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Catcher In The Rye Research Paper

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Childhood & Growing up Within “The Catcher in the Rye” It is common knowledge that the transition between childhood and adulthood can be difficult for everyone and that’s something that a majority of people can relate to or have related to. Moreover, even when we are attached to our childhood we all have to grow up eventually. In “The Catcher in the Rye” is forced with the realization that he has to grow up, and is nearing that point. He still does not want to let go of his youthful qualities. The novel “The Catcher in the Rye” says the transition between adolescence and adulthood is challenging as demonstrated by Holden’s view on the adult world, childhood experiences, and sex and intimacy. Firstly, Holden’s view on adults is that they …show more content…

There is a part in the story where the prostitute Sunny is engaging Holden and getting him to have intercourse, but Holden cannot commit. Instead of having a go at her, Holden has a conversation with her. This shows how Holden wants to preserve the supposed innocence he believes he has in himself. Initially, in the book Holden thinks that sex is disgusting and a vulgar act to do. This shows that Holden does not want to grow up, and by making that commitment to having sexual intercourse with Sunny would mean that his innocence would be wiped away. Next, in the book Holden talks about a story he read in the past. It is about a traffic cop that falls in love with a girl who frequently speeds when she drives. Although, the problem is the traffic cop is already in a committed relationship. This shows adults don’t abide by the huge commitment of marriage. This is also uncovering that the cop is having an affair with the girl which is a typical love/marriage problem for adults. Seeing these examples of corrupt marriages may cause Holden to be hesitant from getting intimate with a girl. Also that the perks of growing up are sex and intimacy thus causing Holden to be conflicted with this

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Another very common characteristic found in most teenagers, including Holden Caulfield, is obsession about sex. Throughout the story, Holden is always thinking about sex or in his own words thinking about “giving a girl a feel”. When Holden had a temporary stay at hotel in New York, he wanted to lose his virginity by calling a prostitute over his room, but after calling the prostitute over, he was afraid to have sexual intercourse with her since he never practiced it before, so he ended up rejecting the prostitute. The only thing Holden got from this experience was a punch in the stomach from a pimp. Holden also spends a lot of time fantasizing about sex with the girls he knew from school, which is very immature, but not surprising for a

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702 Words | 3 Pages

Holden likes Jane and he starts to become a better person around her and instead of having the idea of killing himself than he should have started to think of Jane but he lets the best of him. Holden turns out to be too shy for Jane and she tends to push him away for

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1072 Words | 5 Pages

This creates a whirlwind of problems for Holden, convincing the reader that “Holden is clearly flawed . . . (Bickmore and Youngblood 254)” His failure to reflect upon his poor choices, such as his failure to study and lack of motivation, can be seen as the birthplace from which many of his problems spring, leading to his pessimistic

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891 Words | 4 Pages

Once again he attempts to maintain his conventionalities. He has a genuine interest in sex, but refrains from doing so because he wants a real relationship. This indicates that his ethics are stronger than his hormones. June Edwards makes a valid claim that “Holden Caulfield emerges as a confused

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754 Words | 4 Pages

Even when a girl is right beside him, Holden tends to isolate himself from sex. After Holden pays for a prostitute, he uses his money to talk instead of having sex (Stradlater, 124). This depicts how Holden alienates himself agian, resulting in Sunny viewing him as a madman. Finally, Holden manages to get hislef a date with Sally, but ruins it with a prepostrous idea of escaping society. Sally rejects his idea, and Holden responds, " You give me a royal pain in the ass" (J.D.Salinger, 173).

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778 Words | 4 Pages

Holden oppresses himself when the prostitute comes over by instead of having sex with her he tells her to leave and he will still pay for her fee, this proves that Holden pretends to be a sex maniac while oppressing his sexuality. Holden also states that with all of his girlfriends he could have “given them the time” but whenever they said stop, he would, thus sating his oppression and that he thinks that sex is morally wrong at his age. “I’ve had quite a few opportunities to lose my virginity and all, but I’ve never got around to it yet” (92).

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903 Words | 4 Pages

Holden’s failure to embrace the masculine stereotype is epitomized in his idealized and naive views on romance and sexulaity. When Holden enters the upscale Edmont Hotel and sees a young couple on a date, he remarks, “I think if you don't really like a girl, you shouldn't horse around with her at all …. It's really too bad that so much crumby stuff is a lot of fun sometimes” (Salinger 70). Holden’s belief that a man should not engage in a casual relationship with a woman unless he truly loves her, stands in stark contrast to masculine standards which encourage and congratulate men’s sexual exploits. Holden’s asexual beliefs

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885 Words | 4 Pages

Holden goes to the Edmont Hotel where he sees perverts sexually fulfilling themselves. He ponders about the pleasures of sex when he thinks to himself, “I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away” (70). By not living up to his standards and going against his own beliefs, Holden is viewed as a phony, making him unjustified at his animosity to phonies. As Holden enters the elevator in his hotel, he meets a man named Maurice. When he asks Holden if he wants to hire a prostitute, Holden agrees even though, “It was against [his] principles and all, but [he] was feeling so depressed [he] didn’t even think” (102).

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1491 Words | 6 Pages

After years of negotiations, Canada has landed a deal with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – the world’s largest free trade agreement in history – sweeping a deal that will open vast economic opportunities in Asia-Pacific and the Americas. With minimal costs, Canada will significantly benefit from the TPP with lower costs for consumers, a boost to gross domestic product (GDP) and lower trade barriers such as tariffs for exporters. TPP’s skeptics are many of the same people who criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement and Canadian-European Union Free Trade Agreement for very similar reasons. This landmark free trade agreement includes 12 countries (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore,

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1142 Words | 5 Pages

He talks quite a bit about sex, but his virginity is the last existing innocence to him. Holden pays for a prostitute to have sex with, but he cannot go through with it. He is very hesitant about losing his innocence. Holden wants to be “the catcher in the rye” (191) and save all the innocence in the world. He believes that that is what he wants to do in the future as he tells his little sister, Phoebe.

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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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720 Words | 3 Pages

Holden Caulfield, the main protagonist in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, embodies the classic teenager in the process of discovering himself, and how the world works. But, regardless of Holden 's rich, prep school lifestyle, the series of events that have mapped out his life up to this point have utterly affected his emotional well being and perception of the world. Many traumatic events such as the death of holds brother Allie, the death of a class mate, and countless numbers of awkward incidents with adults have all added up to affects Holden 's well-being and detach him from reality. The death of Holden 's younger brother Allie has caused him to confuse his perception of reality and to alienate himself.

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1035 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the course of the novel, Holden is constantly attempting to find somebody who is willing to both listen and

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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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563 Words | 3 Pages

Holden has had several opportunities to have sexual intercourse with another female yet he keeps avoiding it, therefore unlike the rest of the teen population who have had intimacy with another being, he is an outcast, an alien. In this case, Holden is alien to sex and what intimacy truly is; his little knowledge on this is causing him to avoid going through with having an intimate relationship or sex with someone, even a prostitute who will charge him more than what she was worth. Fear can also play a role in alienation from society. Holden has a fear of human behavior and arguably even sickened with the human behavior.

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