...The reader can see this when Holden converses with the nun- ““What have you read this year? I would be very interested to know”. He answers, “Well most of the time we were on the Anglo Saxons .Bewodd and old Grendel and Lord Randol and all those things”(Salinger 123).This scene in the book shows that Holden is relaxed and happy, due to the fact that he has a mind-set that allows for happiness. He does not need to act “phony” or “fake”, thus making him happy. The emphasis of the quote is on the fact that there is no hesitance when Holden talks, similar to that of a kid who would have no second thoughts while saying anything. Both Holden and a child represent a sense of...
Words: 678 - Pages: 3
...wall. "Somebody'd written "F you" on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them-all cockeyed, naturally-what it meant and how they'd all think about it and maybe even worry about if for a couple of days. I kept wanting to kill whoever's written it" (Salinger 201). Holden goes on about not having the guts to kill the guy and then says, "I hardly even had the guts to rub it off the wall with my hand, if you want to know the truth" (Salinger 201). Holden wants to protect these kids and take this off the wall so they don't lose their innocence and find out what this bad word means. Secondly, Holden went back to the family apartment to see Phoebe. He goes to D.B.'s room and watches Phoebe sleep. "I sort of looked at her for a while. She was laying there asleep, with her face sort of on the side of the pillow. She had her mouth way open. It's funny. You take adults, they look lousy when they're asleep and they have their mouths way open, but kids don't. Kids look all right" (Salinger 159). It just shows how much Holden values kids and innocence. When Phoebe wakes up he dances with her just like old times. "She practically jumped off the bed, and then she waited while I...
Words: 1363 - Pages: 6
...Holden Caulfield, the main character in J.D Salinger's Bildungsroman story “the Catcher in the Rye”, fears and hates the idea of becoming an adult. Holden shows this during chapter 25 when he repeatedly asks his dead brother Allie to save his innocence. “Allie, don't let me disappear. Please Allie.”(257). Due to the fact the Holden considers “disappearing” losing your childhood innocence, and the fact that he’s talking to his dead younger brother, I believe that it is clear that Holden is deeply afraid of becoming an adult. Another instance where Holden shows his worry that he might become an adult was (again) during chapter 25. Holden was walking around in his little sister Phoebe's school, when he notices “Fuck you” written on the wall....
Words: 404 - Pages: 2
...express the shallowness and fakeness that he is convinced is surrounding him in the post-war, 1950’s era. In Holden’s opinion, phoniness represents a form of reasoning for everything that is wrong in the world around him. On the very first page of the novel, Holden decides that “Where I want to start telling is the day I left Pencey Prep” (Salinger 1). The school is one that “you probably heard of” (Salinger 2), indicating Holden’s familial class status, even though he makes it perfectly clear that Pencey Prep does not deserve its so-called fame. Holden argues the image it promotes and encourages is “strictly for the birds” (Salinger 3), meaning it is fake and would impress only the gullible, and certainly it would not impress Holden himself. This scene raises one of the novel’s key themes, and my largest argument of the novel: Holden's rebellion from the phony that is in his mind, the dishonesty and superficiality of the common American adult and family. Further, in Chapter 2...
Words: 995 - Pages: 4
...Throughout most of the novel, Holden Caulfield's cynicism and eccentric thoughts reflect his alienation and his depressed attitude toward the world. His central goal was to resist the process of maturing into an adult, he feared change, and was overwhelmed by the complexity of nearing adulthood. However, J.D. Salinger wrote The Catcher in the Rye as a Bildungsroman in which Holden reaches maturity through interaction with his sister, Phoebe, in order to show that the maturation process is a time for taking risks and not being afraid to fall down and get back up. Through discussion, Phoebe tries to enter deep into Holden's thoughts to reveal his true desire in life. She gets him to describe his fantasy of an ideal childhood and of his role...
