...‘THE CATCHER IN THE RYE’ AND ‘IGBY GOES DOWN’ – NON-CONFORMITY Both J.D Salinger’s 1951 Bildungsroman novel The Catcher in the Rye and Burr Steer’s film Igby Goes Down, demonstrate that regardless of context, the youth will choose not to conform to socially held values. We can see that this is the manifestation of the vulnerability and hesitation experienced as adolescents like us grow up. Ultimately both these texts explore the search for identity and individualism as a cause for non-conformity. The Catcher in the Rye was written during a post war era and a time of drastic social change. However, many of its conservative values remained and most importantly, the notion of youth conformity was held in high regard. On the other hand, Igby Goes Down is set in the 1980s -1990’s American era, a time of expanding multi national corporations, materialism and commercialism. Salinger and Steers utilise the characterisation of their young, sardonic and rebellious protagonists, Holden and Igby to epitomise non-conformity. The composers allude to the recurring theme of isolation and alienation in both texts. As a result of their non-conformity, the protagonists experience rejection and depression as they search for their selfhood. Similarly, the national ethos of the American Dream is explored as a mere fallacy, and both composers portray this through their protagonist’s wealthy backgrounds and opulent upbringings and yet money doesn’t bring them happiness. Salinger, through literary...
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...COMPARISON ESSAY CATCHER IN THE RYE & HIGH FIDLEITY By Monica Urbina “The Catcher in the Rye” and “High Fidelity” feature protagonists facing uncertainty. Both Holden’s and Rob’s story is told through their own distressed minds, which often misrepresents the experiences. Their insecure and ‘hot-headed’ personalities lead each character to produce an unreliable first person point of view. Holden and Rob outline their unreliability through their identity issues, their chosen isolation from others and their social interactions/perception of a situation. First of all, Holden and Rob both did not have a strong sense of who they are. They struggled with identity issues several times throughout each novel. Their switch in character often deceived the reader, making analysing the situations and characters more complex. In “The Catcher in the Rye”, Holden, in several cases, is on a search for his identity. He mimicked the personality of others, as well as acted out of character to impress those surrounding him. This was evident quite early in the novel when Holden was accompanied by an older woman on a train. When introducing himself, he says ““Rudolf Schmidt,” I told her. I didn’t feel like giving her my whole life history.” (Salinger pg. 54-55). His only justification for his identity change was that he “just felt like it”. Holden often ends his anecdotes with lines such as “I’m not kidding” or “I really do”. “I get bored sometimes when people tell me to act my age. Sometimes...
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...In The Catcher and the Rye, written by J.D Salinger, we are introduced to Holden Caulfield , the 17 year old narrator and protagonist of the novel. In the beginning of the story Holden is at a resting home in California. Holden tells the readers what happened to him over a two day period in the previous December. In this essay I will identify a theme from this story and explain how it is developed in the novel. In my opinion an important theme of the Catcher in the Rye is the painfulness of growing up. Many people interpreted this novel to be a coming of age novel, due to the fact that it talks about issues teenagers go through. Readers can relate to Holden Caulfield because of his disdain to the process of maturity. For example, in chapter 16, Holden's thoughts about the Museum of Natural History establishes Holden's fear on change and how overwhelmed he is of complexity. Holden wants everything to be easy to understand and a fixed, An example of this is the statues of Eskimos and Native Americans in the museum. Holden doesn't really understand whats going on around him. He acknowledges this fear with his confusion on sex, “sex is something I just don't understand. I swear to God I don't”. Holden invents a fantasy that being an adult is a world of superficiality and phoniness. Holden also feels that childhood is a world of innocence, curiosity, and honesty. In my opinion, Holden's view on childhood and adulthood are immature and foolish. Holden conceptions are very shallow...
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...Holden Caulfield is the protagonist in the novel the Catcher in the Rye. The 16 year old boy writes of his journey through a personal period in his life. He is alone and desperate for relationships. He feels as if everyone despises him and he fears the idea of growing up and becoming a “phony.” He is also afraid of death, mainly because of his experience with the death of his little brother Allie. Through his journey he goes from a lonely secluded boy who has nothing figured out to a young adult who has learned to accept others and has a small chance of hope in life. Holden thinks of himself as a sophisticated person who sees and understands all around him, but his not. Really he is just a kid at heart and wishes to stay a kid forever. He has a theory that children are pure and the epitome of innocence and once they grow up and become adults they become impure and corrupt, and for that reason Holden wishes to stay a kid forever. This causes Holden to be slightly distant from others and not very friendly. This isolation hurts him and tries to find way to communicate with others but can’t. With all of the personal problems his dealing with his school life suffers. He had dropped out of prep school and had no apparent plans for the future. Some of his old teachers like Mr. Spencer and Mr. Antolini try to help Holden and give him advice. Mr. Antolini criticizes Holden and Holden is forced to see the problem. Holden is afraid of the adult world and doesn’t want to be a part of...
