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Why Is Catcher In The Rye Still Relevant To Teenagers Today

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“I was surrounded by phonies… They were coming in the goddamn window”. This quote from the the book ‘Catcher in the Rye’ by J.D. Salinger. The story is about a boy named Holden Caufield is who is suffering from emotional trauma, depression, and trust issues. Many of Holden’s problems is still relevant to teenagers today although the book was published in 1951.

CITR explains a lot of how a teenager is trying to deal with isolation and personal feelings. Holden has been expelled out of his current school Pencey Prep and got into a fight with his roommate stradlater because Holden thought Stradlater was trying to get intimate with a girl he likes. “He got leukemia and died July 18, 1946.you’d have liked him”. Holden …show more content…

“I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.” this quote indicates that Holden has lied to many people and I know some teenagers that also lie. Many teenagers today has lied to get out of troubled situations. For example when a parent’s asks a child if he or she has done something wrong of course the kid will say no because he or she doesn’t want to get in trouble, but in Holden’s case teenagers today lie in a different way. Many teenagers keep their problems to themselves pushing away everyone that tries to help. Teenagers will keep saying they are ok but inside they are really not. They refuse help from other people and try to face the problem themselves.

“What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide.” Many teenagers today have at least thought about committing suicide at least once. Many teenagers today have problems dealing with friends, Family, or relationships that causes them to think the unthinkable. “I felt lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead.” This feeling is reflects to all of teenagers because even myself I feel lonely sometimes but that’s how far I can only go but some teenagers think further and wish they would

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Yet, Holden did not seem depressed he just was hurt, which turned him into a terrific liar. Particularly, in the book he states “I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful.” This quote is a confession of him being a liar. Holden lies about his name to a woman named Mrs. Morrow.

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To start, the death of Holden’s younger brother, Allie, has impacted Holden’s life to a certain extent. He passed away when he was eleven years old and when Holden was thirteen years old from Leukemia. Holden has not been the same ever since the death and can be shown by, “I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage. I don’t blame them. I really don’t.

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While reading this book, one may notice that the main character Holden calls almost every character that we meet phonies. Never once in the book did Holden call himself a phony. The word phony was used 48 times throughout this entire novel making it one of the top 5 words used in this book. The Catcher in the Rye is a novel written by J.D. Salinger. This book is narrated by the main character Holden Caulfield.

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I do think this is still relevant to teenagers today because a lot of teens today are like Holden. They are like holden because a lot of teens don’t want to grow up and go into the real world because they are afraid and they are not ready for what’s to come and Holden is just like that throughout the story he is afraid and worried for what’s to come. “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.” The Catcher in the Rye is a novel written by J. D. Salinger and it’s about a kid named Holden and Holden is afraid to enter the adult world and he wants to become a catcher in the rye to save kids from falling of a cliff that falls into the adult world.

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Teenagers constantly worry what other people think of them: friends, family, even strangers. They’ve all been there. But what teenagers should really be worrying about is what they think of themselves. Teens should not be pressured to choose between what they want to be based on what others want them to be. Yet, teenagers think that their options are limited, and that’s where they take the wrong turn.

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Option 3: Argument Life can either be taken way too seriously, or not at all. Some people choose to take life seriously by following all the rules that are enforced on us from birth until we get older, and others choose to take their own path and see where it takes them. The second behavior can be seen as treating life like a game. In Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Dr. Thurmer says that “life is a game that one plays according to the rules,” and Mr. Spencer mentions that idea to Holden while they talk. Although Holden does not think life is a game, his behavior and experiences show otherwise throughout the book.

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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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In the Catcher in the Rye, Salinger depicts the immature mentality of typical teenagers through Holden’s childish curiosity. Teens experience

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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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Holden struggles with growing up and facing reality. There are many examples of Holden’s immaturity that are displayed in many forms such as facing responsibilities, his speech, his actions, and etc. Holden’s outlook on adult life is that it is superficial and brimming with phonies, but childhood was all about looking pleasing and innocent. He wants everything to stay the same and for time to stop. As Holden progresses in age, he will discover more about becoming mature in the

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Holden begins trying to be older than he actually is, still scared to lose innocence he grasps so hard to be a different person. He is a teenage boy in a grown up’s world. Trying to be an adult isn 't as easy as it seems and Holden is starting to learn that. “She had a terrifically nice smile. She really did.

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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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As of 2015, 5 in 100,000 girls and 14 in 100,000 teenagers commit suicide (Lewis). Teenagers are becoming more vulnerable and schools seem to be taking no notice. If these lives could be saved, it would help so many families across the united states. The National Institute of Mental Health states that there “are as many as 25 attempts of suicide to every one that is actually committed” (Eco Child’s Play). Suicides can be prevented by treatment of the illness.

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Teens should be given an environment where they feel comfortable telling someone how they feel. A key component in preventing teen suicide linked to depression is for the teens to feel socially connected to others, this protection factor has been linked directly to positive emotional health. Depression often stems from isolation, if teenagers are given a place where they no longer feel isolated, in essence, this could allow for reduction in the number of depression diagnosis’s and essentially leading to less teenage lives

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Suicide is a dominant cause of death among teenagers and young adults. The rate of suicides and suicide attempts increases from time to time. For some, suicide is the permanent solution to a temporary problem and most pressing public health issues across the world. Suicides case is so often these days even becoming a trend and we are not even flinch anymore. The depression and substances abuse for teenagers currently become issues that lead to suicide cases among teenagers.

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