An Analysis Of Holden Caulfield 's ' The Rye '

He is afraid of his adulthood, and has no one to discuss the matter. He reaches out to people, but pushes them away. For example, Sally Hayes is a friend of Holden’s whom Holden takes out on a date. Holden purposes the idea of running away to an area where he doesn’t have to grow up. Sally refuses and tries to talk some sense into Holden, but Holden doesn’t listen because what she is saying scares him. He is scared because she is ready to taking on the next step in her life, but he is not. Holden’s time in New York is a constant cycle of this type of interaction. He calls many people and tries to talk to them but there are some that he can not call, like Jane Gallagher, or Phoebe his younger sister. Holden does not call them because they are symbols of innocents and his childhood. He is so afraid of his future, that he so desperately holds onto his

Teenagers lives their life differently. However, when the time of being a adolescent arrives, they all have the same confusion and mindsets. J. D. Salinger’s novel, “The Catcher in the Rye”, is about a seventeen year old boy named Holden Caulfield, who lives his life with complexes and problems of his owns. Holden lives his life according to his favor and commit unreasonable actions. Holden has a difficult time trying to understand what being a teenager is. Holden Caulfield is a typical teenager because he expresses the problems of being a teenager.

Teenage years are difficult. Time tells this story of struggle again and again. The Catcher in the Rye is a classic novel showing the struggles a teenager goes through while transitioning into adulthood. The main character, Holden Caulfield, is a judgmental and temperamental boy who struggles to see the positivity in life. Throughout the story, Holden searches to find himself, as he feels forced to grow up. He holds onto aspects of his childhood and isolates himself so much that it is even harder for him to transition. J.D. Salinger uses the red hunting hat, the museum and cigarettes as important symbols in the story to convey the themes of transitioning from childhood to adulthood, loneliness, and isolation.

The Catcher in the Rye is one of J. D. Salinger's world-famous books about the disgruntled youth. Holden Caulfield is the main character and he is a seventeen- year-old dropout who has just been kicked out of his fourth school. Navigating his way through the challenges of growing up, Holden separates the “phony” aspects of society, and the “phonies” themselves. Some of these “phony” people in his life are the headmaster whose friendliness depends on the wealth of the parents, and his roommate who scores with girls using sickly-sweet affection. This book deals with the complex issues of identity, belonging, connection, and alienation. Holden senses these feelings most of the time and is guilty about many things in

One of the greatest American Literature writers, J.D. Salinger, was familiar with a rough childhood by experience. He was able to parallel his experiences to the experiences of Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in The Catcher in Rye. In this novel, Holden experiences conflicts that most youth are not familiar with. The conflicts in Holden Caulfield’s life are caused by various forces and circumstances.

Many times throughout the book Holden starts having strong feelings for a particular person for no reason at all. It is very confusing for

    J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is the chronicle of a young man's metamorphosis from immaturity to unsure manhood. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, is a sixteen-year old boy who leaves the prep school he has been expelled from to escape the frightening reality of dealing with his parents. However, during his visit to New York City he is faced with the harsh reality that he cannot continue to hold onto his childhood. Holden is an extremely complex character and it is only by examining each layer of him that the reader is able to understand his painful metamorphosis.

Holden is deathly afraid of conforming, growing up, and having to assimilate into the phony adult world. As a result he comes off as hypocritical as he is the most prominent phony in the novel. He constantly lies, refuses to connect with others and overlooks his own pain, letting it deeply impact his life. Holden is a compulsive liar; he does not have one honest conversation with anyone except his sister and Jane for the duration of the novel. When he is on the train with Mrs. Morrow, for instance, he claims his name is Rudolf Schmidt and preaches about what an amazing guy her son is, even though he is “the biggest bastard that ever went to Pencey, in the whole crumby history of the school.” (61) This shows that Holden falls victim to the same social conventions as everyone else. He says exactly what Mrs. Morrow wants to hear, despite the fact that he

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye presents a look into the mind of Holden Caulfield, a popular literary icon numerous teenagers have rightfully found themselves relating to at some point. While the familiar emotions of Holden were welcoming for me, his anecdotes and witty remarks proved entertaining as well. The story chronicles Holden’s exploration through New York post-expulsion, with his point of view influenced by his growing alienation with the world. He represents that growing sense of unease at growing up and facing a reality that is not always pretty, and, in his case, a need to save children from having to face that reality. I personally admired the fact that he was not just an angry teenager in the world as stereotypes suggest.

The High School years are some of the hardest and most confusing times in a person's life. A person needs to somehow find out how to let go of childhood and move on to going to college and becoming an adult. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, this is very prevalent by the narrator who is the main character Holden Caulfield. Holden is a seventeen year old boy who fails out of a Pencey Prep School a couple weeks before Christmas. Holden decides to run away from Pency Prep before the semester is over. Holden is scared to go home to his parents and because he is battling with depression and wants nothing but to be alone, he decides to go to and live in New York City on his own. Holden does many things while in the City alone such as going to bars, meeting old friends, and getting a prostitute all while he falls deeper into depression and loneliness. Although Holden seems to be like an adult while living on his own, fear of growing up and becoming an adult is a scary idea to Holden. Through Holden, Salinger shows teenagers fear of growing up and losing their childhood is very real.

Holden also makes things seem worse than they really are in reality. Holden is a person that gives a lot of thinking to his ideas upon others. In the book, The Catcher In The Rye Holden is also responsible for his alienation by creating a problem out of a simple concept or conversation you can also say that Holden is problematic, and negative in the way he thinks and believes in the ways things happen. An example of this is when Holden was talking to Stradlater about his date with Jane the girl that Holden liked since he was a child. Holden may not realize this but he has had feelings for Jane and he doesn’t even have the bravery or courage to tell her about how he feels. But some believe that Holden does this because he often says the wrong thing and messes up friendships and other relationships with people. The only two people that Holden doesn’t talk to in the way he usually does are Phoebe and Jane because these two people meant a lot to Holden. The way you know that Holden has feelings for Jane is by a quote from chapter 6, “‘Did you give her my regards?’ I asked him. ‘Yeah.’ The hell he did, the bastard, ‘What'd she say?’ I said. ‘Did you ask her if she still keeps all her kings in the back row?’ ‘No, I didn't ask her. What the hell ya think we did all night-play checkers, for Chrissake?’ I didn't even answer him. God,

In The Catcher in the Rye Holden’s journey into adulthood is impacted by his surroundings and actions. Throughout history, authors have tried to convey the emotions felt by those growing up into adulthood from adolescence. is a book that has been taught in many schools and read by kids and adults of all ages, but more importantly, it helps teach a lesson about growing up as the reader can oftentimes connect with the main character Holden Caulfield. In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger communicates the conflicting emotions present during the journey into adulthood, reflected by Holden’s cynical attitude towards the adult world and his idealistic perspective of the innocence of youth.

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’s moral ambiguity is shown through many of his thoughts and actions throughout the book. Holden is pessimistic and judgemental of others, despite his own negative actions. Many of Holden’s actions contrast with other actions. While he is angered by Stradlater’s poor treatment of women, he solicits a prostitute. He also uses inappropriate language

life. It seems that Holden is a very troubled individual that is having problems dealing with the