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Catcher In The Rye Analysis Essay

821 Words4 Pages

Stefanie Galvez
Mrs. Kehrmeyer
AP English; Per. 1
08 March, 2017

Donald Hall, author of Literary and Cultural Theory, writes, “The unconscious part of the brain that interrupts the chronological sequence of events by interjection of scenes of life earlier in the protagonist or author’s life that take on central roles in the text” (103). Throughout the book, Holden seems to slip in and out of reality to get away from the isolation of what is actually happening in his life. Holden goes through many flashbacks and unconscious situations that relate to his current situation or what he is thinking about. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden imagines, “Then the crook probably would’ve given me this very phony, innocent look, and said, ‘I never saw …show more content…

In her article “The Duck Question Finally Answered,” Michelle Wittle says, “Holden wants to save people from the world. More specifically, Holden wants to save children from the world. This is evident when he is walking to get Phoebe at school and he sees the curse words on the school steps” (Wittle 1). As Holden went through the tough time of grieving Allie, his perspective changed on everyone and everything. He knew Allie as a child whom had done nothing wrong, and died of the unfair disease of leukemia. He doesn’t want any children to go through what Allie did and wanted to protect them from anything that could harm them physically and emotionally. In fact, the famous title of the book, The Catcher in the Rye, means to catch and save children from losing their innocence. One person who he will try to protect is his little sister, Phoebe, who is full of life and enthusiasm. She is an example of the children who still have their innocence. Donald Hall states in Literary and Cultural Theory, “Individuals move through developmental stages early in life, and traumas or experiences during that process may have a lasting effect on personality” (105). The incident that Holden and his family went through changed their actions. Holden’s childlike and immature personality stayed with him from the age that Allie died and his family became distant. Another topic that has to with

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The loss of his older brother and the absent parents have really affected Holden’s behavior. He lives a life without any care but with exception of younger children. Holden has a fascination with younger children and their innocence possibly because he wasn’t able to enjoy his adolescent years and nor did his brother. Holden mentions “‘Every time I'd get to the end of a block I'd make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I'd say to him, "Allie, don't let me disappear.

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Therefore, his rebellion both academically and socially in the schools he attends display his resistance to grow up. These behaviors he shows, are psychological effects he develops due to Allie’s death, hence creating a negative impact on his life. In addition to Allie’s death causing Holden to act out, it also seems to cause neglection in Holden’s life. Just like Holden, it seems his mother has not gotten over

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Allie was very intelligent, kind, and one of the few people Holden truly loved. When he passed away from leukemia, Holden broke down and stayed a night in his garage, where he destroyed all of the windows with his fists. Allie’s death left both psychological and physical scars on Holden, which have a subtle, but important influence on the rest of the novel. Although I have

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In The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger through the character Holden show the readers that at one point, everyone has to go through the journey of innocence. Holden is a seventeen year old teenager who loses his innocence along with the death of his endearing brother and draws a conclusion that losing innocence is harmful. His own journey of innocence consists of him losing innocence, then trying to protect others from losing innocence, and finally realizing that losing innocence is not damaging as he imagined it to be. Therefore, through his journey, J. D. Salinger proves that although losing innocence is damaging and can break a person, it is not as damaging as trying to protect one’s innocence because it is unrealistic.

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It's why holden likes his little brother Allie so much, even though he isn't alive anymore. Another example of how holden tries to protect the innocence of children is when he sees the words “F**K YOU” written on the wall of phoebe's school bathroom. Holden states, “I kept picturing myself catching him at it, and how I’d smash his head on the stone steps till he was good and goddam dead and bloody.” (117) Holden shows here how he would literally kill someone to protect the kids from losing their innocence.

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The novel “The Catcher in the Rye” was about the journey of a adolescent boy finding his way to adulthood. In the book Holden Caulfield was unsuccessful in finding his way to adulthood. Holden’s attitude in the novel throughout his journey was very immature. He also can't accept the fact that innocence can’t be forever protected. Lastly, Holden calls everyone a phony when in reality he is the real phony.

