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Character analysis of Holden of the catcher in the rye
Character analysis of Holden of the catcher in the rye
Character analysis of Holden of the catcher in the rye
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Holden Caulfield’s story begins on a December Saturday at Pencey Prep School in Pennsylvania, where he 's just been given the ax for failing all his classes except English. As it turns out, getting the ax is a frequent theme in Holden 's past. Before he leaves the school Holden runs to his favorite teacher’s house to say goodbye to him. Back in the dorm, Holden goofs around with Robert Ackley, a pimply and annoying kid. We 're introduced to Holden 's red hunting hat, and we meet his roommate, Stradlater, who is getting ready for a date with Jane Gallagher, an old friend and sort-of romantic interest of Holden 's. Holden is not happy about this impending date, but agrees anyway to write an English composition for Stradlater.
Holden Caulfield is an adolescent male. He is sixteen years old, and is very pessimistic. He is tall and scrawny. Holden’s hair is graying at his young age which he wears in a crew cut. Holden is constantly shows symptoms of depression such as poor appetite, a pessimistic outlook, and physical headaches.
The postwar setting in J. D. Salinger The Catcher in the Rye influenced the main character Holden Caulfield feelings of disillusionment during a time when conformity left many postwar adults fearing communism in a growing postwar economy. The novel illustrates the main characters’ experiences from the time he is expelled from boarding school over a period of three days. Upon his premature departure from the school, due to a fight with his roommate, Holden makes his way to New York City, where he meets various people in hopes of gaining a form of acceptance and understanding from them to help his troubles (Kirkwood 29). As a result, his needs are deprived, as Holden feels he does not fit anywhere; believing that all the people around him are
J.D. Salinger fully utilizes the literary device of symbolism in characterizing Holden Caulfield in the novel, Catcher in the Rye. Whether through a red hunting hat symbolizing a desire for individuality or ducks representing an escape from life’s challenges, Salinger conveys Holden’s struggles deftly, his traits elegantly, and his character development insightfully. Salinger takes one of Holden's most apparent qualities, his desire for uniqueness, and expresses it through his red hunting hat. Aside from being different through its garish red color, Salinger adds another layer of character through the way he shows Holden wearing it. "... I swung the old peak round to the back -very corny I'll admit, but I liked it that way."
Catcher In The Rye Holden Caulfield is 16 years old, whose behavior throughout the book is like he feels excluded and also like he doesn’t feel the need to be in this world. He doesn’t express his emotions exactly, he likes to keep it to himself. He heads to his old school late afternoon when the school has a football game going on. He tries to reach his favorite teacher there, but he doesn’t want to be seen by everybody else. He goes to his class and he starts talking to him about his feelings.
Analysis of Holden Caulfield In United States millions are diagnosed with a mental disorder ranging from minor to damaging effects on the human mind. During my meeting with Holden Caulfield his father has provided me information on his son. In addition, from my first meeting with Holden he sounded like a man who was unstable, like he said “When you’re feeling very depressed, you can’t even think” (Caulfield, 49). These direct words from Mr. Caulfield presents me with a feeling that Holden is feeling detachment from his life and feeling worthlessness.
The article states, “Despite his apparent intellect, Salinger — or Sonny as he was known as a child — wasn’t much of a student”. Salinger had never been much of a good student, as he was always switching schools and universities, which also caused him to struggle with fitting in. JD Salinger was very similar to Holden in this case because Holden was also not a very great student and also moved around a lot. Another example of a similarity between J.D. Salinger and Holden Caulfield was that they both dropped out of school. Salinger and Holden’s parents were very similar as they both knew that their parents would have severe consequences for dropping out of the school they were attending.
The Catcher in the Rye In the novel The Catcher in the Rye J.D Salinger writes about a teenager struggling to find his place within the existence of the reality of others. Salinger creates shocking events that lay out the foundation of the the main character Holden Caulfield’s life in the novel. Salinger uses Holden’s characteristics throughout the novel such as Holden’s stubbornness to establish a much bigger theme in the book along with many other symbols.
In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield is a peculiar character portrayed as a skeptic living in “a world of phonies” in circa 1950. These personality traits can be seen through his doubts of society as well as his way of thinking and acting toward others. He also demonstrates a lack of responsibility adding to his role as a slacker. Holden flunks out of school repeatedly and has no desire to confront his parents. He mopes around the city for days, delaying the inevitable punishments he’s sure to get.
In the novel “The Catcher in the Rye”, the protagonist Holden Caulfield demonstrates his unusual behaviour. The narrator introduces the story of an emotionally damaged teenager whose suspicions and personal issues prevent him from being “normal” in a society full of phonies that he does not seem to get along with. It becomes clear that Holden has clouded judgement as he rides an emotional rollercoaster of mood swings with the people he likes, and dislikes. Therefore, it becomes obvious that some of his personal flaws include his distrust, depression, and unreasonable attitudes and thoughts are based on his underlying emotional problems. Holden Caulfield has a variety psychological problems, such as his skepticism, depressive behaviour, and
Forced to recognize the dismal reality of the wickedness of humanity, Salinger relinquished part of his utopian views of society while still retaining an overall indifferent approach to death, which Holden attempts to maintain by refusing to acknowledge Allie’s demise. Similar to how Holden fails to grasp the idea of mortality, Salinger struggled to identify and express his sentiments involving violence and the loss of human life in fear of appearing unfit for his military position and the stereotypical masculine role that was given to him by society. As a result of his obstinate rejection of his feelings and his persistent attitude toward keeping his innocence, Salinger faced a mental crisis like that of Holden due to his inability to comprehend his feelings and overcome an eye-opening encounter with death. Paralleling Salinger’s elusive response to his own emotions after witnessing death in war , Holden feels ashamed in requesting the loving support of his family and peers after experiencing a loss, and he instead chooses to mull over the tragedy without obtaining emotional closure.
J.D Salinger is most notably known for his coming of age novel “The Catcher in the Rye”, written in 1951, 6 years after world war 2 ended. His only novel takes place in the 1950s, about the same time as when the book was published, so view of how things were then were quite accurate for the time period. In the novel, it is shown that the main character’s sister, Phoebe,has a favorite movie,called the 39 steps. In real life, the author of the book says it is one of his favorite movies as well. With subtle love interests, comedic misunderstandings, and continuous action, It's not surprising that Salinger would show his love for the movie through the eyes of a naive child.
Holden Caulfield Is Mental Roughly three percent of the United States population, approximately 314,341,830 people, suffers from bipolar disorder. Holden Caulfield, from Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, has bipolar II disorder. This particular disorder is when an individual displays two extreme demeanors, yet not at persistent levels as shown in bipolar I disorders. This novel was written during an era that did not acknowledge mental illness very often; therefore Holden did not have the tools at his disposal to learn healthy coping mechanisms.
In the beginning of the novel Salinger portrays Holden as a antisocial person who is often seen alone and describes the world as a “ world full of phonies” one example of this is at the beginning of the book wherein the
J.D. Salinger was a famous writer that made his career with the polemic book "Catcher in the ing if you talked Rye". Salinger's entire name is Jerome David; he was born in January 1, 1919 and died in January 27 of 2010. Son of Sol and Marie Salinger, J.D was born in New York and died in Cornish. Other than his main book, Salinger published numerous short stories in the Story Magazine, famous for revealing new short story authors. Among them one was distinguished, "A perfect day for a bananafish", which appeared in The New Yorker.
