The Catcher in the Rye by Jerome David Salinger is a classic novel. This novel was published in 1951. Salinger uses profanity, slang as well as open conversation about sexuality were seen as taboo. Many critics at the time said it was not serious literature, but they were wrong. The Catcher in the Rye discusses a person’s struggle with living in a hard and heartless world. I It opens minds to ideas other than the cultural norm and since it has been published it has been seen as a classic. Many found it to be very relatable as many teens experience angst throughout their teenage years.The book takes place in New York City in either 1948 or 1949.
The main character is Holden Caulfield. He is a sixteen year old that has just been expelled from
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society. Each person around him was a fake and he could never see the good in people and things. This is due to Holden's strong opposition to material wealth, which is a dominating characteristic of the society which he could not accept. Many say that he’s just a spoiled rich boy who doesn’t appreciate all of the opportunities given to him. I think he was constantly viewed as spoiled and rich and learned to hate it and criticize it. He can't communicate with anyone and feels that the only person he can even relate to is his sister Phoebe. Holden cannot function as a normal part of society because of his hatred towards all "phonies", which he believes everyone to be.
Phoebe seems to be the only person that Holden feels he can relate with, this may be because she is still young and has yet to enter the adult world. She is naive. Holden wants to hold on to his childhood, yet he strives to fit in as part of what he perceives as the adult world. Through adolescence, teenagers constantly experience being treated as both a child and an adult or they feel like they’re both. He tries to shield the people he knows from the real world and encourages them to stay as they are and hold on to their innocence. He believes the [adult] world is full of
Holden's constantly telling that he is different from everyone else, who he defines as "phonies", wearing his hunting cap to make him standout in society, and inability to make a social contact with a Jane Gallagher, who he constantly brings up, are just a few lucid examples of his self-alienation of society. Holden feels and uses this alienation to protect himself from the harshness of society is this constant defense mechanism eventually leads to his
The story starts with Holden talking about his life in school, where he gets kicked out afterward. He was in charge of the sports team. Then he messes up the team by losing the equipment. “I left all the foils and
Holden’s view of life is that it can be very cruel and unfair. The origin of this thinking is from his younger brother Allie. He feels guilty that he is essentially wasting his life away, while Allie died so very young of Leukemia. This is a huge part of his entire journey. Holden always describes Allie as a very smart and kind person that he looked up to, which is why he feels life is so cruel.
Holden is detached from responsibilities, and life in general. Holden does not apply himself in school and shows that in his note to his teacher in an essay, “It is all right with me if you flunk me though as I am flunking everything else except English anyway, Respectfully yours, Holden Caulfield (12).” The reason Holden does not care about school is because he does not care about his future, “Oh, I feel some concern for my future, all right. Sure. Sure, I do...But not too much, I guess. Not too much, I guess (14).” Holden is also detached from his family, specifically his father, and not having a loving father figure can affect a person, “You can hit my father over the head with a chair and he won't take up, but my mother, all you have to do to my mother is cough somewhere in Siberia and she'll hear you. She's nervous as hell (158).” The only meaningful relationship Holden has is with Phoebe. Holden can not confide with anybody except for Phoebe and even if there was someone else to confide with Holden doesn’t have the will to explain the problems that are occurring, “I can’t explain what I mean. And even if I could, I’m not sure I’d feel like it (122).” Part of the treatment will be to help Holden to trust again. This trust will allow him to open up and not keep all of his problems to
The purpose of this paper is to explore and investigate the many different topics that involve baseball mitts, from things such as science, how a glove is broken in and cared for, how gloves are made, an article that goes in depth on the art of glove making, and why a glove can withstand 300, 95 mile an hour pitches a game. To pop culture, and some of the many movies you can find one of the gamers in, like Money ball, A League of Their Own, 42, The Sandlot, The Field of Dreams, and many more. The timeline of the very first glove patent in 1885, to the newest model in 2015, and even a look inside The Catcher in the Rye. This object promises an evocative paper because of all the research I’ve done on Baseball mitts to find the most interesting information
Holden’s relationship to his sister Phoebe and his outlived relationship with his brother Allie both exercise as means of preserving his own adolescence and innocence. Holden analyzes the traits of his younger siblings and longs to keep those aspects of their individuality alive within himself. Sustaining ties to his childhood is one of Holden’s compulsions; which is balanced with his second compulsions which is to ward off ones advancement into adulthood. We can see these qualities of Holden through his lack of motivation to excel in school. Another example of this tendency is when he is reluctant to have sex with Sunny the prostitute, although a part of him was eager to take a step towards adulthood, he was too timid and scared of losing his own innocence. Phoebe immediately realizes Holden’s obsession with preserving the innocence within people; especially her, and she calls him out "You don't like anything that's happening. . .
