Holden's Innocence In The Catcher In The Rye
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Holden originally attended Pencey Prep but could never connect with the people around him. He is always criticizing or fighting with others, which lead him to leave Pencey without telling anyone. Holden heads to NYC where he faces many challenges with others and himself, emotionally and physically. Holden finds himself in his hotel room with a prostitute and feels extremely uncomfortable with what he is doing so he pays her and sends her off. The next day he plans a date with Sally Hayes, an old girlfriend, to see a play where he calls her “a pain in the ass” and laughs.
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Society is simple. One does not get to choose when he/she grows up. Society tells him/her when to grow up. Society reveals to its children, when the proper time is to grow up. Usually, it is too soon before a child is ready.
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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.
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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
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After an eventful night of dancing, drinking and running into old acquaintances, Holden walks back to the motel once more. As holden boards the elevator, the operator offers him a prostitute called Sunny for five dollars. Distraught by the encounter he had with one of his brother’s old companions, along with the alcohol, Holden agrees. While awaiting the prostitute Holden begins to recall his other romantic encounters. He discusses how he has had numerous opportunities to lose his virginity, but never did due to the fact that he is unable to determine if he has the girl’s consent .
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Many people harbour a desire to accomplish something specific in life. Sometimes this desire stems from the background of a person, and sometimes desires are developed over time and with age. “The Catcher in the Rye” narrated by Holden Caulfield, who is an overly disturbed teenager, is about the change from childhood to adulthood. Holden, like many, has a burning desire to protect the innocence of children; this desire is tied to the themes of relationships, intimacy and sexuality which are carried throughout the novel. In a stroke of genius, the author, J.D. Salinger, sums up this desire in the title, which is taken from a poem by Robert Burns: Comin ' thro ' the Rye ( 1796).
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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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Holden is a virgin, and he is very uncomfortable with the idea of sex. He sees sex as something that is dirty and corrupting, and he is repelled by the idea of losing his virginity. Holden reveals that he has “had quite a few opportunities to lose [his] virginity and all,” but he “never got around to it yet” (Salinger 92). Holden claims to have had many chances to lose his virginity but his attitude towards sex reflects his desire to hold onto his innocence.
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In The Cather in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the main character Holden is very judgmental as he describes many people in the novel. He is a sixteen-year-old who been expelled from his school and does many things before planning to tell the news to his parents. When he leaves, he visits his teachers, prostitutes, nuns, old friends, and his sister Phoebe. While on this journey, Holden depicts men and women differently. He depicts women like Jane, Phoebe and the nuns as his “gravity”.
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Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual”. In the book Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield’s lies become habitual throughout the book. Holden is a sixteen-year-old boy, who has been kicked out of several schools including, most recently, Pencey Prep. Holden’s younger brother, Allie, died when Holden was only thirteen and his older brother is too busy working for Hollywood to care about Holden. Although his mother cares immensely for him, Holden saddens her by failing academically.
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The idea of having a character that struggles to find themselves is quite a common idea in many books. This is seen in the Catcher in the Rye where JD Salinger puts Holden the main character through different struggles throughout the book to finally realise what his purpose is and what he aims to be. There are many different situations that Holden is put through but they all aim to the same purpose, being a catcher in the rye. Two of the main struggles are his journey into adulthood and to retain his innocence. The second is how he is almost alienating himself from others and very rarely opens up to anybody, and his relationships with people are not great because he thinks of many of the people he meets are phony.
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A. Allie’s death causes Holden to become obsessed with death and this obsession makes him believe that growing up and becoming a “phonie” is like dying; this belief that is planted inside Holden’s head when Allie died is what sends him on a quest to preserve children’s innocence and save them from the “death” of growing up. B. Salinger includes the traumatic story of Allies death that happened years in advance to provide an explanation for Holden’s obsession with death and how he sees loss of innocence as equivalent to dying. Allie died with his innocence still intact, so Holden does not want other children to grow up and have their innocence “die”. C. Holden even admits to being mentally unstable after his brother’s traumatic death when he says, “I was only 13, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all
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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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How Holden matured People go through rough stuff in their lives, such as losing a close sibling. It seems impossible to pull yourself out of the pain and guilt of your loss. It appeared Holden was in the same predicament, but through his experiences in the novel The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger he learns to grow up. Aside from being very immature, holden refuses to grow up and dislikes people who have grown up.
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Throughout the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is a deep character that shows(possesses) many personality traits. His character is what connects many readers to him and helps in understanding him. Some character traits Holden possesses are that he is generous, kindhearted, usually honest, very intelligent, makes quick judgements, speaks his mind, is anxious about change, and likes kids. Considering his many character traits, it is easy for the reader to understand and relate to Holden. There are many character traits that I share with him.
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