...Catcher in the Rye Essay Innocence Themes in literary works are recurring, unifying subjects or ideas, motifs that allow us to understand more deeply the characters and their world. In The Catcher in the Rye, the major themes reflect the values and motivations of the characters. Some of these themes are outlined in the following sections. As its title indicates, the dominating theme of The Catcher in the Rye is the protection of innocence, especially of children. For most of the book, Holden sees this as a primary virtue. It is very closely related to his struggle against growing up. Holden's enemy is the adult world and the cruelty and artificiality that it entails. The people he admires all represent or protect innocence. He thinks of Jane Gallagher, for example, not as a maturing young woman but as the girl with whom he used to play checkers. He goes out of his way to tell us that he and Jane had no sexual relationship. Quite sweetly, they usually just held hands. Holden comforted Jane when she was distressed, and it bothers him that Jane may have been subjected to sexual advances from her drunken stepfather or from her date, Holden's roommate, Stradlater. Holden's secret goal is to be "the catcher in the rye." In this metaphor, he envisions a field of rye standing by a dangerous cliff. Children play in the field with joy and abandon. If they should come too close to the edge of the cliff, however, Holden is there to catch them. His attitude seems to shift near the end...
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...trying to say by using symbols and imagery. To someone who does not examine the book, The Catcher in the Rye, it may seem to be about a “messed up” teenager who wanders around town and doesn’t care about life. But when a range of ______ are explored, one will find that this book has common themes of innocence, changing, growing up and also death.... [tags: Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger, ] 501 words (1.4 pages) $6.95 [preview] Symbolism in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye - Many novels cannot be fully understood and appreciated if only read for face value, and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is no exception. The abundant use of symbolism in Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is of such significance that it “proclaims itself in the very title of the novel” (Trowbridge par. 1). If the symbolism in this novel is studied closely, there should be no astonishment in learning that The Catcher in the Rye took approximately ten years to write and was originally twice its present length.... [tags: The Catcher in the Rye] :: 6 Works Cited 2836 words (8.1 pages) $49.95 [preview] Catcher In The Rye - From the Outside, Looking In Despite the debate that may wage on regarding the status to be afforded J. D. Salinger's writings, the author's books have not quietly faded into obscurity. Although published almost a half-century ago, the author's most famous work, Catcher in the Rye, enjoys almost as healthy and devoted a following today as the book did when it was first...
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...Question 3 Author J.D. Salinger’s novel ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, takes up a bildungsroman or coming-of-age genre throughout the story. It is known that novels that take up the bildungsroman genre mainly focus on the protagonist of the story developing from their youth to adulthood in a psychological and moral way. Displaying the character changes and development throughout the plot is essential in this sort of genre. A sensitive and emotional protagonist in search for answers based on their own identity, life, and also gaining knowledge about the world and overcoming obstacles at the same time are all related to the concept of the bildungsroman genre. Thus, the genre is also identified as “coming-of-age”. In the Catcher in the Rye, Holden is a character who mainly experiences all these situations and eventually matures by the end of the novel. In “The Catcher in the Rye”, the novel introduces three main themes that associate with the bildungsroman genre. These themes are alienation, growing up, and corruption of innocence. Holden Caulfield is a boy who feels isolated from society. He feels isolated because he is convinced that he is excluded and victimized by everyone else around him. This causes him to have no motivation in order to complete his assignments, such as Mr Spencer’s history exam. As he was discussing with Mr Spencer about the game he states “what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game”, it shows that...
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...Throughout history, authors have tried to convey the emotions felt by characters facing the transition from adolescence to adulthood. In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger communicates the conflicting emotions present during Holden Caulfield's journey into adulthood, reflected by his cynical attitude towards the adult world and his idealistic perspective of the innocence of youth. One of the prevalent themes of Holden's journey to adulthood is his cynical attitude toward the adult world. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden says, "You ought to go to a boy's school sometime. Try it sometime. It's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddamn Cadillac someday, and you have to keep...
