Analysis Of The Novel 'The Catcher In The Rye'

Holden’s depression about his brother’s death, affects his personal life. This matters because it explains why Holden always acts so negative in the book. These feelings are more remorse than the “normal” person. The book also goes heavily detail in these emotions, which could persuade the reader to feel these same emotions about others. Holden gets so wrapped up in all of his emotions, that he begins to critique others around him, even the people who are trying to help

“Holden’s world provides no one he can truly emulate.” (Bryan, 33) .m in this novel JD Stanley narrates the secondary characters as personifications as either the exact opposite rejecting Holden wants to be. His fears are portrayed in ackley, stradlater and mr. Spencer. Ackley is described to be what every teenage boy doesn't want to be, ugly and disgusting. stradlater is described as one of the largest Playboy's in pencey prep. Holden describes them both as Big phonies, along with everyone else at pencey. Holden’s fears of death and sickness is shown in mr. Spencer’s sick room. he wants to be wise likes mr. Spencer but he doesn't want the illness and old age. “ Holden is a wonderful creation. So he throws himself around as if he disparages the human race, he does not have the misanthropy that you associate with that kind of disparagement. He has a real feeling for people, that's the richness of his character...” (Moss; Devices, 31) Holden isn't just cynical he sees the world for what it really is he sees boys soccer past the stereotypes right through to the reality and thickness of a person Holden's character is what people in the real world parentheses outside of just not want to see hate the most because these are the types of people that don't lie about who or what they are. Hold him. Want to be something that are played out in the

Secondly, most teenagers have struggles grieving for the loss of of their loved ones. Holden struggles multiples of times to grief for the death of his younger brother, Allie, who died at the age of 11 due to leukemia. Holden writes about Allie for Stradlater’s english homework and tells the reader, “He was terrifically intelligent. His teachers were always writing letters to my mother, telling her what a pleasure it was having a boy like Allie in their class...But it wasn’t just that he as the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anyone...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. I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the

Holden as a character displays the alienation of himself through his behaviour. Holden is not the same as many people and believes that everyone is a ‘phony’. Throughout the novel Holden realises more and more that he is different and sees the world differently to others around him. Holden has created an identity for himself and doesn’t want that to be diminished therefore he alienates himself from the rest of society to decrease the chances of that happening. Holden’s old school, Pency Prep, has the motto “since 1888 we have been shaping young boys into splendid, clear-thinking men.” (pg. 2) This increases Holden’s motivation to leave the school as it will be shaping his identity into something he doesn’t want to be; a man. Holden is all about protecting those younger than him from the dangerous world of adult hood and by alienating himself he feels he has a better chance of

The concept of being a child who was glorified by his mother at a young age, and who was flat out just spoiled, gives context to Holden 's inability to deal with issues on his own, reflecting on his social skills and behavior challenges.(Yardley) So when Holden 's younger brother Allie passes away his initial reaction is to break the windows because he doesn’t know how else to deal with these types of issues. This aggressive reaction that Holden takes is understandable, but at the same time unnecessary; most kids would deal with the loss of a loved one by seeking comfort from others, but in this situation Holden no longer had his mother to pamper him because they were busy grieving the loss as well. Leaving Holden Caulfield alone.( Irving 84)

 Nevertheless Holden has so much personal pride he refuses lower him to that level.  For if he does, in his eyes, he will be the same as all those other ?Phony Ivy League bastards? (85).  As a result of Holden giving up on school, he is unable to proceed with the natural evolution that must occur for him to move on in society.  Mr. Antolini later points out to him ?Learning is a beautiful reciprocal arrangement.  And it isn?t education.  It?s history.  It?s poetry? (189).  His goal for Holden being to see school as something he loves and not something he is being forced to do.  Mr. Antolini tried to give Holden a reason to be motivated and in which case not to give up so easily.

fall. He tries to instill the notion that Holdenmust ignore the corrupt society in order to fully experience enriching and symbiotic relationshipsin life.

