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Symbolism essay on catcher in the rye
Holden caulfield character
Holden caulfield character
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Symbolism essay on catcher in the rye
Holden caulfield character
Holden caulfield character
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
J.D Salinger’s, The Catcher in the Rye, follows the main character, Holden Caulfield, and his experiences that lead him to be talking to a mental therapist. Told through Holden’s eyes, his profane and blunt explanations of major moments in his life allow readers to see that Holden is not crazy but is actually struggling with transitioning from child to adult. Throughout the story, he fondly remembers his early childhood and is trying the best he can to run from adulthood. He fears that he, like so many around him, may become phony when he becomes an adult. This fear drives his actions and gives him a feeling of hatred toward phony adults and a feeling of obligation to shield children from the harsh adult world.
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.
Imagine being a depressed teenager who just got expelled from high school, and on the verge of a mental breakdown. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, follows the life of a depressed six foot two and a half inch, partially gray-haired, and woefully angular sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield. Recovering from a recent breakdown, Holden tells his story from a mental institution in California. His older brother D.B. is a successful writer in Hollywood, and his younger sister Phoebe is attending elementary school in New York City. At thirteen years of age, Holden was forced to enter adulthood when his brother Allie died from leukemia.
To Holden, children are the greatest symbol of purity, a purity that he wants to preserve before they “fall off the cliff” of adulthood. Holden is fixated on the idea of being a savior. This tendency has most likely developed after the death of his younger brother Allie who will be forever fixed in a state of childhood. It is no wonder Holden sees himself as a savior of children, or simply the catcher in the rye, “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.
Holden says that all he want to do is be the catcher in the rye protecting children from falling. The whole novel Holden makes observation around him that are taking away from children's innocence. This is what upsets him the most the fact that everyone will eventually have to grow up. While he is trying to go get Phoebe he is reminded this in the following quote. “I went down by a different staircase, and I saw another "Fuck you" on the wall.
In the book; Catcher in the Rye, Holden has a series of flashbacks. The flashbacks he has throughout the story show how his character has developed over the years. For example, the author uses flashbacks to show Holden's brother D.B., and this flashback shows Holden that his brother cares about him. In the book The Catcher and the Rye, JD Salinger uses flashbacks to develop Holden’s character as secretive and charismatic. Holden is a secretive person who tends to lie because it sounds better than the truth.
The Catcher in the Rye Thematic Essay Imagine living a lonesome life, full of fear and little hope of better days to come. Imagine the toll this would take on a person’s life and how they develop as a person. For Holden Caulfield, the main character of J.D Salinger’s classic The Catcher in the Rye this, is his reality. Holden is a sixteen year old troubled boy suffering through major mental issues and living a rather a depressing life for a teenager. Throughout the novel he goes through many hardships that only worsen his depression making him feel hatred towards his seemingly hellish world.
In the novel, “The Catcher in the Rye,” Salinger addressed several issues. Most importantly that of youth innocence in which his main character, Holden Caulfield faces this realization that youth is not permanent and instead of acknowledging that adulthood scares him, he invents a fantasy that adulthood is a world of superficial and full of hypocrisy, while childhood is a world of innocence, curiosity, and honesty. Salinger expresses Holden’s belief with using a significant amount of symbolism using objects, places, and interpreted symbolic meaning such as death. Did you know that Holden Caulfield was originally first introduced in another book by J.D. Salinger? Holden’s character was introduced in the story “Slight Rebellion.”
In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger was published in 1951. The novel revolves around a teenage boy, Holden Caulfield, who believes his purpose is to be the catcher in the rye-to save children from the loss of innocence. “The crisis of existence that Holden Caulfield faces... trying to understand the sometimes terrifying transition from childhood to maturity”(Lewis). Holden’s dilemma is that he wants to become an adult without renouncing his innocence in his transition. This introduces his inner turmoil of maturing into adulthood.
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, is a book set in the 1950s and follows Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old boy who has just been kicked out of his fourth school. Holden’s perspective tells this novel, and it explores his thoughts and feelings as he traverses New York City. Throughout his adventure, Holden covers many topics teenagers face as they grow up, including his relationships with friends and family, his struggle with identity, and his fight to overcome the loss of innocence. There are many instances in this book where Holden looks back on his childhood and tries to preserve that innocence. His younger brother’s baseball mitt, his red hunting cap, and his childish questions about the ducks in the lake are all examples that show
The Catcher In The Rye by J.D Salinger is a novel told from the perspective of the protagonist Holden Caulfield. Holden is a young teenage boy who was recently hospitalized at a mental institution for illnesses he faced, and during his time there he narrates the events that led him up to this moment. Throughout the story, Holden attempts to make new relationships and in the process is exposed to many elements that resemble adulthood and his need to grow up. Ultimately, Holden struggles to grapple with the idea of change which leads him to a feeling of alienation and loneliness.
One flaw that hampers Holden's development from adolescence to adult is he acts like a child. Holden often has difficulty at trying to see from another person's point of view. Which is the reason that
Similarly, Holden’s parents sent him to Pencey Preparatory which was a boarding school. Not only that but also Salinger had a neighbor in the military who always seemed to be barging in, showing a resemblance to Holden’s unhygienic neighbor, Ackley. Moreover, Holden Caulfield was born into a wealthy family just as J.D. Salinger and both experienced failures in their love life. With its intensive use of imageries, motifs, and other literary devices, “The Catcher in the Rye” captures the essence of teenage angst through the eyes of Holden Caulfield. His character is different from other people as he views the world in a completely different light, acknowledging the phoniness of society and experiencing disappointments from the people around him.
Leslie Claro Mrs. Kehrmeyer AP English, period 1 06 March 2017 Adolescence Avoidance Youth years are the most difficult and influential years a person could experience, based on what they encounter as a child. The protagonist Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher In The Rye is lost in his attempt to avoid adolescence and balances instinct and social acceptability. J.D Salinger expresses Holden’s struggle with adolescence in a cynical and dispirited tone to segway the emotionally unstable situation his protagonist has found himself to be in. Psychoanalytic theory expands on the theory of behavior for Holden as he transitions from childhood onto the verge of adulthood.
From the outset, I have to say that “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger has been one of the most important and influential pieces of literature I have ever read. At its core, the book is a superb coming of age novel which discusses several extremely powerful themes such as the difficulties of growing up, teenage angst and alienation and the superficiality, hypocrisy and pretension of the adult world. These themes resonated deeply with me and were portrayed excellently through the use of powerful symbolism and the creation of highly relatable and likable characters. One such character is Holden Caulfield whom the story both revolves around and is narrated by.