Character Analysis : ' The Curse Words On The Wall '

Throughout the novel The Catcher in the Rye Holden sees the world as an evil and corrupt place, however it is clear that he gradually comes to the conclusion he cannot change it. The first instance demonstrating Holden’s progression is when he sees the profanity written all over Phoebe’s school. In this moment he finally understands that it is inevitable to enter adulthood and realizes the impossibility to try to rid even half of the profanity within the world if given a million years. The first majority of the novel displays Holden’s pessimistic view on everything in life and his desire to contain the innocence he has left. Holden’s evolution as a

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.

Holden's lack of empathy stems from his belief that the people he does not trust are "phonies", or people that lie or are immoral, and he resists trying to interact with them. When he was

Holden’s contempt for adults goes deeper than teen angst or a need to rebel. Rebellion is done out of a need for attention, however in Holden’s case he acts upon a fear and unresolved childhood trauma. Throughout the novel, we see our character Holden bouncing around denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. Holden lost his brother to leukemia; Holden was 13, while Allie was 11. Holden was left devastated. At the beginning of this book we see Holden in isolation watching the football game on his own atop a hill after a long disappointing day in New York. Holden tells us about when he found out about Allie’s death, and in a fit of rage punched the windows out of the garage of their summer home, breaking his hand with the desire to punch the car windows out. Holden was unable to reconcile the loss of Allie. He missed the funeral because of his accident and continues to not visit the grave because of his denial of the situation. Holden used bargaining when he asked Allie to catch him in his fall through depression. Holden perceived the children of the rye as falling, while he was the only one actually falling with no one to catch him. Throughout the entire novel except in short bits, Holden claims to be depressed and hates being around those with less than himself. Finally, at the end of the book, Holden reaches an acceptance that he can’t control everything and life continues. He has to let go and allow others to reach for that carousel's golden ring even if they do fall along the

Firstly, Holden’s PTSD derives from an event that happened in Holden’s past regarding his brother. He tells me that he had a brother named Allie who he was very close to, but sadly Allie passed do to Leukemia. Holden didn’t know how to deal with the death of

This character is going to tell it like it is, and he does. The most powerful emotional standpoint in the story is when Holden goes to his sister’s elementary school to deliver her a note. While he is there, he discovers two words scribbled on the wall. “Fuck you.” Most people would look at that and think nothing of it. Some would bow their heads in shame at the person who thought it was funny. Others might laugh. Not Holden. He did not think about the normal persons response to the note. He thought about the child’s response. About how a little kid is going to see that seemingly meaningless phrase and wonder what it means; about how some dirty kid would explain what it meant; and about the person who wrote it and how they are destroying the childhood of everyone who reads the ‘harmless’ graffiti. This section takes the reader to the door of Holden’s mind. It is at this point that one truly understands his emotions.

Between the bars, prostitutes, and perversities that Holden encounters during his time in New York City, it swiftly becomes clear that the adult world that Holden is forced to live in is a dark, uncaring, vile place. However, the one example of all the horrors of the adult world that stands out the most is the obscene graffiti scrawled on a wall of Phoebe’s school. Continuing the theme of wanting to protect the innocence of children, Holden feels absolutely disgusted with whoever wrote it, describing the person as “some perverty bum” (Salinger, 108). Holden’s fury with the hypothetical offender even grows to the point that he wishes to murder the man. While Holden’s intentions are noble (albeit extreme), they can also be interpreted as misguided. His assumption that a homeless man with perverted intentions broke into the school is unlikely, to say the least. In fact, it’s infinitely more likely that the graffiti was left by a rude child at Phoebe’s school who has unfortunately been exposed to the adult world Holden so despises. However, Holden is completely unable to come to this conclusion. “In his world, children are innocent and adults corrupt. While this keeps everything nice and simple in Holden's mind, it also makes it impossible for him to really understand the process of growing-up” (Shmoop Editorial Team). Holden is so desperate to keep his worldview that all children are innocent that his mind completely shuts out the possibility of children who have learned of the monstrosity of the adult world, not wanting to believe that kids have snuck past him in his role as a proverbial Catcher in the Rye. Furthermore, the appearance of the salacious vandalism occurs near the end of the novel, when Holden is on the verge of a breakdown. The precise moment in the story where

The goal that that Holden has to try so hard to fulfil is symbolic of his need to differentiate himself from the "phonies" around him. Holden’s image of people is pretty bad because he believes no one acts how they truly feel. Growing up scares Holden because it leads to adulthood. In his eyes once he hits adulthood, it'll eventually lead into the same phoniness as the rest of the adults. His constant avoidance and dodging of people and situations causes him to become more and more distant from normal society and social stability.

