Analysis : The Catcher In The Rye

The death of Holden’s brother Allie at a young age adds to Holden’s negativity as well as stopping Holden from accepting inevitable change. Allie dies immaturely of leukemia. “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it” (p. 39). Holden is in the hospital because he broke his fist, and he was unable to attend Allie’s funeral. Holden has trouble accepting Allie’s death because he never said goodbye to Allie. His relationship with Allie is similar to his maturity. Just as Holden is unable to accept his brother’s death, Holden is not able to accept that

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 coming of age phase in a young person’s life is a transitional phase which prompts the idea of individualism, decision making, acceptance, moral challenges, disappointment, and individual needs. These years are essential for the overall learning and growing-up part of someone’s life. Coming of age characteristics transpired in the novel The Catcher in the Rye and The Absolutely True Diary of a part-time Indian pertain to, but do not exclude, the acceptance of the complexities and “grayness” of the world, confrontation with the adult world, and the individual needs and desires vs. external pressures/expectations/norms. In both novels, young boys are faced with tough choices that will later help them in the overall transition from

“I swear to God I’m a madman” (149) Holden Caulfield says, revealing the wicked nature of J.D Salinger’s 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye. The book follows 16 year old Holden Caulfield in his days spent alone on the streets of New York City after getting kicked out of prep school. During this time Holden goes on an alcoholic rampage, fueled by hate and filled with anger towards anything he sees as phony. The book has been the cause of major controversy since its release, with schools across the country banning it from the realms of teaching for decades. Now, it is read in many high school literature classes because of its alleged similarity to the way teenagers think. The Catcher in the Rye should not be taught to young, impressionable teenagers in public schools because of its rampant profanity, glorification of alcohol and tobacco use, and narration by a mentally ill, generally horrible person.

In “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D Salinger, Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old boy who has recently expelled from school, had lost his younger brother to Leukemia and witnessed the suicide of one of his peers, struggles in his journey of coming of age. He isn’t fond of the idea of having to mature and be exposed to responsibilities and problems of the real world. As a result, he tries to preserve the innocence of his younger sister, Phoebe. One way in which he aims to accomplish this goal is through a Little Shirley Beans record which he buys in hopes of giving it to Phoebe. Salinger utilizes the symbol of the broken record to develop Holden’s loss of innocence and deteriorating character.

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel written by J.D. Salinger that occurs around the 1950s. The story’s protagonist and narrator is Holden Caulfield, a seventeen year old white male, who journeys to various places as he mourns over the death of his little brother, Allie. As a white male in a capitalist society, he has tremendous amounts of privileges that allow him to get. However, as the novel progresses, Holden describes his society as a place where honored human qualities are suppressed and capitalist ideals are embraced. Throughout the novel, we see that capitalism, “the social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned”, destroys the overall society for Holden and his generation (Rand).

Throughout the first few chapters of the novel, Holden's pride for his brother is clear when Holden quoted, “He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times more intelligent.” (Salinger 21). Their relation was evident to the reader as a mutual brotherly love where they both impacted each other's lives in different ways. As a result, when Allie died Holden had trouble coping with his emotions and proceeded by breaking all the windows in his garage, and breaking his own hand in the process. Overall Allie’s sudden death instills so much anger in Holden, it creates a fear of change because change was so traumatic for him. Having his younger brother die before him makes him believe that the innocence of childhood is dead, so he forces himself to grow up faster than he wants to so he can help children like his sister stay safe in their childhood. His whole outlook of life changes and he begins to perceive growing up as that the older one becomes, the closer one is to death. This mindset not only pressured him into uncomfortable adult situations, but it created the fear of change at the same time which slowly drove him to have psychological problems by the end of the

In J.D. Salinger’s novel Catcher In The Rye, it starts off with young man named Holden Caulfield at his school football game at Pencey Prep talking about his life. Following that the sudden and unexpected death of his little brother Allie occurs due to cancer. Holden becomes depressed and rebellious. He is aggressive towards anything and anyone who stands in his way and will knock down anything that tries to stop him from doing whatever he wants. Holden shows that the effect of Allie’s passing dawns on him throughout his life and he greatly shows it from time to time. Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden represents the voice of real people by getting expelled, being depressed, and smoking/drinking.

