book is his vision of being the catcher in the rye.
One of the ways that Salinger shows Holden’s desire to protect children 's’ innocence is through the graffiti Holden sees at Phoebe’s school. Holden visits Phoebe’s school to deliver a note to her, and while he is there he “saw something that drove [him] crazy somebody’d written ‘Fuck you’ on the wall… [He] thought how Phoebe and all the other kids would see it, and how they’d wonder what the hell it meant, and finally some dirty kid would tell them-all … what it meant, and how they’d think about it and maybe worry about it for a couple of days” (Salinger 221). The “fuck you” written on the wall angers Holden because it is written in a place that he feels is supposed to protect children, and he feels the “fuck you” will ruin them. If the children see the graffiti and find out what it means they cannot unlearn what it means, making them forever corrupted. When Holden wipes off the “fuck you” he is protecting the kids from “all the negative things that [he] wants children to be protected from,” which is what the graffiti represents (Alsen). Holden is eliminating the thing that will corrupt some children making him the protector of their
Growing up poses challenges to most people at some point in their lives. 16-year-old Holden Caufield is no exception. He is an apathetic teenager who’s flunked out of many schools. Underneath the cynical exterior, though, Holden is troubled. He has different methods for escaping his problems, but in the end they just cause him more problems.
However, nothing really changes his thought until he gets to talk to his sister, Phoebe. When she asked him what Holden really wants to do with his life, he explained to her saying “I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all” ( Salinger 191).This shows how he wants to protect the innocent and keep that innocence forever in each of the kids same as himself. Nonetheless, He now realizes that keeping innocence for the kid is not possible. One day when he was walking down the staircase he said “ I saw another ‘Fuck you’ signs on the wall. I tried to rub it off with my hand again, but this one was scratched on, with a knife or something. It wouldn't come off. It’s hopeless, anyway. If you had million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the ‘Fuck you’ sign” (Salinger 222). This perfectly shows how its not possible to cover everything in the world and so Holden must let the kid grow up and see everything because it is not possible to keep the innocence inside of them their whole life and by not letting go of that innocence, it might be a danger to the kid
Throughout the Catcher in The Rye, Holden’s discovery of his younger brother’s death causes Holden to become isolated and alienated from society as he resists any change that destroys innocence or the trueness of most people. This notion is applied as Salinger utilizes symbolism when Holden states “the best thing though in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was, nobody’d move, nobody’d be different... the only thing that would be different would be you”. Holden illustrates himself as fearful of the future and unable to deal with change. The museum is symbolic of Holden’s quixotic mind and his fabricated world where innocence is preserved and grief and suffering is avoidable, thus, representing his idealistic vision of his desired life. This shows Holden’s inability to actuate a means of discovery. Holden’s inability to re-evaluate his unrealistic perspective of a distorted world is further reinforced when the author uses the technique of symbolism, when he misreads the line “body catch a body through the rye” and responds “I’d be the catcher in the rye and all... I know it’s crazy”. Throughout this statement, Holden pictures himself catching the children before they fall “over the cliff” into “adulthood”. Holden’s fantasies reciprocate his innocence and belief in preserving the uncorrupted, whilst also showing how disconnected he is to reality. Therefore, illustrating how the pain of past experiences may lead an individual to desire a world of simplicity rather than the convoluted world surrounding