As the story proceeds, we see Holden accept the fact that children will “fall off the cliff” and there’s nothing anyone can do, this represents the struggle of preserving the innocence of children versus letting them experience the way of life on their own. The next day, after seeing his little sister, Phoebe, he decides that he wasn’t going to wait until wednesday to leave for the woods, but he was going to leave that day. Phoebe was at school and he wanted to tell her about this new plan and to say goodbye to her. He walked to her school and wrote a note to give to the principle to give to her, before walking into the school, Holden sits down on the steps “While [he] was sitting down, [he] saw something that drove [him] crazy. Somebody’d written ‘Fuck you’ on the wall. It drove [him] damn near crazy” (Salinger 221). Holden discloses that he was so angry with someone writing this absurd word on the wall, that he was ready to bash whoever it was and even kill them. This shows a whole new side of Holden, he behaves irrationally and violent over the cause of someone defiling school property and subjecting children to “jump over the cliff” of innocence and adolescence. Children grow up and lose their innocence at all different ages and there is no way to preserve it in ways like how Holden wants to. Our society manipulates ways of contorting children’s innocence in ways exhibited like this.

Holden’s date with Sally Hayes exhibited his difficulty at cooperating with others. At first he gives us a dire impression of Sally, “I wasn’t too crazy about her, but I’d known her for years.” (p. 105) Later, he wants to marry Sally and says he is in love with her. The biggest mystery of all when it comes to women is with Jane Gallagher. Constantly mentioning Jane, Holden recalls playing checkers with her before he got sent to boarding school. When his roommate, Stradlater, has a date with Jane, Holden asks him a peculiar question, “Did you ask her if she still keeps all her kings in the back row?” (p. 42) Holden, jealous of Stradlater’s date with Jane, longs to see Jane but never has the courage to call her. Interactions with other people especially women perplex and overwhelm Holden. He therefore resorts to isolation, illustrating a characteristic of his mental state.

Holden is literally about to crash. Near the beginning and the end of the novel, Holden cant keep himself in the same school for very long, mostly because he never applies himself in his classes, for example holden says in the book: “they kicked me out. I wasn’t supposed to come back after Christmas vacation, on account I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself at all”,(4) holden is obviously aware of his flunking and still doing nothing about his failures within the classes he has taken. Many times in the novel we see Holden lie multiple times throughout the book. At one point in the book Holden even realizes he is a compulsive liar claiming "I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life"(16) Holden almost seems proud of himself for being such a great liar.

Psychoanalysis would suggest that Holden lacks the maternal affection that he so desperately desires and fails to receive. Upon reviewing Holden’s behavior it appears as if he is a victim to various disorders such as Bipolar and PTSD disorder. HealthResources.info explains the differences between emotional and psychological trauma and also the possible effects in their article, “Emotional and Psychological Trauma: Causes and Effects, Symptoms and Treatment." One key factor in that causes traumatic stress is a product of, “traumatic stress in childhood that influences the brain is caused by a poor or inadequate relationship with a primary caretaker.” It is coherent that Holden’s world of pain is a result of the absence of both his mother

Holden shows throughout the book that he is sad and depressed no matter what he does he ends up being negative and sad. Holden says a lot of things about suicide and this is not a good thing for students in high school to read. This maybe one of the reasons this book has been ban in many schools around the world.

The story goes on to explain the painfulness Holden is going through when he is facing growing up, he is scared to grow up and doesn’t want to see other children have to go through it so instead of trying to help himself he reaches out to others and tries to save them from the pain. I believe growing up is one of Holden’s biggest struggles in the book because in every part of the book he is faced or mentioning something that has to do with getting

There aren’t many instances of Holden’s past, it’s almost as if it’s been erased, or he simply refuses to reveal its contents. Those who encounter molestation at any adolescent or young age are highly susceptible to contracting