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Inner Conflict In The Catcher In The Rye

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Inner Conflict The nature of an inner conflict can vary from culture to culture, but one aspect that we can all agree on, is that inner conflict is the emotional and mental battle one has with him/herself. Whether it be an ethical or moral dilemma, it is the tiresome and difficult struggle one has to face when battling his problems, queries and insecurities. The main purpose of inner conflict in the novel Catcher in the Rye, is to reveal to the audience Holden's insecurities and doubts he faces with himself and the complexity and harshness of the adult world. Firstly, Holden struggles to let go of the past and move on from his brother's death. In addition, he is extremely afraid of commitment, attachment and intimacy with the opposite sex and lastly, he has trouble …show more content…

To briefly summarize, in portraying these insecurities, the author wants to highlight the need to identify one's faults, so then they can work on rectifying them to become a better person, just as we see Holden do at the end of the novel. He wants to emphasize that becoming familiar with the struggles of the adult world isn't all bad, as we can prepare ourselves and adjust to the situation, before it becomes too much to handle. Lastly, he wants to pin point that we should not label the whole world based on a couple of people, but instead we have to broaden our horizons. To begin, the protagonist Holden Caulfield has an immensely difficult time getting over his brother's death and thus it is portrayed that he doesn’t possess the ability of letting go of the past and concentrating on the future. He instead harbors the anger, sadness and guilt of his brother's death inside him for so many years, causing him to battle with himself and blame himself for what happened. He can't admit that he has to move on with life and commit his full concentration on his schoolwork, instead of dwelling on the past. For example Holden says, “I was only

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