One must inevitably confront the daunting face of adulthood. In J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger depicts the disheartening journey from adolescence to adulthood that Holden Caulfield endures. Although holden seeks the freedoms that mark adulthood, he has yet to take up the role of a truly mature citizen as the society conforming nature of those adults disgust him, leading him to his gradual mental decline. J. D. Salinger uses the immature character of Holden Caulfield as a means of revealing the difficult transition from adolescence to adulthood and its psychological effects.

A talented poet has the ability to write and understand poetry anywhere and anytime. In the novel “The Catcher in the Rye” written by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, has two brothers that discuss war poets. Holden’s brothers are D.B. and Allie. D.B. was in the army during World War II for four years and despised his job and the men in the army surrounding him. Although D.B. was in the army, “he didn’t get wounded or anything and he didn’t have to shoot anybody.” (140). D.B. is also a writer which makes Allie think that the war is a good era for his older brother to further expand on his literary skill. Henceforth, D.B. makes “Allie go get his baseball mitt and then he asked him, who was the best war poet, Rupert Brooke or Emily Dickinson. Allie said Emily Dickinson.” (140) Allie’s opinion on Emily Dickinson being a better war poet then Rupert Brooke can be supported to be true. D.B. cannot support Rupert Brooke strongly as D.B. was the one who loathed the army whereas Brooke glorified war. Emily Dickinson’s poetry proves that one does not have to live through war to know of war and its hardships; reading her literature allows the audience to understand the nature of life, the relationship of the dead to the living, and the countless lives lost due to fatalities of war.

. Written in 1951, The Catcher in the Rye has been at the forefront of modern literature captivating the minds of teens around the world due to its themes revolving around maturity and growth. Within the novel entitled Catcher in the Rye, the main character Holden Caulfield, a teenage boy struggling to cope with his brother Allie’s death is shown to be experiencing the endless trials and tribulations of life ranging from socializing with individuals at his school, Pency Prep, to understanding the true value of education. Holden uses a multitude of defense mechanism such as repression, denial and projection to attempt to get over his brother Allie’s death.

Young Catcher Songs can connect to lives of characters in books. There are similarities in between the song Young Forever by Jay Z feat Mr. Hudson and the main character Holden Caulfield in the novel Catcher in the Rye. Although there are similarities there are differences too. Many desire to stay young forever so they can avoid responsibilities and just enjoy life . This is one similarity between the song Young Forever and the character Holden Caulfield is that both talk about wanting to stay young.

What could a single high school dropout accomplish in three days? A surprise may be in order with this classic coming-of-age story, The Catcher in the Rye, authored by J.D. Salinger. In the time period of the American 50s, a 16-year-old boy named Holden Caulfield flunks out of yet another school, hires a prostitute, receives a bloody nose, and buys a carousel ticket for his little sister in New York, New York; this is all due to the staggering number of phonies he encounters on his various adventures. These "phonies" include almost everyone he meets. Nearly every adult in Holden's eyes is missing something: innocence. He envies children and their nature to be truthful and without flaw. The main character is influenced by many things during his misadventures, but one constant remains, and that is his innocence. Caulfield observes and even partakes in bizarre action, but ultimately, he remains the same character relatively unchanged from the beginning of the story. It seems that despite what he has seen of the real world, he is still in a state of wonder and confusion through the last page of the novel. His journey, however, is the opposite of trivial. He comes to the unsatisfying truth that tells him his entire world nearly consists exclusively of phonies, whether it be another high school, or New York City, and he has to deal with it.

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye perfectly portrays a teenage boy’s struggle with adolescence. Throughout the novel, this boy aimlessly wanders throughout New York City encountering prostitutes, nuns, new faces and old faces, and also experiences “street scenes,” nightclubs, cheap hotels and many other people and places. He is “fed up” with the world and feels that everything and every person are “phony.” The boy’s ignorant attitude reflects his immature self and his motives are rarely shared with other characters, leaving those characters oblivious to his intimidating thoughts.

In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger explores a teenage boy 's struggle with adolescence after the death of his brother. The story is told from the perspective of Holden Caulfield, who discusses his recent past from a psychiatric hospital. Throughout the novel, Salinger explores how Caulfield copes with the grief of his brother Allie 's death, and how he projects his emotions to the outside world and on everyone else around him. Specially, Caulfield manages his emotions by alienating himself from the world. Salinger also explores how he responds to the painful reality of growing up, and despises the transition from childhood to adulthood. He wishes to address the "phonies of the adult world"(Salinger 18), so that children will not have