Catcher In The Rye Annotation

On page 61, in chapter 8, Holden just got in the taxi and heading to his hotel. He says in a desperate way, “would you care for a cocktail.” The diction choices can infer that his maturity level is higher than the people in his age group. The author has purposely crafted the narrator in this way to show that he had no other option but to grow up fast. He continues to develop as a character, on page 68, in chapter 9, Holden thinks to himself, “I didn’t care much i was too depressed to care whether I had a good view or not.” The reader can infer that the main character is starting to reveal his true self. The author craft in this way to make the reader have sympathy for the narrator. On page 68, in chapter 10, Holden thinks to himself, “ I danced with them all - the whole three of them-one at a time.”The diction choices can infer that the narrator treats the three women like trash by fooling around with them and have no respect for them. The author has purposely crafted in this way to show that he is isolated from the world because he has not been interacting with others in such a long time. On page 87, in chapter 11, the narrator flashback to his childhood, “anyway, I was telling you about that afternoon Jane and I came close to necking.”The diction choices can infer that he starts to reveal the other side of himself, the real him is someone who actually cares about people who he loves.

Antolini’s lecturing of Holden changes Holden’s perception of Mr. Antolini from being similar to the affable D.B. to being similar to the authoritative Mr. Spencer, reaffirming Holden’s cynicism towards adults. As Holden is complaining about his Oral Expression class at Pencey, he states that it is more entertaining when one “digresses” from the subject when they are giving a speech (278). Holden expected that Mr. Antolini would understand and agree with him, as his views were usually in line with Holden, such as their disappointment in D.B. for going to write for Hollywood (235). However, Mr. Antolini surprises Holden by asking, “You don’t care to have someone stick to the point when he tells you something”(239)? By imploring Holden to explain his statement, Mr. Antolini parallels Mr. Spencer in the way that he turns the conversation about his failing out of Pencey on Holden. Mr. Spencer makes Holden explain to him why he failed the class (16). Holden, who has trouble with articulating his thoughts, tends to seize up when this occurs, making the conversations doubly unpleasant. “Oh I don’t know,” Holden replied to Mr. Antonili, “I didn’t feel much like explaining. I was feeling sort of dizzy or something, and I had a helluva headache all of a sudden. I really did” (238). Holden was so uncomfortable with Mr. Antolini’s turning the conversation on him that he was physically sick. This parallels to when Mr. Spencer was conversing with him, Holden recounts “All of the

Holden Caulfield despises phonies, because he finds them hypocritical, and uses the insult phony as a way to brush off the rejection he feels from most people. Almost all of the people Holden has called phony have disappointed or rejected his in some way, so Holden tries to make himself feel better by dismissing the people as fake. Holden considers phonies as ingenuine people, however he is a phony himself because he demonstrates the same characteristics he despises. For example, Holden “hate[s] movies like a poison” because they are phony, meaning they deceive their audience, hide behind masks, and fake emotions (33). Ironically, Holden is also a phony by his own definition, because he is constantly deceiving people for no good reason. In fact he admits that he is “the most terrific liar you ever say in your life”(19). The most obvious evidence of Holden’s phoniness is that he lies to himself throughout the entire book. He

On page 4 when Holden is talking about his older brother, D.B. He says “Now he's out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute.” Before this Holden speaks highly of his

