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Catcher In The Rye Coming To Age Analysis

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What is coming to age? What exactly is coming to age and is Perks Of Being A Wallflower there a certain time and moment in someone’s life to grow up? In the book , Catch in The Rye by J.D Salinger , Holden a teenage boy goes through tough experiences that breaks him down mentally, psychically and emotionally. Throughout the book he shows resistance of coming to age /maturing. However, does show maturity in certain situations, but because of his resistance of maturing he falls back down into a hard state. In the book,by Stephen Chbosky, a socially awkward young teen that enters high school. He’s writing letter to an unknown friend, telling the readers about his experiences, while explaining his experiences. Changes can be seen in Charlie’s …show more content…

His best friend, Michael, was thought to kill himself, however the readers and even Charlie himself doesn’t know he actually killed himself or not. Michael death greatly affects Charlie causing him to break down emotionally.The reason why he really breaks down is because he never understood why Michael killed himself (if he did) or why he didn’t get help from Charlie. “Then I started screaming at the guidance counselor that Michael could have talked to me. And then I started crying even harder.~ Page 4. Charlie starts to think that there were family problems, due to Michael’s dad not crying at his funeral and on top of that leaving his wife. This event causes to Charlie to start paying attention to the things around and even analyzing deeply on the things that go around in his life that are dysfunctional. This causes him to think about his Aunt Helen , who he loved dearly and claims that Aunt Helen his favorite person in the whole entire world. It stated that Aunt Helen did pass away from a car accident. Her death affected him greatly also causing him to break down emotionally, over the course of the story Aunt Helen his brought up on multiple occasion. However, he does suddenly remember and bring up the traumatic event of his Aunt Helen molesting him. It wasn’t indicated directly but there is evidence that shows a large possibility of her doing

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1405 Words | 6 Pages

Charlie friends have not talk to him since that incident. Charlies have been back at school but things have not got any better because he can't do the things he used to do with his friends. He spending a lot of time alone at the mall and people watch. The only person he has talked to in the last two weeks was Susan, a girl he knows back in middle school. One day he saw her in the hallway and goes up to asks her if she misses Michael.

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894 Words | 4 Pages

Once something that had been a fantasy and only a dream, now turned into a nightmare, haunting Charlie, mentally exhausting him. “I’ve given up using the typewriter completely. My coordination is bad. I feel that I’m moving slower and slower. Had a terrible shock today.”

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953 Words | 4 Pages

Maturation is the journey from childhood to adulthood, where time represents everyone’s unavoidable passageway to adulthood. An awakening in life can help one become aware of the world around him. In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the author J.D. Salinger, traces the process of maturation through the protagonist Holden Caulfield. Firstly, Holden commits many wrong doings and hurts others through his actions. Secondly, he encounters pain and anguish and thirdly, he is healed.

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519 Words | 3 Pages

An experience that changes Charlie is when Charlie’s father dies. This experience changes him when he says, “When the undertakers came to wheel my father’s lifeless body out to the hearse, it was as if they took my childhood with them. Like other boys, I still wore ‘Knickerbockers’ in the schoolyard. I played ‘queenies’ and marbles too. But once the lessons were over, I returned home and stepped into the long pants of adulthood.

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868 Words | 4 Pages

And you understand.” (Page 41.) This is an extensive turning point for Charlie as he goes on with telling this “friend” that he did not know that people looked at him or even thought about him. (Page 41). He is a complicated character, and his struggles and triumphs shape him to be a relatable protagonist.

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915 Words | 4 Pages

In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Mr. Antolini gives Holden Caulfield advice when he is at one of his lowest points. Already aware of Holden’s mental state and position on school, he quotes Wilhelm Stekel, a psychoanalyst, “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.” (Salinger 188). Although Holden fails to grasp Mr. Antolini’s message, the quote applies directly to his life because of his relationship with death as a result of his younger brother, Allie’s, death. Mr. Antolini uses this quote specifically because he wants Holden take a step back and try to live for a noble cause instead of resorting to death.

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859 Words | 4 Pages

Adolescence is the transitional period of psychological changes that generally occurs during puberty. Although the Catcher in the Rye was published in 1951, when the characteristics of adolescents were not fully acknowledged, Salinger portrays adolescents’ struggle comprehensively. He depicts teenagers’ unstable mindsets through the Catcher in the Rye, especially through his teenaged protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, he uses Holden to convey the immature curiosity, painfulness of the process of growing up for a typical teenagers and adolescents’ view on the adult world.

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1020 Words | 5 Pages

The Coming Of Age Many people struggle to grow up and, being adults, but many do grow up. Phoebe and Stradlater teach about coming of age to Holden. They teach him things like not being childish and growing up, and how it 's okay to grow up. In the book Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, Stradlater, and Phoebe help develop the theme of coming of age by teaching Holden that he should himself and not be childish, accordingly how it 's okay to grow up. Holden struggles to grow up so Phoebe and Stradlater teach him some things about maturity and the coming of age.

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1046 Words | 5 Pages

Just like he blames himself for the suicide of his friend Michael, he blames himself for his Aunt 's death too and would rather not talk about it. Charlie 's high school life begins solo, until he meets Sam and Patrick – seniors – who help him cope with these issues and introduce him to the world of good music, drugs and other things. Throughout the story, we see him battling to accept himself and the world around him while growing up. 3. Charlie Kelmeckis is a blue eyed fifteen (sixteen by the end of the book) year old teenage boy.

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546 Words | 3 Pages

Charlie is the main character and protagonist from the novel “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” written by Stephen Chbosky. Charlie is a shy, 15 year old boy and a freshman in high school. He is a very dysfunctional young boy, yet he has the biggest heart anyone can have. You get a sense of how Charlie perceives the world from his written letters. He writes all his detailed thoughts and memories from high school and home as he voices his own opinions in his letters.

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576 Words | 3 Pages

For example, on page 299, “I felt sick inside as I looked at his dull, vacuous smile, the wide bright eyes of a child, uncertain but easy to please. And I had been laughing at him too. Suddenly, I was furious at myself and all those who were laughing at him.” Here, Charlie was realizing that people were mean and rude to people who weren’t like them. That people looked down to people who were different than them or not as smart.

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1035 Words | 5 Pages

From the outset, I have to say that “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger has been one of the most important and influential pieces of literature I have ever read. At its core, the book is a superb coming of age novel which discusses several extremely powerful themes such as the difficulties of growing up, teenage angst and alienation and the superficiality, hypocrisy and pretension of the adult world. These themes resonated deeply with me and were portrayed excellently through the use of powerful symbolism and the creation of highly relatable and likable characters. One such character is Holden Caulfield whom the story both revolves around and is narrated by.

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837 Words | 4 Pages

In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden demonstrates the struggle of transitioning between childhood and adulthood by revealing his hassle to grow up. Maturity comes through being an adult and growing up is all about becoming more mature. Throughout the book, Holden goes through numerous conflicts and problems. In the beginning of the book, Holden is gives information about himself.

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1360 Words | 6 Pages

These morals reflect the process that drives Charlie’s struggle to understand himself and the world around him as he becomes more

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1278 Words | 6 Pages

The novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, is about a boy named Charlie who is a freshman in high school. He writes diary entrees of his daily life, and events that go on between him, his family, and friends. Charlie is a very quiet boy and keeps most things he sees and hears to himself. He talks to no one his age at school, but is friends with some seniors, and his English teacher, Bill. This book takes readers on an exciting yet risky journey with Charlie and his friends.

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