Catcher In The Rye Analysis

This song fits in perfectly with how Holden is handling his problems. After being kicked out of a private school in which his mother paid for, he delays telling her until he can get his emotions under control. He goes to New York City and tries to get drunk to relieve his stress, as Billie Joe Armstrong did with drugs. “Am I just paranoid? Or I'm just stoned.” This song also talks about the constant paranoia he faces. Holden also has to deal with being paranoid as he is clearly insecure. It is rare that the reader will find Holden describing somebody positively. He is constantly making shallow judgments about the people he encounters. He says, “I’m not kidding, some of these very stupid girls can really knock you out on the dance floor.” Before even having a conversation with her, he already comes to the conclusion that she is a stupid girl. This proves his insecurity because he is seeing his imperfections through others and criticizing them for it.

Holden is unable to accept realities of life because of his negative personality. He claims that many people are phony and that they try to do things to make them look better than they are. Holden also thinks of many things as depressing. “It was really nice sightseeing, if you know what I mean. In a way, it was sort of depressing, too, because you kept wondering what the hell would happen to all of them” (p. 123). Holden always finds a down side to a situation. He fails to recognize the good sides of life, and this prevents him from seeing advantages in adulthood that are not present in his life.

It seems that Holden is finally coming to the conclusion that every child will have to fall at some point and he is accepting of that. This part of the novel is significant because it is one of the first moments that a reader can clearly note that Holden seems to change his original mindset from the beginning.

This song relates to the story as Holden sneaks into his house to see Phoebe. Phoebe is very excited to see Holden because they are indeed very close. The song expresses the feeling of being excited to see someone you miss in which this is displayed clearly by Phoebe missing Holden as he comes back to the house. In the story it says, “Holden! she said right away. She put her arms around my neck and all. She’s very affectionate. I mean she’s quite affectionate, for a child” (161). This explains the instant happiness Phoebe had to get to see Holden. It was apparent that Holden missed Phoebe too because leading up to this time he had nothing but good things to say about Phoebe. This all relates back to the song which describes how happy artist

This song is significant to this chapter because there are many different sides to Holden and one of them is being a little kid and this song talks about being adolescent. Holden

Holden see’s a little kid who was singing the poem "Comin' Thro' the Rye". Holden admires the little kid as he says, “But there was one nice thing. This family that you could tell just came out of some church were walking right in front of me - a father, a mother, and a little kid about six years old. They looked sort of poor. The father had on one of those pearl-gray hats that poor guys wear a lot when they want to look sharp. He and his wife were just walking along, talking, not paying any attention to their kid. The kid was swell. He was walking in the street, instead of on the sidewalk, but right next to the curb. He was making out like he was walking a very straight line, the way kids do, and the whole time he kept singing and humming. I got up closer so I could hear what he was singing. He was singing that song, 'If a body catch a body coming through the rye.' He had a pretty little voice, too. He was just singing for the hell of it, you could tell. The cars zoomed by, brakes screeched all over the place, his parents paid no attention to him, and he kept on walking next to the curb and singing 'If a body catch a body coming through the rye.' It made me feel better. It made me feel not so depressed any more." (Salinger 115). The poem represents Holden’s desire to protect the innocence of children as Holden admires the child’s singing as the poem

The song “End Credits” by EDEN (also known as The Eden project) has themes that align with those present in The Catcher in the Rye. Throughout the book, Holden obsesses himself with preserving both his own adolescent innocence as well as that of others. Holden also spends a lot of time judging the appearance of others and just their general behaviors. One of the lines in EDEN’s song is as follows, “Rather burn out young than grow up fast” (EDEN). This line of the song demonstrates that EDEN is singing about how children should cherish their childhood and live life while they can, even if it hurts them in the long run. Holden feels similarly, and this can be seen throughout the book. This song is just one example; there are many others, including

Throughout the novel, Holden attempts to find the true from of himself as he struggles with the social interactions around him. Due to the struggle and confusion that arouses from it,

Throughout the story Holden emphasizes his love for childhood innocence. In a passage he says “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the golden ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything.” (Salinger 211) This immediately points to his affinity for innocence and not having the limits of being and adult. The

The broken record represents the cessation of Holden's innocence. The record itself symbolizes how Holden is stuck between childhood and adulthood. Holden describes the record, “It was about a little kid that wouldn't go out of the house because two of her front teeth were out and she was ashamed to...[Estelle Fletcher] sings it very Dixieland and whorehouse, and it doesn't sound at all mushy” (Salinger 114-115). The contrast between what the record is actually about and how it is sang shows why Holden likes it so much. It is directed towards children, but has an adult tone to it, this shows how Holden is stuck between adulthood and childhood. When Holden breaks the record he believes that he will be disappointing Phoebe, but really he is disappointing

Holden has very noble goals, he wants to protect children’s innocence. He says to his little sister “‘Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around-nobody big, I mean-except me. And I’m standing on the edge of

Holden is attracted to the privileges that adulthood offers. Drinking, Sex, Independence and Smoking represent aspects of adulthood that Holden is not averse to and is genuinely excited by. After arriving in New York, Holden attempts to act as an adult, but his attempts fail miserably. He tries to order a scotch and soda but is carded and must settle for a coke instead. Holden is content with childhood right up until it forfeits him an opportunity to get a drink. He wants to be an adult, but also wants to be a kid. He seems excited with the freedom but fears the loss of innocence and responsibility that

Throughout the novel, Holden speaks with a unique voice riddled with slang and absolutes. His hypocritical attitude implies his immaturity but also unveils the discrepancy between the world inside his mind and his actions. “The trouble with girls is, if they like a boy, no matter how big a bastard he is, they’ll say he has an inferiority complex, and if they don’t like him, no matter how nice a guy he is, or how nice a guy is, or how big an inferiority complex he has, they’ll say he’s conceited” (Salinger 151). Holden attempts to organize the behavior of others within set patterns. However, by fitting the actions of others within absolutes, Holden fails to recognize the inherent

In the previous chapters, the author reveals that Holden has loads of insecurity as a result throughout chapter eight to eleven, the reader starts to understand that during certain situations Holden can be a very emotional person because he has experienced a dramatic moment in his life. For instance, in chapter 8, Holden just got in the taxi and heading to his hotel; he says in a desperate way, “Would you care for a cocktail” (61). From the diction choices, the reader can infer that in some ways, Holden’s maturity level is higher than others in his age group because kids his age like to play games and have fun in a different way, while he is desperate to spend time with adults; he has gone through loss and grief, which has lead to his

Holden tries to make sense of his individuality but, draws away from the society that he is stuck in. At an important football game at Pencey, his school, Holden explains, “I remember around three o'clock that afternoon I was standing way the hell up on top of Thomsen Hill. You could see the whole field from there, and you could see the two teams bashing each other all over the place. You could hear them all yelling”(2). From the very beginning, Holden shows that he rather be isolated. This would be a great time for Holden to connect with people but instead, he wants to go off and do is own thing. His individuality can be looked at as a way of protection. At the end of the book, Holden suggests the reader, “Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody” (214). He is