Adolescence, this is a time where you figure out who you truly are. This soul searching leads to self realization. Holden Caulfield from The Catcher In The Rye by J. D. Salinger, has trouble accepting himself. Throughout his days he would put on a cap just to be someone else. It is his get away place, a place of isolation. A way for him to seclude from the world and become someone he isn’t. This is relatable to numerous teens. Though Holden could be described using numerous adjectives, Holden's character can be perfectly described as ignorant, a liar, and a slacker. He is ignorant because he does not learn from his mistakes. He is a compulsive liar. Finally, he is a slacker because he avoids work. Holden is just like countless people out there who do not apply themselves. You see, Holden could be smart. He could be successful. He just doesn’t have the motivation or ambition to do so. Being ignorant means to lack knowledge or awareness; uneducated or unsophisticated. Holden is known to be this way because he gets himself into the most severe situations. However, once he is out of them, he will have the same issue later on. This is because Holden is not astute. He repeats those mistakes because he does not learn from them. This makes him ignorant. An example of a situation is when he gets in a fist fight with Stradlater. “I tried to sock him, with all my might, right smack in the toothbrush, so it would split his goddam throat open,” (Salinger, pg 43). From this we know that
Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child. “All of a sudden I
J.D. Salinger, the author of the Catcher in the Rye, was a skilled writer. Salinger wrote about a wide variety of characters throughout this novel, many of these characters had a complex personality. Holden Caulfield is the main character in the Catcher in the rye. Holden is a unique character and he shares very little traits with the other people he encounters throughout the novel besides his younger sister, Phoebe. Holden and Phoebe Caulfield have two very different personalities but they share some distinct similarities. Holden is a gloomy, pessimistic, and unstable teenager. Phoebe, on the other hand, is a lively, optimistic, and innocent child. Throughout the novel Holden spends his time trying to act mature while Phoebe is living out the childhood he never had. Phoebe and Holden have very different personalities and outlooks on life. While the two have such opposing traits, they have a similar background and upbringing.
Holden Caulfield, of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a teenager struggling to transition into adulthood, which is indirectly affected by his relationships with his family and the people around him. The story is told in any way Holden wants and he chooses what the audience can see making him an unreliable narrator. Some of the aspects that largely affects Holden’s relationship are his superiority and the way he was raised. However much of the drawn conclusions can only be inferred from what Holden chooses to reveal.
This quote is from chapter 3 where Holden calls himself illiterate. Through the quote, the author shows the readers how Holden is an unreliable narrator and hypocritical. For example, Holden calls himself “quite illiterate” but in reality he reads and writes a lot. Also, English is the only class he passed at Pencey which demonstrates how his words are
The lousy football team was losing again. My date Jean or whatever, and I were getting cold and it started snowing, so we left during halftime. As we were walking back, Jane looked cold and I went to put my arm around her. She shook it off and gave me the phoniest look you ever saw. When we reached the Pencey Prep building, I told Jane to go wait in the annex while I went upstairs real quick. Before my date with her, I need my roommate's houndstooth jacket.
Holden's problem in life is that he is very judgmental of almost everything and everyone; this leads him to become isolated, unhappy and lonely. First, he criticizes people who
In the novel “The Catcher in the Rye”, protagonist Holden Caulfield recalls the events that lead up to him being admitted into a rest home. Making no effort to give the reader any back story about his life, he hurdles directly into the start of his journey. He describes sitting atop Thomson hill overlooking the football game currently being played at his school. Holden doesn’t join his fellow peers down at the stadium because he had recently been dismissed from his school, Pencey Prep. Moreover, Holden had newly lost a surplus of fencing supplies, despite being the fencing captain. Consequently, he is filled with shame and dismay and wishes to not be encompassed by his successful classmates. Throughout the novel, Holden tells his adventure
In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger writes about a troubled teen named Holden Caulfield, who underwent failing school, traveled through New York City at night, and met many people. Salinger depicts Holden as someone with uncontrollable anger, many anxieties, extreme loneliness, powerful love, and numerous fears. All of this mold Holden into a complex person with an unusual personality and unique traits that make him different from society and unable to accept or appreciate most of the people around him. There seems to be a strong connection between his speech, actions, and thoughts and his prominent personality traits: being judgmental, lonely, and unhappy.
The fact that I don't hear the word authentic much and not really familiar with the word, but when the word authentic comes up I usually think of me or something relating to me. Now if I was asked the question, ¨what makes an authentic character?¨ I would say a character that people from any generation can relate to. The way they talk, think, reasoning, all of those make it easy for anyone to relate with and make it feel like that character is talking to the reader. “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger Is about a teenage name Holden Caulfield, the main character with problems and decided to leave his dorm to wander in New York city. Holden Caulfield was indeed an authentic character. The way
We all hold something close to our hearts that really means something to us. In Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield is a 16 year old young man that has gone through some rough times. With a little brother, Allie, that died of cancer at the age of 11, A big brother, D.B., who became big writing children's books so he left for hollywood soon after Allie’s death. Holden has been dropped out of three schools, and is currently attending Pency. Holden doesn't have much to be happy about in his life, not really much to live for. But those few things that he does love, that he does care for, really do mean something special. For instance, Holden’s little sister, Phoebe. Phoebe switches a switch in holden's mind that
In J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield experiences many emotional troubles, most of which are much more significant than those of a typical teenager's. From rapid, intense mood swings to depressive episodes filled with suicidal thoughts and self destructive behaviors, his grave mental illness ends up taking over him. Holden Caulfield's bipolar disorder leaves him feeling distraught, confused and hopeless, and eventually causes him to have a mental breakdown.
“In literature, every conflict is essentially a struggle between good and evil.” This means that there will always be a clash between all actions, either being beneficial or detrimental. In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the main character’s name is Holden Caulfield. He is weak in his mental state in the book, which causes him to fail out of multiple schools and to be unable to share his feelings with people. He has a younger sister named Phoebe, who is one of the only people are truly understand Holden the most. This novel affirms the critical lens, which states that in literature, every conflict is essentially a struggle between good and evil. Every conflict in the novel is essentially a struggle between good and
Acting one way doesn’t necessarily mean that is what a person is. In the novel, The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield tries to act older than he really is. Holden is a static character because he doesn’t change throughout the novel. He is still doing the same old games that he did at the beginning of the novel. Holden is a junior at Pencey High School. He isn’t a good student; near Christmas time he was flunking all but one of his classes. This led to him getting kicked out of school. Holden likes to think that he is older than he actually is. He starts to do things that he thinks older people would do. Lying and drinking are just two of the characteristics.
In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield lets us in on the struggles of a seventeen year old boy who has been kicked out of how many schools and is on his own in New York, scared to reveal his academic failures to his parents. He makes it clear that he is unhappy and feeling immensely isolated, which causes him to undertake many questionable and potentially harming activities and conversations, including hiring prostitutes, playing games with himself and imagining being shot, and calling up old friends. At the beginning of the book, he discusses how he ran across the highway, and dives into his motives and the result. The current state of his life has forced Holden to think about where he is headed and how he will handle all that life will throw at him. THESIS.
Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in J. D Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, is a conflicted young man, being pulled between the life adults want him to live and the life he still hasn’t figured out yet. While teachers tell him school is the path to success, he remains disgusted with the entire institution itself. While people try to make connections with him, he pushes them way as if they were nuclear missiles waiting to blow up his entire world. All of these emotions tied up into one teenage boy have the makings for a disaster. What kept Holden from reaching this point, during his journey back home after flunking school at Pencey Prep, was his encounter with two nuns at breakfast one morning .