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...How does Salinger present Holden’s attitude to ‘childhood’ and ‘growing up’ in your three chosen extracts? [Draft Essay] ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ was written by J.D. Salinger and published in 1951. Throughout the novel a number of different themes and issues are addressed, however in this essay I will focus on ‘childhood’ and ‘growing up’ and how Holden feels about them. The theme I shall be focussing on is addressed several times in the novel but I shall only focus on three times the theme is referred to. A significant point where Holden has an unusually positive outlook related to the theme is in chapter 12. Holden is taking a cab; it was “a vomity kind of” cab that he gets if he goes “anywhere late at night.” It is clear that Holden is being his usual cynical and negative self, indicated by the word choice of the adjective “vomity”. He thought that the cab was so disgusting that it could cause him to vomit. This is a vulgar term typical of Holden’s vocabulary which generally shows his blunt and rude point of view. His mood did not improve when he noticed “a bunch of hoodlumy-guys and their dates, all of them laughing like hyenas at something you could bet wasn’t funny.” Sallinger has adapted a noun, ‘hoodlums’ to be an adjective. It reflects that Holden thinks that the people he is seeing are nothing but petty gangsters or ruffians that are of no importance; this is an example of when Holden judges people and believes he is better than them. Furthermore, the use of the simile...
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...‘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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...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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...Growing up is something we all go through. Whether we choose to do it quickly or not at all is up to us. In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, authored by J.D. Salinger, a main theme shown throughout the novel is “Growing up”. However, Holden does the exact opposite. Holden isn’t a bad person, but he doesn’t show that he can handle the real world. Therefore, that does not show that he can be mature. Holden shows an extensive amount of immaturity throughout the book. He lacks the ability to act his own age, understand the consequences of his actions, and be able to face reality. The novel explores the idea of growing up by relating Holden's’ issues to the theme. Holden starts off in the book by acting mature for his age. However, he is not mature. He is only acting. Holden even claims to be acting older than he is when he shares, “ I get bored sometimes when people tell me to act my age. Sometimes I act a lot older than I am—I really do—but people never notice it. People never notice anything.” Therefore, Holden has not really grown up, nor is he grown. Especially, since Holden is the one admitting to this problem. Specifically in the novel, J.D Salinger illustrates how holden is immature when she writes about how Holden gets so offended by the the “F” word written near an elementary school. Holden imagines, “ I kept picturing...
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...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...
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...Loss of Innocence Ones loss of innocence can be over time or lost by an abrupt choice. In the two books Fahrenheit 451 and Catcher in the Rye both characters lose their innocence over time by the choices they make. Guy Montag the main character in F451 loses his innocence over time by collecting books without even knowing which is against the system he lives in. Holden Caulfield also loses his innocence over time by growing up into an adult and tries to save children’s innocence throughout the book. Even though ones loss of innocence can be made by an abrupt choice, ones loss of innocence in these two books is a gradual experience. The concept of innocence is one that is applied to childhood. Children, for example, are innocent because they have not been tainted by the idea that the world is not as it seems to be. But, as children grow up and mature fully into adults, the loss of this pure quality of innocence begins to be noticed in a person’s life. As this awareness comes forth, it shows that life is not always easy, it is complicated and there will be tough moral decisions that have to be made. Holden Caulfield the main character of Catcher in the Rye wants to preserve innocence so he dedicates his life to protecting childhood innocence. In Chapter two Mr. Spencer tells Holden, “Life is game that one plays according to the rules”. Holden does not believe that life is a game he believes that life is dictated by adults. These adults are phony and cruel and he does not...
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...Both Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye are bildungsroman novels about a young character’s growth into adulthood. Written 67 years apart, both novels feature unusual protagonists who are somewhat innocent, naïve and desperate to reject the process of maturity and being ‘sivilized’. Twain focuses on a key moment in American history to ask readers to reassess the definition of “civilisation”, freedom, justice and social responsibility. Published in 1884, the novel relates to the pre-civil war years when the controversy over slavery corrupted America. Twain set his novel in 1860 prior to the abolition of slavery in order to criticise racist attitudes and uses the Mississippi River as the centre point of his novel. It symbolises the route toward freedom and escape for Huck and Jim providing the setting for the growth of both a young boy and a country struggling to understand definitions of freedom, individualism and civilisation. Salinger, however, uses his protagonist Holden to explore the materialistic, conformist society he saw developing after WW2. The first extract I chose is from chapter 22 of Catcher in the Rye where Phoebe accuses Holden of hating everything and everyone. Holden reveals here his fantasy of becoming ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ protecting children from falling into the adult world. This links with chapter 31 of Huckleberry Finn where Huck decides to write a letter to Tom Sawyer to tell Miss Watson where Jim...