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...Analysis of The Catcher in The Rye Through a Psychoanalytic Lens Mental health is an important aspect of one’s wellbeing that may be significantly impacted by a traumatic experience. The author J.D. Salinger illustrates this idea in his novel The Catcher in the Rye, which focuses on the life of the depressed protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Holden experiences the death of his young brother Allie and struggles with transitioning from his innocent childhood to his materialistic adulthood. This transition eventually influences his mental state of mind, which is evident by his lack of motivation in school, and results in him suffering from loneliness, frustration and alienation. The psychoanalytic lens discusses an individual's actions based on their conscious and unconscious mind. The Catcher in the Rye can be better analyzed through the psychoanalytic lens rather the existential lens, and this is exemplified by Holden’s desire to avoid inevitable change, his resultant isolation and his battle between his conscious and unconscious mind. Holden has a fear of change and desire to avoid...
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...Holden Caulfield is a 16 year old boy who recently was kicked out of his fancy prep school. For a 16 year old, he’s highly immature and makes poor decisions. In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D Salinger, Holden’s condescending and impulsive ways, along with his compulsive lying is all because he does not want to grow and is holding onto his childhood. First, Holden lies profusely for no reason at all. He tells a lady on the train that his name is Rudolf Schmidt because he “didn’t feel like giving my whole life history.” Stating your real name isn’t giving your whole life history and lying about a name is just immature. As the novel progresses, his lies begin to get worse. Such as telling a prostitute that he recently had surgery on his clavichord. Holden doesn’t even realize that he lies so much, but the reason he lies so much is because he wants to make himself appeal more interesting to hide his pain. He’s still hurt from the death of his younger brother Allie, who died when they were both kids. It’s a cry for help. Secondly, Holden is also condescending. He constantly calling or thinking everyone around him is a moron. For a 16 year old, this is an elementary school way of expressing anger and frustration....
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...The Catcher in the Rye could be interpreted many different ways. JD Salinger, the author, could have written this story for one main purpose or for many different purposes, but in my opinion, Salinger wrote this story in order to show the reader that some teenagers avoid adulthood because they are not quite ready for the responsibility. Not only are they not ready because they are young and still do ignorant things, but also because their brain is not fully developed. In Richard Knox’s “The Teen Brain: It’s Just Not Grown Up Yet,” he informs the reader that the frontal lobes of the brain are not fully connected in adolescence. The frontal lobes are a crucial part of the brain because it differentiates between what is a good idea and what is a bad idea. Since the frontal lobes control decision making, and the frontal lobes in adolescence are not connected which forces decision making to be sluggish, then that is why teenagers make poor choices. This is what seems to be the problem with Holden Caulfield, the narrator of the novel. Holden does not make the smartest decision multiple times throughout the story. Because of the frontal lobe disconnection in Holden’s brain caused him to attack Stradlater, almost have sex with a prostitute, and to not care about school....
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...Iris Berendes-Dean Schaefer English 10A, Pd. 3 15 October 2015 Fearing Maturity Incites Internal Struggles Throughout the generations, all adolescents have had to deal with the internal struggles while coming of age. J.D Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, applies literary devices and language patterns to develop the main character, Holden Caulfield, and his internal struggles and conflicts of maturing into adulthood. Salinger effectively uses Holden’s lies, language of depression, and flashbacks to accurately portray how teenagers often fear growing up, and feel the need to hang onto their innocence. Lying is an effective way for teenagers to hide their emotions and pretend to be someone they’re not, essentially testing the waters of maturity without taking the responsibility. Holden flees Pencey Prep School after being kicked out for failing the majority of his classes, and finds himself on a train sitting next to the mother of one of his classmates, on his way to New York City. Taking a liking to the woman, Holden begins to spin a web of lies. He tells her his name is Rudolf Schmidt and casually adds, “I have to have this operation… It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little brain tumor on the brain… right near the outside”(58). This single lie entertains Holden, as he would rather talk about something that he has never experienced instead of being truthful about himself. He avoids taking on the responsibility of being mature enough to tell the truth about...
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...up and join it all. However, as people grow up they begin to understand how the world works and realize that it is not as glorious as they once thought. In J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, sixteen year old Holden Cauldfield finds the world and the people in it to be unjust and unfair. Because of his dissatisfaction with the early death of his brother and the people around him, Holden develops a black and white view of the world and places everyone into two distinct categories: the innocents and the phonies. The young children, especially his younger siblings Allie and Phoebe, that have not yet fallen into the disillusionments of adulthood form up Holden's group of innocents. Holden’s late younger brother Allie and his younger sister Phoebe are two of the only people he cares about in the world. When Holden’s younger brother Allie lost his early battle of leukemia, it crushed Holden because Allie was his favorite because “he was … the nicest … kid” (38). Allie’s death is the biggest reason that Holden has his black and...