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After talking about his childhood memories with his brother he states, ¨He is dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You´d have like him.¨ Then after talking about Allie’s old baseball mitt he said, ¨I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it¨(43-44). Allie’s death is used to show the unexpected change that Holden had experienced during his life. Allie was only eleven when he died, and Holden was thirteen.

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The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger in 1951, is the story of an angst-ridden sixteen year old Holden Caulfield as he learns to deal with growing up. The story follows Holden through his three day experience through New York as he learns about the truth about innocence, sex, and mortality, making The Catcher in the Rye one of America’s most notable coming-of-age stories. One of the largest influences on Holden’s life was his younger brother Allie who died from leukemia at age eleven when Holden was thirteen. The death of Holden’s brother had a profound effect on Holden emotional state, which eventually caused his complete mental breakdown by the end of the novel.

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In Holden’s mind becoming “the catcher in the rye “means that he can still catch Allie from falling off the cliff. This is relevant to Holden’s depression because everything around him is telling him to grow up but instead he runs away from it in fear that is will pull him farther apart from his relationship with his brother Allie. Holden is on the edge of becoming an adult which creates more pressure and leads him to

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Another example of Holden caring for children is in the middle of chapter 25 when he sees profanity on the wall, he describes, “I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they’d wonder what the hell it meant” (Salinger 200). This is another example of Holden wanting to help children and keep them protected. This shows that Holden has good intentions and deserves readers’ compassion. In summary, Holden’s wish to keep children safe shows his good character and worthiness of

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Throughout the course of the novel, Holden showed many signs of a nervous breakdown like the death of his little brother,his classmate dying, and his relationship with a girl he likes but never gets a real chance with her. One of the first steps of Holden's breakdown was the death of his younger brother Allie. His brother’s death wasn't his fault he couldn't save his brother from having leukemia, so he has a desire to help others, and do what he wished he could have done for his brother Allie. Holden's brother having leukemia did not just kill him, but it killed holden as well because they were so close to each other.

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In the novel Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger readers are introduced to a young man named Holden Caulfield who introduces himself and begins to tell his story of how and why he left his school; Pencey Prep. In the story, Holden explains how he is being kicked out of school and doesn't want his parents to know and so leaves school early. throughout the story, Holden explains what happens to him before he must go home and act like he is home from school for a break instead of being kicked out. When it comes to the topic of Author's purpose of The will of individual vs the will of the majority some will think the purpose is to show that Holden going against the will of society to rebel, however, I think the author’s purpose of The Catcher in the Rye was to show that the individual will manifest in his desire for isolation comes from his is fear and damage done by fear of pain, failure, rejection, and is unwilling or unable to go along with the majority. This all shown through Imagery, symbolism, and diction.

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Furthermore, Holden starts to hate all the adults or loses faith in them, calls them phony. Holden has a second thought of becoming an adult he loses hope in his future and it seems to him nothing in the world matters to him anymore. We can see that throughout the book. He smokes, gets drunk, and does daring acts like getting a prostitute in his room. He also tries to escape all this guilt and grief by wasting time with unnecessary people he calls phony.

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Holden’s unusual fantasy metaphorically displays this desire to save children’s innocence on his quest, and literally displays his obsession with death and preventing it, as being the catcher in the rye would accomplish both goals. F. Literary Critics also note that Holden’s catcher in the rye job is a dream of his that he pretends to be a reality to hide the fact that he secretly knows that he is unable to save the innocence of all children. G. Authors James E. Miller jr, and Arthur Heiserman explicitly state that, “Holden delights in circles – a comforting bounded figure which yet connotes hopelessness” (Miller, Heiserman 496). H. The “comforting bounded figure” is Holden’s catcher fantasy that he literally uses to comfort himself against the reality he refuses to believe because it “connotes hopelessness” and he is still too innocent and naïve to accept that. I. Holden possesses this dream as a weak attempt to save the innocence of children and to avoid a hopeless reality of defeat he has yet to accept.

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