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How Does Holden Present Greed In Catcher In The Rye

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J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye shows the struggles of a teenage boy to succeed in a corrupt world. Holden wishes that everyone could stay their young, innocent selves and not be changed by the corrupt world; because of this belief he has a hard time succeeding in this world and does not like taking advice from adults. While several parental figures care about Holden’s wellbeing, he rejects their guidance because he equates them with the corrupt world. Holden’s parents, Mr. Spencer and Mr. Antolini all love Holden dearly, but Holden believes that all adults are too phony and this makes him not want to accept their help in any way. Even though there are no interactions between Holden and his parents in the novel his parents …show more content…

Antolini is like a father figure in Holden’s life. He wants him to get out of this funk he is in and start pushing himself to succeed in life; Holden rejects this guidance because he believe Mr. Antolini is an adult that has been corrupt too much by this world. Mr. Antolini loves him like his own son and really does want him to succeed in this world. Mr. Antolini wants to see Holden live a good life. Mr. Antolini cares about Holden so much so that he “came up to [their] house for dinner quite frequently to find out how [Holden] was getting along” (235). They did not have your average teacher student relationship. Mr. Antolini was a friend and a mentor for Holden; he was someone for Holden to talk to about anything. He is a teacher so he is a busy man, but he took time out of his life just to make sure Holden was doing okay and to give him some advice when he could. Mr. Antolini wanted him to do well in school and live a good life. When he found out Holden flunked out of Pencey he was disappointed and wanted to talk to him straight away. Some advice he gave Holden to show him the tough reality of what Holden would have to do was, “‘I think that once you have a fair idea where you want to go, your first move will be to apply yourself in school. You’ll have to. You’re a student-whether the idea appeals to you or not’” (245). Mr. Antolini told him the harsh reality even though he knew Holden would not want to hear it. Mr. Antolini cares about Holden and knows that Holden has it in him to be great. He is trying to push him to try harder and not give up on himself. Holden over reacts when Mr. Antolini is patting his head while he is asleep. Mr. Antolini was just trying to comfort Holden like he was his own son. He was imagining and hoping for him to have a good life. Every time Mr. Antolini gave Holden a good long, hard thought about a piece of advice, Holden would not fully take it in and think about it at all really; Holden always instantly rejected his advice:

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