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...Asian Social Science May, 2009 An Analysis of the Adolescent Problems in The Catcher in the Rye Lingdi Chen Dept. of Foreign Languages, Dezhou University Daxue xi Road, Dezhou 253023, China E-mail: chld1973@126.com Abstract The Catcher in the Rye was written by famous American writer J.D.Salinger. This paper mainly analyzes the adolescent problems Holden Caulfield confronts on the journey from childhood to adulthood. These adolescent problems include Holden’s protection of innocence, his disgust for the phoniness of the adult world, and his alienation from society. This paper concludes that these adolescent problems produce great impact on him. Holden behaves almost erratically and impulsively and has negative attitudes towards almost everything and everyone he meets. Keywords: Adolescent problems, Innocence, Phoniness, Alienation 1. Introduction The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger’s masterpiece, tells the painful story of a high-school boy growing up in the world of decadent New York. Young Holden Caulfield is expelled from school because of his poor academic performance. He is afraid to meet his parents earlier than they should expect him, so he decides to stay in a New York City hotel. There he meets pimps, prostitutes and “queers.” Soon he becomes aware that the world of adults is a “phony” one. After his meeting with a friend, Holden sneaks back home to see his kid sister Phoebe. She is a loving kid, but her talk about their father “killing” him sickens...
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...What does it mean to grow up? To Holden, of The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, growing up means having to lose your freedom and becoming ‘phony’. J.D. Salinger also explores other aspects on what it means to grow up, including the many trails one must go through in order to become an ‘adult’. Although Holden explores the idea of growing up, he doesn’t actually change throughout the novel. The Catcher In The Rye is a tragic hero novel because Holden never actually changes even though he has plenty of opportunities to do so, he remains stubborn to his cause of not maturing and letting himself fail at yet another thing. Holden has lost all of his ambitions, he has flunked four out of his five courses. This is the next in the long line of schools that Holden has been flunked out of. But even though Holden has flunked so any ties, it is not intelligence that he lacks but the motivation. He in fact is very intelligent, but doesn't apply himself because he doesn't want to. By doing this he disappoints his family and his teachers who all know that he could be very successful. The fact that his teachers believe in him in shown when Holden visits Mr. Antolini. Mr. Antolini he states to Holden, “I think that one of these days, you’re going to have to find out where you want to go. And then you’ve got to start going there. But immediately. You can’t afford to lose a minute. Not you.” (Lines 29-33, Page 188) This illustrates that he truly believes that Holden has a bright future ahead...
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...The use of language in J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, is an upper-class boy who has gone from one private school to another, searching for -- something. He expresses his frustrations in language highly characteristic of adolescence; his extremely colloquial speech sounds just like that of teenagers today, even though Salinger's novel was written in the 1950s. But a particularly striking factor of Holden's narration is his frequent use of the words "phony" and "crazy", as well as his ongoing lapse into second person -- "you". These characteristics attain greater significance given Holden's desperate need to actually reach out and communicate with someone, anyone, who just might understand him. The novel takes place in the two days following Holden's dismissal from his latest school, Pencey Prep. Much of this two-day period is spent either making or contemplating a huge number of assignations and phone calls, most of which are never made. Each of these represents an unsatisfied need to reach out, to affirm the validity of his place in the world at that moment and have it confirmed by the response of another person. In almost every case Holden holds back from really touching another person who could make a difference to him. In fact, his very name -- Holden -- may stand for this attitude of "holding", of keeping himself so close to the vest that he is unable to communicate with the people he so desperately...
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...Parjit Sigh Dhaliwal Mr. Mannello ENG3U0-I 2015-12-10 Donnie Darko and The Catcher in the Rye Comparative Essay: The Transition into the Adult World When one’s views contrast with those of society’s, a societal phenomenon of alienation occurs. Both, J.D Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, and director Richard Kelly’s film, Donnie Darko, emphasise this estrangement by contextually presenting protagonists who suggest that teen discordance is universal due to their opposing collective perspectives. The book, The Catcher in the Rye, is about a young-adult’s three-day experience living in New York city after being kicked out of his school. The narrator, Holden Caulfield, recounts his experiences and interactions within those three days through thorough analyzation. The film, Donnie Darko, is about a teen, Donnie Darko, who is supernaturally transported to a tangent universe, guided by a ghost, Frank, in which his actions determine the future of the normal universe. In both the book and the novel, the ironic nature of societal seclusion being self-inflicted shown through the rejection of society by the protagonists themselves, both works are able to reinforce the universality of teen discord. Although there is trust to be found in adults, superficiality is present in the mass majority of the adult society. This phoniness amongst adults is present in both the book and the movie ultimately which contributes to the prevalence of distrust amongst the adolescent protagonists...
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