In this stage of his journey Holden refuses to accept his call to adventure - his call to adulthood. On his way, a young girl says she is at the museum and asks Holden to tie her skate, “She was a very nice, polite little kid. God, I love it when a kid’s nice and polite when you tighten their skate or something. Most kids are” (155). Holden is still refusing to grow up to be an adult. He is afraid of becoming a “phony”. He is stuck between the innocence of youth and the adult world. In the museum, he doesn’t find Phoebe. He notes that he hates the museum because everything stays the same except for him. In other words, Holden is inevitably changing while he wishes he could stay the same like the figures in the museum. Holden visits Mr. Antolini, his old teacher, in search for advice. He talks to Holden about applying himself and setting goals for the future. Mr. Antolini seems like a possible mentor for Holden but after Holden wakes up from a nap he leaves abruptly, “I woke up all of a sudden...I felt something on my head...it was Mr. Antolini’s hand...he was he was sort of petting me or patting me on the goddam head” (249). Holden, freaked out by the strange actions of Mr. Antolini, leaves the house as quickly as possible. This represents Holden's denial of Mr. Antolini as his mentor. He heads over to Phoebes school and suddenly sees something very disturbing, “I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody’d written ‘Fuck you’ on the wall...I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it...”(260). Holden is furious because children will read the words and wonder what it means. He is upset mostly because the children will lose their innocence. Readers can relate to Holden’s attitude in trying to keep children innocent for as long as possible. It’s one of the reasons why we don't use bad language around kids or behave inappropriately. Its why we don’t let kids watch R rated

Salinger frames observations about society and self in the crass, upper-middle class American vernacular of Holden Caulfield. Somehow, he finds a way to permanently slot this distinct, developed character into the consciousness of teens across the world - generation after

Holden has a naive, tunnel visioned view on life: confined in his own space of judgmental belief that insecurities and superficiality are “phony.” He holds high expectations for life, that most things are meant to have intense meaning, such as his view on sex.

As the story progresses Holden points out different characteristics of himself and in one of these incidents he calls himself out on being a liar. He says “Then I started reading this timetable I had in my pocket. Just to stop lying. Once I get

Holden loves his little sister Phoebe. He calls her really smart and a pretty girl and again, like when describing Allie, he says, “You’d like her.” He says he can take her anywhere and talk to her about anything. He goes on and on about Phoebe and keeps saying, “You’d like her.” So it is obvious that he loves her and misses her terribly. His opinion of Phoebe contrasts with the rest of the characters in the novel because she is the only one that Holden genuinely likes. The rest of the characters are “bastards” or “phonies” or “touchy as hell” or a “sunovabitch”. He usually has at least one bad thing to say about someone else, but not Phoebe.

Back at his dormitory, Holden tries to read a book but is constantly interrupted by Ackley. He tries to deter him but Ackley doesn’t take the hint. Eventually, Stradlater arrives. Stradlater asks Holden to write him a descriptive English composition, which Holden agrees to. Stradlater reveals that his date is Jean Gallagher, an old friend of Holden’s. Holden shows surprise at this, and proceeds to talk about the things they used to

Holden has hypocritical moments, but for the most part he is honest with himself. A couple of times during the story, Holden mentions that he may say or feel like he is going to attack somebody out of anger, but he knows that he has

Holden runs into Ernest Morrow's mother on the train and lies about his name and her son’s behavior.

Holden’s compulsive lying creates a barrier of protection around him when he interacts with strangers. His cynicism and judgment of others is a front as well, specifically designed to protect him from the rejection of others. When people let him down, the sting of rejection hurts a lot less because he has already expected everybody to be “phony”—or more specifically, a vain, status-obsessed suck-up. By calling everybody a phony, Holden creates a safety net and justifies the way others treat him; this is his self-fulfilling prophecy. Holden’s constant decree of “phoniness” also unveils the purpose behind his journey in New York City: he is searching for authenticity and he finds that he can only locate it through the innocence of childhood.

Throughout the novel, Holden is able to manipulate members of society with various lies and deceitful actions. This manipulation brings forward thoughts relating to the minimal effort required to influence society. An early example of this manipulation happens to be the initial plot of the novel, Holden’s journey to New York. By utilizing the given time in an inappropriate way, Holden commits an act of deceitfulness. When Holden is on the train headed for New York City, he encounters the mother of one of his ex-classmates, Misses Morrow. Within their conversation, to prevent a situation that would end his journey, Holden fabricates an outrageous lie to justify his being on the train. Rather than realizing fault within the situation and taking action toward, Misses Morrow ends up believing him with very

Holden’s affectionate side is also seen in his loving description of Phoebe. He says “You’d like her...she was somebody you always felt like talking to on the phone”(Salinger 37). Throughout the novel Phoebe is always one of the first