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The catcher in the rye analysis of holden caulfield
An analysis of Holden from the catcher in the rye
An analysis of Holden from the catcher in the rye
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Holden on Phonies Holden Caulfield constantly contradicts himself in the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, this is best seen on his views towards phonies and he himself unknowingly being a phony. Throughout the book Holden mentions the phrase phonies several times as a way to describe someone who is fake, hypocritical, or pretentious. For instance, Holden thinks that Mr. Haas, the headmaster at Pency, was the most “phoniest bastard” he has ever met; Mr. Haas always puts on a act when he’s meeting parents (21). When people are phony it “drives [him] crazy” because he just wants people to be real (21).
Holden Caulfield’s early loss of innocence causes him to fiercely guard the innocence of others, resulting in pain for him when he realizes that his attempts are futile. Holden’s negative experiences with the adults in his life lead to his valuing the idea of innocence. Despite his bad role models, Holden clings to the concept that integrity is the most important quality in a person. While reflecting on one of his old boarding schools, he expresses his dislike for its “phony” headmaster, Mr. Haas. He complains, “[O]ld Haas went around shaking hands with everybody's parents when they drove up to school.
Although most of the time, Holden demonstrates his rebellious side, he actually still has fragile side. “What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of good-by”(7). “Good-by” is a word can brings a sense of sadness. Holden’s thoughts about “good-by” demonstrate he is a fragile boy who is like a piece of glass, easy to be broken. This shows that Holden is a person who has desire to love and care from others.
Have you ever felt like you are frozen, frozen to the point that you are asking people what to do and where to go using ducks as an example? In the book “Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger, Holden, the main character, is stuck in one place where he doesn't want to grow up and what to do in the future. He is getting kicked out of multiple schools over and over again. He doesn't know what to do and where to go, he is frozen in one place. He tries figuring out what to do by asking people what to do, he refers to ducks, and what do they do and where do they go when it gets frozen all over.
While this novel does have profanity and sexual references, it still deserves to be taught in high school because Holden shows how having a negative attitude towards life does not get a person far. In the beginning of the novel Holden tells the reader that "[Pencey] kick[s] [him] out [of their school]" (6) because he "was [failing] four subjects and not applying [himself]" (6). However, he does not just notify the reader, he notifies them in a way of forgetting to mention that he is no longer going to be attending Pencey. Holden passes this off as some minor detail when in reality it is not just a minor detail. Later on, Holden reveals to the reader that this is not the first school where he has gotten expelled.
Throughout the novel, Holden progresses to become more aware of his actions. Holden’s process is slowed an adolescent state of mind where his self-absorption doesn’t allows for him to fully see how his actions affect the outcomes he receives. Holden’s pathology consistently brings negative outcomes. Holden occasionally learns to take responsibility of his actions and realizes he must live in the present instead of the past. Holden is able to form meaningful connections with a limited few and use these as a hopeful path for his future.
The Real Holden What is the real Holden? In the short novel “Catcher in the Rye” By J.D Salinger is about Holden is in the mental hospital telling the story about himself at Pencey Prep, New york and with Phoebe. As the story goes on, it shows Holden’s characteristic in three different ways. He is a typical teenager, he behaves different from a normal teenager and he is lonely. As most teenager’s characteristic, include Holden, would be the desire of independent.
When Holden enters the Lavender club, his lust and immaturity towards the opposite sex becomes prominent. After a failed attempt at trying to buy an alcoholic drink underage, he begins giving 3 women “the old eye”, a colloquial expression meaning looking admiringly at them. Holden gives the women a few more lewd glances before abruptly deciding that he wants to “marry them”, contextualizing an image of immaturity towards both the opposite sex and the feeling of love. Holden goes over to the girls in hopes of dancing with them, managing to get Bernice-the most beautiful of the 3 to join him. While he dances with her he reflects on why he asked the two less attractive girls to dance, concluding that he was very “hard up”, colloquially alluding
He faces many problems throughout the book, and is always trying to save kids innocence. Holden also wants to stay a kid and not grow up, however he finds out that he can’t do this by the end of the novel. Some people may think that Holden wasn't successful throughout his journey, however, one could also see how he was successful in his journey. By the end of the novel, Holden was able to find out that he couldn't save kids innocence, he couldn’t be a kid forever, and he sees that even though the world is filled with evil, he can accept it, or at least live with it.
Although others may say that Holden was successful on his journey, saying that he grew up he. Holden showed lots of immaturity throughout the novel and was the biggest phony of all.. Holden’s attitude throughout the novel was very immature and made constant poor decisions. While he was still at Pencey he put in no effort and had the attitude that nothing mattered. As he moves on from Pencey and goes to New York, he shows no care for anything as he blows lots of his money and doesn’t even take care of himself. He doesn’t clean himself up or get any sleep because of his attitude towards life.
Although Jim and Holden are very different people, they both experienced a tough upbringing, where they lost their innocence at a young age and had difficult parents, which led to depression in which they both contemplated suicide. Compared to holden, Jim does not have a singular event that shattered his innocence, rather his parents throughout his childhood did that for him. Before Jim leaves his home for the chickie run he looks for his father and finds him wearing an apron cleaning the floor and mistakes him for his mother. This interaction pretty much summarizes his childhood as he has an overbearing mother who pushes his father around and made his father a weak, cowardly person, who can't be relied upon for advice or help. The apron symbolizes
Carl Luce, a student adviser from a previous school, is also being labelled as phony, yet Holden calls him. “The only thing he ever did, though, was give these sex talks and all late at night… He knew quite a bit about sex…” (154) It is no secret why Holden wants to meet with Carl. Holden sounds sex obsessed and very childish during his conversation with Carl. He is trying to provoke Carl to talk about sex.
Holden passes strict judgement on everyone, as he struggles to transition from adolescence to adulthood. Holden appears to be stunned when he sees how different the life of an adult is comparison to that of children. His views on topics such as, life, his future, and sex. Holden
The Catcher in the Rye portrays Holden Caulfield’s struggle to accommodate the adult world. Caulfield, ashamed of his inadequacy, resorts to deception to alter others’ perceptions of him. Through lying, he creates an ideal persona, masking his ineptitude at school and intimacy. Although Caulfield’s deception inflicts others in addition to himself, it enables him to exploit others and rebel against his own shortcomings.
Just like many men in the 1940’s, the famous author J.D. Salinger was drafted into the United States Army. Salinger was placed in one of the most bloody battles in the war, Battle of the Bulge. Salinger did not escape the war without trauma. He suffered a nervous breakdown, and during that time period, he created the character Holden Caulfield. Salinger’s emotions and attitudes were projected onto his character, Holden who suffers with mental health issues and projects his emotions on innocent ducks that live in Central Park.