There are times where he thinks he will die just from simply crossing the street and other times where he loses his cool and goes psycho. Phoebe, on the other hand, is not like this she is a happy little girl who is extremely smart. Another difference between Phoebe and Holden is that Holden has been kicked out of three different prep schools and doesn’t do very well with any sort of academics. There are some things that he is smart as he just doesn’t put any effort in. Phoebe though is a star student who gets great grades. Holden also hates people he describes as phonies and sells outs. He describes his brother D.B. as a sellout because of what he is doing with his life out west. As for phonies, Holden thinks many people are phonies or people that don’t act true to themselves. For instance, he says that the headmaster of Pencey and the Pencey school as a whole is phony because every Saturday night the school feeds the boys steak. This is so that on Sunday when the moms their sons at school and ask them what they had for dinner last night they say that they had
It all starts when Holden was expelled from his forth school, Pencey Prep a private school in Pennsylvania, for failing four out of five of his classes. After forgetting the fencing equipment at a subway in New York, Holden as equipment manager was blamed and sent back to the school with the team early. Afterwards, he leaves to go to his history teacher, Mr. Spencer’s, house to say good-bye, while there Holden gets lectured by him for not taking school seriously and getting nowhere in life. Having heard enough Holden leaves the house and rushes back to his dorm to catch up on some reading. While trying to read, Holden gets interrupted by
He doesn’t understand the fact that people’s personalities and behaviors can change when surrounded by others. He finds any presence of adult life to be phony. When he calls people phonies, it makes him feel better when they reject him. Because Holden is critical of everyday life and people, he becomes mentally unstable, which causes him to separate himself from life. Holden has a long way to go before being called a fully matured adult. His obsession with calling people phony cause him to be lonely and to get himself in trouble. Holden is not going to fully mature at the same time as his classmates. Just by simply not listening and blocking out “phony” advice Holden will cause himself a lifetime of trouble and difficulty. Phoebe is the only person that he does not consider a phony. He does not easily belong in his society because of how different he is. He appears odd to those of his age. Phonies are affecting his mind to ponder like a child and making him unbearable to work with. People don’t like to be near Holden because he doesn’t listen to
The story begins with Holden at his fourth school, Pencey Prep, as he had been kicked out of the previous three he attended. Holden knew a similar fate would be on its way for him at Pencey too, as he was failing every class except English. Holden perhaps would have stayed until he was officially kicked out of the school, but after an altercation that turned bloody between Holden and his roommate Stradlater, he decided to run away from Pencey then and there. He begins
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger will always be considered a classic, but many debate on whether this book should be taught in high school English classes. It in fact should be taught because teenagers can find many aspects of the novel relatable, and can learn from the obvious mistakes of Holden Caulfield and apply the themes of this book to their own lives. Even though the text involves some bad habits, readers should look for the bigger pictures and appreciate the novel for the themes it gives.
“Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do you start missing everybody” This quote taken from J.D Salinger’s 1951novel The Catcher in the Rye, exemplifies one of the themes of the book; loneliness. Other themes in the novel are depression, self delusion, authenticity, self isolation, loss and growing up. The novel follows Holden Caulfield as he tries to maneuver through life in a world he finds very ‘phony’ and shallow.
Holden Caulfield is the main character in Catcher in the Rye. Holden tends to mock and reject society and individuals in his time; however, if Catcher in the Rye were to be written in 2018 many things could be different. The technology in the book would be advanced and the wording would be more modern, many people would speak differently, sayings and slangs could be used more. Holden could still have hatred towards the world and individuals still, but he could use technology to mock kids he has gone to school with like; drama and embarrassing photos.
This was one of the reasons that kept him isolated and also very difficult to interact with. Except for one person who he actually didn’t really judge or talk bad about which was his little sister Phoebe, throughout the novel Holden actually tells us how much he appreciates and loves his little sister Phoebe. There’s one point in the novel where he’s having a conversation with her and she points out to him about having problems with not liking anything that revolves around him. For example on page 169 of the book Phoebe says “Holden you don’t like anything that’s happening!” Which shows us how Holden really didn’t get much involved with anything around him. After she said that Holden says that when she said that it just made him more
Holden ends the novel by refusing to say what happened after the carousel other than that