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Analysis of the catcher in the rye
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Analysis of the catcher in the rye
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Analysis of the catcher in the rye
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Recommended: Analysis of the catcher in the rye
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.
Holden’s character development has been influenced by his family and what has happened in his younger years. When Holden was thirteen, his family lost Allie, who died from leukemia. Holden was angry and felt a pain due to this loss because he loved his younger brother and actually idealized him. “He stated, ‘It wasn’t just that he was the most intelligent member of the family... He was also nicest, in lots of ways...
Holden had to cope with big changes without the support of anyone. Adjusting to a new way of life is difficult on its own, but without anybody being there to teach and support him, it becomes increasingly more problematic. As he is reflecting on his life he states, "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, an what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me," (3). He felt like he couldn’t talk about his life to anyone and open up because the people who are supposed to be there to love and support you were absent for him. Holden thought that he did not belong, he says, “how my parents were occupied”, they were never able to give him support so he considered himself to be all alone.
After Carl leaves, “[Holden] kept sitting there getting drunk” (149). Holden is unable to make meaningful connecti0ns with people so he numbs his pain with
Some parts to my life can relate to Holden from catcher in the rye to well. In someways I can personally relate to Holden and in other ways Holden can relate to my brother. In the ways that I can relate to Holden are how he keeps all of his feelings bunched up and thrown deep so no one can find them. We both aren't people who wear our emotions on our shoulders like other people because if people find out the real way that we feel they might treat us different.
Pained by the loss of his brother, Holden has delusions that if he tells Allie to join him, then he can change the past and be a better brother. Holden relives his past through schizophrenic episodes in attempt to bring his brother back, however, his mind has been exposed to shattering pain and his life will never be the same
Depression is an active theme in J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye.” Holden does not properly treat his depression because he ignores help, abuses substances, and bottles up his emotions. Before reading “The Catcher in the Rye,” I believed that depression is completely not a choice, but after I realized that although it isn’t a choice, there are still ways of treating depression. Holden refuses to accept help from other people. As soon as I was inside, I couldn 't think of anybody to call up.
Holden Caulfield lives his life as an outsider to his society, because of this any we (as a reader) find normal is a phony to him. Basically, every breathing thing in The Catcher in the Rye is a phony expect a select few, like Jane Gallagher. What is a phony to Holden and why is he obsessed with them? A phony is anyone who Holden feels is that living their authentic life, like D.B. (his older brother). Or simply anyone who fits into society norms, for example, Sally Hayes.
The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger, was published in the year of 1951. The novel follows 16-year-old boy Holden Caulfield after he was kicked out of a preppy private school, Pencey Prep. Holden travels around New York City over a three-day time span in 1948 during the month of December. We get to read about his experiences and his surroundings from his perspective, learning what he learns as the story progresses. Through the book, Salinger touches on the subjects of relationships, professional and sexual, loneliness, and deception, sometimes having Holden tell us upright or having other characters reflect that, mostly the latter because Holden is quite revealing about his sentiments.
Holden sometimes shows severe symptoms of pain and distress . He causes people around him to get hurt as a result of his pain, such as when Sally didn’t fully agree with Holden’s Ideas. Holden’s desperate need for being accepted leads him down a path of depression. “I slept in the garage the night he died I broke all the windows just for the hell of it... I hardly didn’t know why I was doing it, and you didn’t know Allie (Salinger,44).”
The article “Higher Education Has Always Been a Mess” written by Sol Gittleman talks about the roller coaster of a ride that Higher Education has gone on. He starts off saying that in the mid-20th century, academia became idolized, embodying everything great about America while in good times, and yet was still demonized, and embodying everything wrong while times were bad (we still see this today). Today academia is seen as a crazy mixture of both, which in really it is. He then goes on telling the story of how Higher Education came to be in America. After WWII we enjoyed a 30 year golden age, America is still the world leader but it has been lost in the noise, culture, politics and price.
Holden relies on other people to tell him what he should do with his life and where he should go. Holden shows that teenagers and adolescents are confused about growing up and he ultimately shows how difficult it is for children who don’t have anyone to go to, to
Jessica Casimiro October 30, 2015 English 3/PayLea Short Story Essay Patrick Rothfuss once claimed, “The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.” The novel Catcher in the Rye focuses on Holden Caulfield, an angst-ridden teen conflicted between remaining in a state of prolonged innocence or transitioning into the world of adulthood, thus facing the corruption and phoniness that it correlates with. Through Holden’s dynamic character, J.D Salinger depicts how innocence is slowly lost when exposed to adulthood. Reluctant to the idea of growing up, Holden strives to protect the innocence of himself and the ones’ around him. Holden reminisces about the Natural Museum of History, a place he enjoyed going
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.
The Catcher in the Rye is a bildungsroman novel, written by J.D. Salinger, portraying the story of Holden Caulfield, a teenage boy who is struggling in his adolescence. In a young age, Holden loses his younger brother, Allie. As a result, Holden’s emotions stop developing, preventing him from adapting a ‘comfortable’ living in his daily life. Fortunately, as the story progresses, Holden gradually begins to identify his inner self, understanding the perspectives of childhood, and adulthood. As a child, Holden used to attend a school named Pencey Prep, in Agerstown, Pennsylvania.