Seventeen year old Holden Caulfield is a character, in the novel Catcher in the rye, who is resentful of the adult world, while displaying immature, almost childish behaviour as the novel progresses. He is afraid of change and struggling through life, despite having the whole world ahead of him.
Holden has Gerontophobia which is the fear of growing old. People with this fear tend to worry about growing old because they fear being left alone with no one to take care of or comfort them in their old age. The origin of the word ger is Greek (meaning old age) and phobia is Greek (meaning fear). (Culbertson, 1995)
Throughout the novel we can see that Holden is protective of his youthful qualities and he does not want to abandon them when he grows
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The night of his death, Holden broke all the windows in the garage and had to be hospitalized. Holden portrays Allie as more of a saint than a boy. Allie died young- before he could lose all of his innocence and is therefore remembered as always being a kid. Because Holden is afraid to grow up and hates the corruption of innocence, he always describes Allie with perfection since Allie never had to go through the pain of growing up and Holden viewed him as a kid who he loved. He was a completely rare individual. Allie was left-handed – he was a unique person. He had red hair – he really stood out from everyone else. He wrote poems on his GLOVE (banter) – he was sensitive and emotional, and he did so in green ink – again, he was a unique being. Allie’s death on July 18 1945 seems increasingly to have more to it than meets the eye, and could be the one single event which has left Holden the most emotionally devastated. Holden draws much of his passion to continue the fight against the corruption of adulthood from memories of the death of his younger brother Allie. Perhaps if Holden had a less traumatic past and was able to reach out to more sympathetic companions, he would find himself in a less unsettled present and future. (Salinger,
Holden Caulfield faces a dilemma throughout “The Catcher in the Rye”. Holden wants to protect his innocence as a child. As he leaves Pencey Prep; venturing off into the vast city of new york, he tries to get somebody to listen to him and meaningfully respond to his fears about becoming an adult. Holden has grown six inches in the past year and one side of his head is full of grey hair, both symbols of the inevitability of the progression of time towards adulthood and its disappearance of innocence. He is so obsessed with protecting his innocence he can't even through a snowball at a car because, “it looks so nice and white.
It is often said that the people one surrounds themselves with can reflect things about themselves, such as their beliefs and ideals. One’s friends and acquaintances can reveal subconscious attractions to people that fulfill their ideals or agree with the things they say, but these relationships can also help one discover their personal philosophies by reinforcing opposing views. Indeed, in J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the way Holden reacts to and interacts with secondary characters reveal his established philosophies and the values he holds most dear to him.
This statement that he makes about what he wants to do when he is older is showing the positive side of Holden. It's obvious to the reader that he can be negative at times but at his time it is evident that he shows some real interest in wanting to keep kids in their youth.
This demonstrates the recklessness of youth theme, as Holden does not think farther ahead into the future, but chooses to live in the present and deal with the consequences of his actions later. In addition, his actions show that Allie’s death had a serious impact on his mental health, as his parents were going to have him psychoanalyzed. Allie’s death was the Cataracts from Heaven archetype, because it destroyed Holden’s Golden Age and changed his world completely. This also leads to many other problems for Holden as he struggles with his mental and emotional problems while navigating his way to adulthood. As the book progresses, so does Holden’s mental issues. He begins to think illogically and imagines terrifying things happening to him. Not only does his actions reflect his issues, but a close look at his thoughts also confirm his growing insanity. When Holden was walking, he notes, “Every time I came to the end of a road I get the feeling that I’d never get to the other side of the street… Then I started doing something else. Every time I’d get to the end of a block I’d make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I’d say to him, ‘Allie, don’t let me disappear. Allie, don’t let me disappear. Allie,
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
Holden can’t take on these changes, so he now believes adults are living their fantasy lives. Holden views adults as phonies, because he views grownups as phonies. Throughout this story, Holden deals with some personal problems and deals with them like a child, which shows Holden’s immaturity. He’s always trying to hold on to everything else but the fact that he’s growing up. Holden thinks adults are no longer innocent and lost their youth, which changes the way he discerns his sister because he doesn’t want her to grow up either.
Holden mostly fears adulthood because he sees what that maturation does to people. There are many different stages in the process, and there is lots of change. Holden doesn't enjoy change unless it is
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.
Throughout the novel, Holden explains his journey to New York and the events that occurred there. In the beginning of the novel, the readers are informed of his dead brother, Allie. Allie is Holden's incentive to try and create a greater impact on others’ lives since he could not do the same for his brother. It was then too late after, Allie died of leukemia. Holden couldn't thoroughly form a childhood bond with his brother during the limited time that he had. Holden strives to protect all innocence because he couldn't do the same for
Secondly, most teenagers have struggles grieving for the loss of of their loved ones. Holden struggles multiples of times to grief for the death of his younger brother, Allie, who died at the age of 11 due to leukemia. Holden writes about Allie for Stradlater’s english homework and tells the reader, “He was terrifically intelligent. His teachers were always writing letters to my mother, telling her what a pleasure it was having a boy like Allie in their class...But it wasn’t just that he as the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anyone...I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because i broke all the windows in the garage. I don 't blame them. I really don 't. I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the
The irony of Holden detesting phoniness and adulthood is that he acts so much like an adult with his curiosity and experience with alcohol and sex that he misses his own opposition. Holden hates the responsibility, morality, and accountability of being an adult and embraces childhood. This contradicts everything that he desires and to want to take part in. This causes his own corruption and enables a failure to relate to himself.
The novel The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D Salinger is filled with multitudes of hidden meanings and symbolism. Throughout the entire novel the main character, Holden Caulfield is faced with the constant internal battle of entering adulthood and accepting it. In the novel Holden faces three events where he has to force himself into being an adult, those being his encounter with the prostitute, his phone call with Salley Hayes, and the small encounters with older women.
Yet another demon that Holden avoids is the process of having to grow up. Throughout the book, he seems hesitant to develop any real ambitions or goals. He is a perpetual failure at school. He refuses to associate himself with mature ways of living, and so isolates himself from anyone his own age or older. This is all directly connected to Holden's picture-perfect image of his childhood. He sees this particular period of his life as his own personal paradise. He does not want to finalize the fact that he has to concede it's innocence in the end. Towards the end of the book, Holden shows his desire for life to remain as it was by saying, "...certain things should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone." Holden does not want to join a world of phonies and greed, a world lacking in carelessness and irresponsibility. He won't, whether consciously or not, accept the fact that he has no choice.
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.
He may still be a young boy but he is very independent and basically lives on his own for the entirety of the book, but his negative outlook transforms independence into isolation. He is incredibly lonely but also pushes people away when he has a chance to get close to them. Such as his date with Sally Hayes which was going very well until he pushed her away with his harsh words, “You give me a royal pain in the ass, if you want to know the truth” (Ch. 17 pg. 173). Just because Sally wouldn’t run away with him and be independent with him he pushed her away. Holden may think he wants to be free and independent but his negative outlook just feeds his loneliness and