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...Traumatic events can lead to people breaking down and hitting rock bottom, leading to troubling side effects that can last a lifetime. J.D. Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye, tells how Holden Caulfield struggles to find his place in the world after hitting rock bottom following the traumatic loss of his younger brother, Allie, to leukemia. As Holden gets older, he begins to get in trouble more at school, starts smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, and has very negative feelings towards himself and others. Holden’s parents send him away to many boarding schools, hoping that his behaviors will change. Holden’s symptoms lean towards him having post traumatic stress disorder, because of his increasing negative emotions and abusing...
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...Censorship, the removal of words, images, or ideas that are “offensive,” is a hotly debated topic. Can what is seem as insulting to one person be viewed as acceptable by another? We all have our own “line in the sand” that points to where we say, enough is enough. However, is it fair for individuals or groups to determine where that line is for everyone? We don’t think so. Each individual should be able to decide for him/herself whether a book, movie, paper, etc., is appropriate. Our book, The Catcher in the Rye, is about a sixteen year old boy named Holden Caulfield from the 1950’s who is both the main character and narrator. It describes him getting expelled once again from school, his travel to his parents’ house in New York City for punishment, and the nervous breakdowns he experiences with symptoms of unexplained depression, impulsive spending, and unpredictable behavior during his travel (“Banned Books: The Catcher in the Rye”). The book itself has been...
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...Death Lives On Everyone’s lives are constantly being altered by the events occurring around them. This can change your personality and possibly your mental health. In Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, Holden’s life has been drastically altered from specific events that happened to him in his adolescence. Holden’s mental health is significantly altered due to deaths that occurred around him, mainly Allie’s death. Also due to these deaths Holden is lead to a conclusion that everyone is a phony. Finally, Holden refuses to commit to relationships with anyone after the death of Allie; he distances himself and avoids deep lasting relationships. Holden is affected strongly by James and Allie’s deaths; he is suicidal with mental problems and...
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...Fear of the Future In the book Catcher In The Rye written by J.D. Salinger Holden has always been the kid to not fit in. Aside from his smart, funny, and sensible characteristics Holden does a great job of always getting kicked out of schools and getting into trouble. Throughout his times at multiple different schools it is learned that Holden sees everyone as phoney and immature. He only has a few people he can really talk to, Allie, his dead brother, Phoebe, his little sister, and Jane, an old neighbor of his that he has always thought as attractive. When he learns he is getting kicked out of his most recent school, Pencey Prep, he ventures to New York before his parents find out. He lives on his own for a couple of days in the big apple. Holden has enough money to take care of himself, even indulge, but the readers soon learn that Holden is lonely, confused...
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...In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher is the Rye, the protagonist Holden Caufield emerges from a trying and emotional series of events and does not grow emotionally but remains as immature as he was at the beginning of the novel. The story is about the difficulties of growing up. Most people come out of their teenager years as more responsible and mature people. Holden goes through many stressful events during the weekend, but instead of coming out more mature and grown up, he still has the same childish views on life; he is violent minded, depressed, confused, and irresponsible. Throughout the whole novel, Holden fantasizes about killing people, he is baffled by sex, and he does not think out his actions. During the beginning of the story, Holden thinks about killing people many times. He wanted to kill Stradlater, his roommate, for dating Jane Gallagher, his old friend. Holden knew what kind of guy Stradlater was and he was afraid he took advantage of Jane. Holden actually does fight Stradlater but gets hurt pretty badly. He then puts his hunting hat on and says it is a “people shooting” hat. Later on in the story, Holden again thinks about killing people. When Maurice, the pimp, hurts Holden and steals his money, Holden pretends that he had been shot in the stomach and his guts were falling out. He then pretends that he is staggering down the stairs with a gun to shoot Maurice and get revenge. Holden does not actually do this, but it shows how he is immature and violent. Also,...
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...The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, published in 1945, and The Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, and published in 2001, both focus on a teenage boy going on an adventure. The adventures each boy face are very different but also have many themes in common. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield gets kicked out of school and decides to stay in New York for a few days before the end of the semester, he discovers many things and has many new experiences. In The Life of Pi, while Pi and his family are moving to Canada from India by boat, the boat sinks in a storm which leaves Pi alone on a lifeboat with a bengal tiger. After many challenges and difficulties Pi eventually does make it to Canada where he lives out his life. The thing that makes these two...
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