Words: 608 - Pages: 3
...Throughout the book, Holden is trying to grasp at maturity, doing things that adults do like drinking and smoking at bars. For a teenager, this kind of behavior and attitude is still applicable today. Teenagers today often try to be independent and smarter than adults, much like Holden. When he gets kicked out of Pencey, he travels to NYC and stays in a hotel instead of going home. He thinks he can handle being alone in New York City for three days. However, he gets beaten up, is robbed, spends all his money on pointless purchases- just to name a few. This is shown by this quote: “So what I decided to do, I decided I'd take a room in a hotel in New York--some very inexpensive hotel and all--and just take it easy till Wednesday. Then, on Wednesday, I'd go home all rested up and feeling swell. I figured my parents probably wouldn't get old Thurmer's letter saying I'd been given the ax till maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. I didn't want to go home or anything till they got it and thoroughly digested it and all. I didn't want to be around when they first got it. My mother gets very hysterical. She's not...
Words: 733 - Pages: 3
...Ena Mišković Leonarda Lovrović Modern English Practice 1 15 January 2013 J. D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye The Catcher in the Rye is a novel written by the American author Jerome David Salinger. From its first publishing the novel has arose a lot of controversy. Salinger wrote his novel in the first person, addressing the readers in its very beginning, so the readers have a feeling that he speaks directly to them. Furthermore, sequences follow the exact thought processes of the main character, which brings him, as well as the complete novel, even more close to the readers. The story takes place mostly in New York in December 1949, just before the Christmas holidays. The plot follows a seventeen-year-old boy protagonist Holden Caulfield who retells several days in his life, giving his personal opinion of the society that surrounds him after being expelled from the third school in a row. The novel is presented as his own monologue written in a subjective style, which reflects the teenage colloquial speech of that period of time. A drop-out Holden has attracted a wide audience of adolescent readers, yet gained many negative critiques due to his rebellious way of thinking and acting, and his common use of street language; he expresses himself in slang, in a very witty manner, also using curses and swearwords quite often. However, the Catcher in the Rye has experienced a great success, and has been translated into many languages. It was and still is very influential book...
Words: 1163 - Pages: 5
...This bugs Holden more than anything because this place is where he is comfortable and happy. This is a major symbol for how the world is corrupt and vulgar for Holden. “I saw something that drove me crazy(Salinger pg 221).” He tells the reader that he is very mad about something that was written on the walls. “You can’t ever find a place that’s nice and peaceful, because there isn’t any(Salinger pgs 224).” Know that he sees that a lot of his favorite places have bad words on them he sort of matures in the fact that there isn't a perfect place. Even though he might have had a little bit of a wake up call it doesn't mean he won't stop obsessing over the ducks from the...
Words: 720 - Pages: 3
...In the paperback book it 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… you’d like her. I mean if you tell old Phoebe something, she knows exactly what the hell you’re talking about.” (Salinger 68-69) Saying that this was Holden’s first relationship where he felt close to someone after Allie died. This was the first time I saw Holden genuinely happy about something especially over another human. He love Phoebe more than anything. But when you have a mental illness it’s really hard to show emotions and have connections with people that proves that Holden purely doesn’t have a mental illness. People might say that he does have a mental illness because of the way he reacts with Phoebe because his reactions are not always good but as we learned Holden as a character we realize that that’s just the type of person Holden is he just might be...
Words: 846 - Pages: 4
...It is evident that Phoebe, Holden’s sister is the one person that he has an emotional relationship with. As Holden arrived in New York after being dismissed from Pencey Prep, the first thing he wanted to do was “buzz” a friend, and Phoebe was one of the first people he could think of (9). Holden admires Phoebe: “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...You'd like her. I mean if you tell old Phoebe something, she knows exactly what the hell you're talking about”(67). This tone is very rarely used within the book normally, Holden would be depressed, but not when he talks about Phoebe. When Holden met his sister outside the museum, she carried out his old suitcase. Phoebe begs Holden to let her come with him, but he refuses. He does not want to destroy the remainder of her childhood by letting her come run away with him. Phoebe was upset, she wanted to venture off with her brother. At that moment, Holden chose to stay because he knew if he let Phoebe come with him, she would not have taken part in the school play, and continue school; which are crucial parts of her youth...
Words: 1071 - Pages: 5
...American writer, Henry Rollins, once said, “Change is hard, but change is good”. This quote says that even though change can be scary or difficult, we all experience change, and end up on the better side. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, is a story of a young boy Holden Caulfield, who experiences depression but overcomes change throughout the book. Pleasantville, directed by Gary Ross, the story of a “perfect” T.V. show that all the characters wish to live in, and they all experience change by trying to achieve color. The Catcher in the Rye and Pleasantville both show that change can be hard, but is for the good. Although most people fear change for the worst, Change is for the better. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden, the main character,...
