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Catcher In The Rye Chapter 5 Analysis

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“The Catcher in the Rye” J.D Salinger In the book “the Catcher in the Rye”, Holden Caulfield demonstrates what a rebellion teenager is. At a young age when his parents contemplate Holden being psychoanalyzed, when he loses his temper on people, and all his lies. Rebellion back in 1950 compared to now is different for so many reason from, things that would not be considered as bad as they would be back then and things are bad now that you could get away with back in 1950. In chapter five of “the Catcher in the Rye” we get a look at what happened when Holden’s brother Allie died and how Holden reacted to it. Holden tells the readers “I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage. I don't blame them I …show more content…

In chapter six, Holden loses his temper and gets in a fight with him. Holden described it “All I know is I got up from the bed, like I was going down to the can or something, and then I tried to sock him, with all my might, right smack in the toothbrush, so it would split his goddam throat open” (43). There is not a difference from the 1950s to now when it comes to fights it is still a form of rebellion and if someone gets mad at another person they don’t know too well the chances of them calling the police are high. Throughout the book there are plenty of times that Holden lies about a variety of things. He lies about his name, what he is doing, how he feels about people, and plenty unnecessary lies. A lie that was unnecessary was Holden saying “Rudolf Schmidt, I told her. I didn’t feel like giving her my whole life history. Rudolf Schmidt was the name of the janitor of our dorm” (54). It wasn’t really a good reason for Holden to lie about something so simple. Steeling someone’s identity is a form of rebellion in the 1950s and 20th century because you could go to jail for

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In Catcher in the Rye very early on in the book Holden admits to being a liar. Yet, Holden embodies most of the archetypal truth-tellers in some form. Holden isn't necessarily deceiving the reader for any personal gain, nor is he flat out insane he's just a kid telling a story. Humans, in general, are unreliable narrators, teenagers especially so. The point of having the narrator(Holden Caulfield) is that it firmly places you into the story and with a perspective.

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697 Words | 3 Pages

In Chapter 9-14 Holden Caulfield leaves Penecy Prep and heads to New York City. Where he will stay for a couple days before winter vacation starts and he will head home. Delaying breaking the news to his family he got kicked out of school for as long as possible. These chapters are where Holden’s loneliness becomes abundantly clear. The reader is subjected to many long rants by Holden about the company he wants, though he attempts to settle several times.

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945 Words | 4 Pages

Holden characterizes himself as a liar because he is opposed to face any of the truths in the world around him that make him uncomfortable. For instance, when Holden was talking to Mr. Spencer, “I told old Spencer I had to go to the gym to get my equipment and stuff, that was a sheer lie, I don’t even keep my equipment in the gym” (Salinger 16). In this scene, the conversation Holden was having with Mr. Spencer made him feel uncomfortable and as a result, he lied to get away from it. Furthermore, by putting himself in the category of something false, he is not compelled to accept any kind of truth about

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656 Words | 3 Pages

Holden says that all he want to do is be the catcher in the rye protecting children from falling. The whole novel Holden makes observation around him that are taking away from children's innocence. This is what upsets him the most the fact that everyone will eventually have to grow up. While he is trying to go get Phoebe he is reminded this in the following quote. “I went down by a different staircase, and I saw another "Fuck you" on the wall.

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891 Words | 4 Pages

Holden has been conditioned by society to acquire mannerisms such as drinking, smoking, rebellion and lewdness. His vulgarity is the only way he feels he can gain attention to both his opinions and beliefs. This is demonstrated when he admits to smoking in school. He does this in order to rebel against school rules, as well as, to challenge the jurisdiction of Stradlater. The purpose of challenging Stradlater is to have him admit to what really happened on his date with Jane.

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935 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the novel, Holden’s observations are often unreliable because he lacks experience to fully understand or simply because he is denies the truth. After the fight with Stradlater, Holden says "All that blood and all sort of made me look tough. I 'd only been in about two fights in my life, and I lost both of them. I 'm not too tough. I 'm a pacifist, if you want to know the truth" (46).

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1308 Words | 6 Pages

Shouldn’t someone who acts tough and often brags know that they will never become a phony? The answer would be yes if Holden wasn’t so insecure. Holden’s childish ways cause him to never mature and figure out who he is as a person. We see many signs of Holden insecurities throughout the book, like the fact that he contradicts himself. An example of this would be when Sally and Holden are in the taxi and he tells her he loves her, he then counties to say, “It was a lie, of course, but the thing is, I meant it when I said it” (Salinger 139).

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356 Words | 2 Pages

My first impression of Holden is that he doesn’t like to give exact explanations or reasons for any of his actions. In the beginning of chapter one, he doesn’t give the reader a lot of information about himself. He likes to keep all of his thoughts to himself. Holden puts up a front that shields his true feelings about certain situations. We can see this when he goes to visit his teacher Mr. Spencer.

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754 Words | 4 Pages

Holden is only a typical rebellious teenager that wants to be an adult; therefore, he expresses himself through a unique language in the story. Holden uses vulgar language to express his opinions on everything and everyone. “I didn 't even bother to get up. I just lay there in the floor for a while, and kept calling him a moron sonuvabitch. I was so mad, I was practically bawling.”

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2273 Words | 10 Pages

Erick Sakaguchi Mr. Lancaster English 125- F Period 22 April 2015 Catcher in the Rye Notes Class Notes: 2-3 sentences (When given) Holden Caulfield. It is told in the first person. It takes place in the 1950's. It is primarily teenage annexed(anxiety). Takes place in New York Ch 1: Characters: -Holden: goes to Pencey Prep.

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1378 Words | 6 Pages

Holden lies as a result of his depression, in order to hide the fact that he’s lonely and bored with his life, to divert any questions which he believes are too personal, and to create his own reality. In this way, Salinger illustrates how, during difficult times, people resort to lying as a coping mechanism. In the beginning of the story, Holden lied to divert questions in order to protect his personal information.

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668 Words | 3 Pages

Holden cannot handle accepting blame for his shortfalls. This is evident in the way he retells his story. Holden repeatedly tells the reader outrageous claims about his character. However when he ends up coming short on these expectations, he backtracks his previous statements in order to shift the blame away from himself. When he first discusses his fight with Stradlater he says, “All I know was I

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779 Words | 4 Pages

In this quote he tells that his brother died. This shows his brother died when he was young. Furthermore he dies as an innocent child who was not exposed to the adult world or the “phoniness.” Allie's death was tragic to Holden but maybe, in some ways Holden wanted the death himself, he wanted to preserve his innocence. Another point that shows Allie's mitt represents innocence is when Holden says Allie used to read poems on his glove while playing baseball which he wrote before the game so he wouldn’t be bored.

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1002 Words | 5 Pages

Nobody did" (41). In the quote above Holden calls out the Navy guy for being phony because he is dating Lillian Simmons even though he didn 't like her much. Therefore, he is being someone he isn 't and lying to himself.

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693 Words | 3 Pages

Although Holden is a very intelligent character he finds the hypocrisy and ugliness in the world around him and quickly associates it with the adult world. Holden is a very introverted character who hesitates throughout the book to share information about his life . J.D Salinger makes sure to portray Holden that way to

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