After Holden is kicked out of Pencey Prep, his mental state begins a chaotic downward spiral leaving him in a hospital to be psychoanalyzed. As Holden recollects the events leading to his final downfall, he frequently categorizes many others as phonies, something synonymous to those who seem hypocritical or fake. He scorns such people, acting as if he is superior to these characters even as he displays such characteristics as well. While the readers are guided through Holden’s flawed perspective and biased commentary they began to understand Holden’s own tendencies to lie and put on a show. Through Holden’s ironic use of the word phony, Salinger projects his belief that people can not truly be defined as either good or bad.

who are insecure, and, above all, people who are “phony.” Holden carries this penchant for

Holden’s story takes place in the 1950s. Because of this, it is necessary that the reader reads the story from multiple points of views. As Foster puts it, “don’t read with your eyes” (Foster 228) meaning that it is sometimes necessary to read from a perspective that will let you relate to and sympathize with the characters. The time period is shown many times such as when Holden goes dancing and asks a girl if she feels like “jitterbugging a little bit” (Salinger 72) referencing an iconic dance from that era. What people said and how they said it were very different in the past, and it is important to keep that in mind while reading.

Holden’s parents establish a set of standards for Holden while he attends fancy preparatory schools. They want him to become successful and follow the footsteps of his father, “Lawyers are all right, I guess… All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot-shot… Even if you did save guys’ lives and all, how would you know you did it because you wanted to, or because you did it because what you really wanted to do was be a terrific lawyer? How would you know you know you weren’t being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn’t” (172). This shows his unwillingness to acquiesce, and follow the standards set by his parents and society. Holden continually gets kicked out of school, because he doesn’t want to live a meaningless life. He simply has no concern about making money or achieving the American Dream, he just wants to be complacent and live a happy life. Holden is essentially rebelling against what society has taught him that was most important; wealth and power. He has created his own set of principles, which is often the cause of his alienation from the rest of his peers. While attending Pencey Prep, Holden was forced into taking an oral expression class, that forced him and his classmates to standardize the way they think and speak in order to comply with the guideline set by their teacher Mr. Vinson (183). In almost every aspect of his life, he is being continually

The loss of Holden’s little brother affected him tremendously, and that is what started the depression. Every single situation has affected Holden after his brother passed away, and that caused him to try to isolate himself from the

Holden isn’t necessarily the most reliable person in the aspect of school life. He failed all his classes but one and was kicked out of four schools for failing. Compared to his siblings, he is the one that has accomplished the least, the song “Perfect” by Simple Plan describes how he could feel about himself due to that. Holden’s brother is an author down is Hollywood and his sister Phoebe, is a smart beautiful young girl as well. Holden talks very highly of his sister, for example he says “You should see her. You never saw a little kid so pretty and smart in your whole life...I mean she's had all A's ever since she started school…”(Salinger 67). Holden, as mentioned has been kicked out of multiple schools, while his siblings are aspiring

When the reader looks back at Holden’s history they can make assumptions as to why Holden wants things to stay the way they are. The general assumption would be because Holden is very distant to people who are dear to him. He mentions his younger sister, Phoebe frequently but cannot connect with her in any way due to Holden’s enrollment in a relatively distant school. Holden also recalls his two brothers, Allie and D.B., whom he is exiled from in result of Allie’s tragic fate and D.B.’s migration to California. The death of Holden’s favorite person, Allie, results ultimately in the unstable mental condition that controls Holden. Holden’s fascination with children and their mentalities is driven from Holden’s mourning of Allie’s death. While Holden tries to resist changing, he is identifying himself with Allie. Critic, Hermit Vanderbilt, agrees that, “Obviously despairing at the cosmic injustice of such an early death, Holden falls into a schizophrenic disorder interested in keeping him from growing up and keeping the role of Allie alive.” (Vanderbilt 299). In addition to the laments of personal loss, Holden also desires a stagnancy of time because of his fear of losing his moral purity. This is shown when Holden speaks about how his older brother, D.B., has lost his moral standards in the pursuit of fame. Holden feels D.B. has strayed far from his truly respectable writing when D.B. “sold himself out” to the expectations of Hollywood. Holden refers to D.B. as a

"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of