Words: 792 - Pages: 4
...is true in society and is shown in The Catcher in the Rye. For instance, in the novel the protagonist (Holden Caulfield) is clinging onto childhood, but despite his fears, change is inevitable . After reading the novel through a new literary criticism lens it is argued that author J.D. Salinger is informing his readers to avoid being overly attached to childhood because growing up is natural. Salinger engraves this message in his audience’s minds through the use of stylistic devices such as hyperbole, symbolism as well as indirect characterization. Salinger’s message of clinging onto childhood and resisting change is enforced on many occasions throughout the novel. Using hyperbole, in the first chapter of the novel, Holden emphasizes how tall he is and how he has gray hair, yet he admits that he still acts young for his age. “It’s really ironical, because I’m six foot two and half and have gray hair...The one side of my head...is full of millions of gray hairs...And yet I still act sometimes like I was only twelve.” (Salinger, 9) Salinger uses this hyperbole to really highlight to his readers that even though Holden might look like he is getting older on the outside, on the inside he still acts young and immature like a child. A second example of hyperbole that Salinger uses focuses more heavily on not liking change. In chapter 25 there is an instance in the novel where Holden is approaching a carousel which he used to often ride as a kid. He reflects on how...
Words: 1257 - Pages: 6
...people let their opinions be ignored or crushed by others. In particular, Native American warrior and chief Crazy Horse would not be silenced by the white man’s expansion west that interfered with his, and the Great Sioux Nation's sacred way of life in the Midwest Region. Through Crazy Horse’s childhood, battles with General Custer, and death at Fort Robinson, Nebraska,...
Words: 962 - Pages: 4
...Holden Caulfield's “Catcher in the Rye” Fantasy Growing up, we have all experienced a particular desire to achieve something; an ambitious state of mind that gives us meaning to life. Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, has a primary ambition - to become the Catcher in the Rye – the protector of the young and innocent, as stated in his conversation with Phoebe (Salinger, 191). Completely imaginary and a hopeless fantasy, this passage underscores what is prevalent throughout the novel - the issue of Holden's black and white perspective on the dark, phony world of adulthood juxtaposed with the light, innocent, world of childhood. The important passage contributes to Holden's clinical depression as a result of his beloved brother's death, therefore his cynical view of adulthood, and his anxiety about growing up, resulting in the overall angst and alienation palpable throughout the novel, leading to his eventual catharsis. Holden's imagery of “catching” children playing in a field of rye before they fall off a cliff is unrealistic, misheard from a little boy, and it serves merely as an escape route from what he fears most about adulthood – the change and overwhelming complexity. Holden wants everything to be easily understandable and eternally fixed, similar to the Eskimos and Indians in the museum. Opposed to acknowledging that adulthood scares and mystifies him, Holden instead invents a fantasy – that childhood is an idyllic field of rye, while...
Words: 1183 - Pages: 5
...Holden Caulfield: Protector of Innocence The novel The Catcher in the Rye is a coming of age tale of a teenager’s journey into a mental breakdown. The main character, Holden Caulfield, sees the world as an extremely phony, cynical place that he wishes to escape from. As a result of this, he forms the idea that the only way to be free of the hypocrisy and cynicism of society is to maintain one’s childlike immaturity and innocence. Because of this idea, throughout the novel, Holden is trying desperately to hold on the shreds of innocence that he has left, all while trying to protect the innocence of those around him as well. Two minor characters mentioned in the novel that Holden tries to protect, Sunny and Phoebe, both display to the reader signs of developing maturity. Holden’s interactions with both Sunny and Phoebe provide prime examples of how even though Holden tries desperately to protect their innocence, growing up cannot be prevented. One of Holden’s most prominent traits throughout the novel is that he is has this urgent need to protect the people around him from losing their innocence like he did when his brother passed. Even though he constantly drinks, smokes, and curses, Holden’s main goal throughout the text is to make sure that innocence is maintained as long as possible before a person grows up and matures. “He struggles to preserve his own tenuous hold on youthful innocence-or as he sometimes puts it, ‘niceness’-and despairs when he finds that innocence lost...
Words: 1343 - Pages: 6
