Catcher In The Rye Holden's Journey

In the famous, but often times previously banned novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, seventeen year old Holden Caulfield is trying to find his sense of direction in a world where he describes the majority of people in his life as phony. As the first chapter begins, it is clear Holden is currently living in a mental institution, although the reasoning behind so is never directly stated, the reader can infer it may have to do with Holden's depression troubles. For the most part, Holden's troubles are to blame on his own actions, he fails to realize his irresponsibly is the major cause of the negative aspects in his life. Holden's troubles of being an academic layabout and being reclusive seem to center from his biggest issue

Lies, failure, depression, and loneliness are only some of the aspects that Holden Caulfield goes through in the novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger. Salinger reflects Holden’s character through his own childhood experiences. Salinger admitted in a 1953 interview that "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book.… [I]t was a great relief telling people about it” (Wikipedia). Thus, the book is somewhat the life story of J.D. Salinger as a reckless seventeen-year-old who lives in New York City and goes through awful hardships after his expulsion and departure from an elite prep school. Holden, the protagonist in this novel, is created as a depressed, cynical, and isolated character and he

Holden Caulfield despises phonies, because he finds them hypocritical, and uses the insult phony as a way to brush off the rejection he feels from most people. Almost all of the people Holden has called phony have disappointed or rejected his in some way, so Holden tries to make himself feel better by dismissing the people as fake. Holden considers phonies as ingenuine people, however he is a phony himself because he demonstrates the same characteristics he despises. For example, Holden “hate[s] movies like a poison” because they are phony, meaning they deceive their audience, hide behind masks, and fake emotions (33). Ironically, Holden is also a phony by his own definition, because he is constantly deceiving people for no good reason. In fact he admits that he is “the most terrific liar you ever say in your life”(19). The most obvious evidence of Holden’s phoniness is that he lies to himself throughout the entire book. He

In the novel, Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden, the main character, is in a mental hospital where he is telling the story of how he got there. Holden starts his story around the time where he gets kicked out of his school, Pencey Prep. Holden, who has gotten kicked out of two schools including Pencey has to face his parents who do not know that he got kicked out of Pency yet. Up to now, Holden has had a rough life between his brother Allie dying of cancer and having to go to multiple different schools. On the other hand, Holden cares about very few things.

Struggling with The Phonies In “The Catcher in The Rye”, Holden continuously talks about how people around him act “phony” and don’t act how they really feel or want to. His cynicism and sarcasm shows what he thinks of others and how he desires authenticity. Salinger made Holden this way to express the desire of every person to find genuine and kind people, but ultimately end up tainted by superficial and hypocritical society. Salinger shows this with how he makes Holden critical of all the shallowness and pretension around him, but doesn’t look at how he acts in the same way. Salinger explains this through Holden’s use of the word “phony”.

In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield’s life is composed of a great amount of contempt; he perceives society through pessimistic lenses, continuously dismissing its ways. Trying to veer off his path to adulthood, Holden often holds people accountable for their “phony” ways. He aims to “save” the children from such an outcome that he makes it his responsibility. The pivotal moment of which he transcends to maturity occurs is when he witnesses the children reach for the gold ring. Rather than blindly believing that he can save the children from sinking into the “evils” of the world and maintain their innocence, he ultimately decides to let them make their own decisions and grow up.

In The Catcher in The Rye Holden Caulfield retells the experiences he had while he was unknowingly on a quest. In the end, Holden failed his original quest, but ended up discovering something about himself and the world.

In the novel Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a novel about a journey Holden Caulfield took. In the beginning of the novel Holden seems immature and idealistic. While he is going through his journey, he is opened to the adult world, although it's very hard for Holden to grow up he is "growing up in pain" (40). His journey wasn't very successful, he doesn't manage to grow up and doesn't want to become an adult. I think he is scared because adults have a lot to handle.

showed off because it seemed so fake and unnatural every time they would do so.

     Throughout “The Catcher in the Rye”, Holden Caufield longs for intimacy with other human beings. One of Holden’s main problems is that he sees childhood as the ideal state of being. He thinks that all adults are phonies.

As strongly as society wants to deny it, Holden was right; everyone is a phony in one way or another. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye Holden uses the word phony to describe the society around him and as a mechanism for his own isolation, but he fails to realize that he is the biggest phony of them all. Holden clearly perceives the insincerity of everyone around him and is nauseated by it; but despite his revulsion he still ends up being a phony himself. He reveals to the reader that even if someone does not want to be a fraud, and has attempted not to be, they cannot help it; everyone is a phony in the end.

Holden Caulfield plays a timeless character in the sense that his way of life is common for the American teenager, in his time as well as now. Today parents dread the terrible and confusing adolescent years of their child's life. In J.D. Salinger's book, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is in this terrible and confusing point of his life. At this point in his life, as well as in modern teenager's lives, a transition occurs, from child to adult. Holden takes this change particularly rough and develops a typical mentality that prevents him from allowing himself to see or understand his purpose in life.

Most readers who've read A Catcher in the Rye would say that it's a novel about grief. It is said that each person has their own way of coping with grief but mostly everyone goes through a process known as the five stages of grief. This stages consists of Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. In A Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden Caulfield represents one of these stages through out the book. Holden manages to bypass all these stages and finally accept what kind of person he is and who he wants to be.

In the book Catcher in the Rye or “ctr” the society that Holden lives in undoubtedly changes him. As you read further more into the book the reader begins to realise that Holden begins to care about the thoughts of others. In addition Holden is changed by society because whenever he feels alone he blames society. Lastly society changed Holden because he doesn't live upto their expectations.

The relationship between Holden and the "phonies" shows how Holden despise the society at first. Whenever he meets people he thinks they are "phony" he would criticize them. For instance during the intermission of the play, the conversation between Sally and George