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Catcher In The Rye Thesis

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J.D Salinger was born on January 1, 1919 in Manhattan, New York City. His father Sol Salinger, was Jewish and his mother, Marie Jillich, was Scotch-Irish. He also had an older sister named Doris, she was eight years older than him. When J.D was thirteen his parents sent him to McBurney school. It was a boys preparatory academy in NYC. It was very similar to the schools Holden Caulfield gets expelled from. After two years at McBurney his parents moved him to Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania. J.D used Valley Forge as the model for Pencey Prep in the book. J.D’s childhood leads to the reason why he wrote The Catcher In The Rye. The book takes place around the 1950’s and the narrator is Holden Caulfield a sixteen year old boy. Holden is telling the story the whole time from a mental hospital down in California. The book …show more content…

Holden wants to become The Catcher In The Rye because he wants to save kids growing up and becoming an adult. Holden doesn’t like the idea of adulthood because he just thinks that all adults are liers and he hasn’t really gotten the idea of sex yet. We know he isn’t ready because when the prostitute came into his hotel he freaked out and said he just had surgery. He wants to catch his sister from going into the adult world. That is why he wears the red hat because it makes him feel special and like he is a little kid. I understand Holden a lot because soon I will be graduating high school and I don’t know if i’m ready to go out into the real world. Once I go out into the real world I will have to start working to provide for my family. I am scared of the idea that I will leave my parents and be on my own. But what I think J.D Salinger is trying to get us to understand is that yeah we all want to little forever but everyone grows up. The only way we are going to get through it is that we prepare ourselves, life is going to keep going whether we are ready or

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The beginning of the book shows that Holden Caulfield is in a mental institute in California. He then has a flashback that takes us back to where the real story begins. The setting takes place at Pencey Preparatory School in Agerstown, Pennsylvania and New York City, New York during 1948 or 1949 (post World War 2). The story is over the course of only three days.

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“ I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids and nobody’s around - nobody big, I mean- except me and I 'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff I mean if they 're running and they don 't look where they 're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them that 's all I do all day I just be the catcher in the rye and all…”(Salinger 173). Holden doesn’t want to grow up, and he doesn’t want anyone else to grow up.

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In the story The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger. This story is about a teenager who feels misplaced in life and is unhappy with his surroundings. The main character, Holden Caulfield, hops around from school to school taking us on his adventure from school in Pennsylvania to his house in New York City. If Holden, or a child like him were to attempt this by themselves today they wouldn 't succeed like Holden did. In the story Holden does many crazy things that a teenager wouldn 't be able to do .

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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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Holden Caulfield is a 17 year old problematic boy who's unhappy with the environment that he's in. He's the protagonist and the one telling the story. He keeps getting expelled from private high schools his parents send him to. In the story, he's expelled from Pencey Prep which might be the last straw. He's afraid to go home earlier than his family expected so he spends the weekend in New York without informing them.

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They understand the struggles of school and failing and just not ever being good enough. Holden goes through all the issues that most teenagers go through but in the end he is able to show that there is hope. For example toward the end of the book he says " I got pretty soaking wet, especially my neck and my pants….I didn't care though, I felt so damn happy all of a sudden" (Salinger 213). This is one of the most important lines in the book because from here the audience sees a little change in holden's

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3148 Words | 13 Pages

Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger scribes a story in which Holden Caulfield, a troubled sixteen-year-old boy, becomes riddled with mental instability. Following his expulsion from a ritzy private school, Holden

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Jim Crow and Segregation In the 1880’s, there were many restrictions set on African Americans, including the Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws were basically restrictions on everything African Americans could or could not do. Jim Crow was a very influential law pursued on men and woman of the same race. Who really is “Jim Crow?”

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In the book Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield states that he wants to be a catcher in a field of rye. Holden wants to give kids the opportunity to stay innocent. He wants to give them the opportunity to be caught, to be saved from all the responsibilities that one acquires when becoming an adult. He wants to catch them and push them back into their youth, back to where they had someone to talk to, and when they had friends that they could talk to and have fun with. In Holden’s life, he has suffered an immense loss, the loss of his little brother Allie.

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1400 Words | 6 Pages

Purpose: To show how a small change in choice could affect holden’s life The Catcher in the Rye is about Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old boy from New York. The novel starts with Holden, writing in his book, hinting that he is in some sort of mental facility .Even though he comes from a wealthy family,because of his loss of interest in studies,and low grades, he gets expelled from all schools he has studied in .Holden leaves his final school, Pency Prep and decides that he will stay in New York City until his parents learn of his expulsion and “cool down” .Most of the novel is dedicated to Holden’s time in the city, Holden lives in a hotel room for a few days during his stay .Holden then starts meeting with people that he used know, some strangers and goes to places with. From his conversations, he

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Seventeen year old Holden Caulfield is a character who is resentful of the adult world, while displaying immature, almost childish behavior as the novel progresses. He is afraid of change and struggling through life, despite having the whole world ahead of him. The first quote that I’m going to analyse is one of the most powerful and memorable quotes from the entire book, namely because it’s in the title. Holden is protective of his youthful qualities and doesn’t want to abandon them when he drifts into adulthood. He refers to himself in chapter 22 as ‘the catcher in the rye’, saving ‘thousands of little kids’ from their impending doom as they start running off of the edge of a cliff.

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1446 Words | 6 Pages

Holden When something mortifying occurs to you it can really have a negative impact on you when your are growing up. In the novel The Catcher In The Rye, J.D. Salinger introduces Holden as a very troubled student and as a result he is being expelled from a boys College Preparatory School. As a matter of fact the author J.D. Salinger wasn't the brightest pupil in his school “Despite his apparent intellect Salinger- or Sonny as he was known as a child- wasn't much of a student”(Biography). Salinger presents the protagonist Holden Caulfield out to be a disgruntled, rebellious and a problematic adolescent. Which is further explained in the Psychoanalytic Theory which provides a wide selection of information to view the

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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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830 Words | 4 Pages

Holden’s Struggle To Find Himself: Throughout the novel, The Catcher In The Rye, by J.D. Salinger, Holden struggles to find himself and who he truly is in order to be happy. His struggles relate to many things that he does or say in particular. Holden lacks with a social status with women and his family, whether it’s a relationship or being antisocial. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield experiences the complexities and struggles involved with both physical and emotional relationships.

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693 Words | 3 Pages

Catcher in the Rye In the book Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, the narrator and protagonist Holden Caulfield a sixteen year old junior undergoes a series of changes. Holden learns multiple life changing lessons; one of them is you must grow up. In the beginning of the novel, Holden starts out as “that kid”; the one with the parents who expect him to get into an ivy league school, and end up with a kid with no intentions of doing so. At the beginning of the book it is very apparent that Holden lacks motivation; he also has hit rock bottom.

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