Character Portrayal Of John Caulfield 's ' The Big Day '

Holden Caulfield is a tragic hero in his journey to defend all children from becoming adults and saving their youth and innocence, which is simply an impossible task. Arthur Miller describes a tragic hero as one who attempts “to gain his ‘rightful’ position in his society” and in doing so struggles for his dignity. Holden’s downfall happens because his tragic flaw is that he is hypocritical about himself and doesn’t understand himself.

Holden is perpetually forcing people to give him attention. He is incontestably a lonely kid, but instead of finding a healthy and mature way of dealing with his issues he needs to make up ridiculous plans of escape. And yet before he leaves for those ludicrous plans he must announce it to his little sister which he must have known would have caused negative accouterments. Yet, he goes and wakes her up in the middle of the night because attention is attention to him negative or positive. “That made her cry even harder. I was glad. All of a sudden I wanted her to cry till her eyes practically dropped out. I almost hated her.” (Salinger 121). This quote is said when Phoebe wants to go away with Holden, but he will not allow her. It depicts the idea that not only does Holden have zero compassion for the situation, but also the idea that Holden enjoys the idea that he is the reason for her sadness. Holden’s desire for attention is so strong that he does not care if the attention is negative or positive. In the end, he is sadistic in this moment and he does not even seem bothered by

This quote highlights Holden Caulfield’s strong disagreement and contempt to adults; in Holden’s eyes, adults are phony and the only people in the book he connects with are children, Phoebe and his deceased brother, Allie. Holden is growing up and afraid of adulthood so he creates cynical armor around himself where he silently ridicules and points people out as phonies if they

In chapter 21 Holden returns home two days early because he wants to say his goodbyes to Phoebe, when arriving at his family's apartment he walks over to Phoebe’s room and sees that she is not there, he then goes to D.B’s room to find her sleeping. Before deciding to wake up Phoebe, Holden sits in D.B’s room and looks at his brother’s desk and says “You ought to see her doing her homework or something at that crazy desk. It’s almost as big as the bed. You can hardly see her when she’s doing her homework. That’s the kind of stuff she likes, though” (Salinger 175-176). Phoebe is a smart, strong and a confident young woman. Phoebe redefines stereotypes by being intelligent which is one of the traits that Holden admires throughout the course of the novel. Phoebe embodies such a conception of perfection by being intelligent that she becomes an ideal for Holden as he thinks highly of

Caulfield is exceedingly sensitive to the things that he perceives as “dirty” or “evil”, and he feels responsible for the negative things in the world he is beginning to notice as he matures. After going to Phoebe’s school and seeing “fuck you” written on the walls, Holden visits the museum that he frequented as a child and declares that when he is dead, and “[has] a tombstone and all…it’ll say ‘Fuck you.’” (204). As Holden becomes an adult and returns to the places he went as a child, including the school and the museum, he begins to realize the amount of negativity and the number crude things that surround him in the world. By describing the way that his tombstone will have expletives on it, the author reveals how deeply the evil in the world affects Caulfield. The duality of a young, innocent child growing up in an “evil” world is too much for Holden to comprehend, and his attempts to come to terms with the juxtaposition of youth and evil in the world result in the expression of many symptoms of depression, including anxiety attacks. Caulfield attempts to come to terms with the idea that although everyone is surrounded by evil, the people he considers both the most valuable and most impressionable, the youth, do not understand the magnitude of the negative forces in the world. After considering the graffiti that he is sure will mar his tomb stone, Holden confesses to the

The relationship between Holden and Phoebe forms a major theme that the novel aims to deliver. The fact that he is having this conversation with Phoebe, a child who is anything but simple and innocent, reveals the oversimplification of his worldview. Holden himself realizes this to a degree when he acknowledges that his idea is “crazy”, yet he cannot come up with anything more pragmatic; he has trouble seeing the world in any other way. His “catcher in the rye” fantasy reflects his innocence, his belief in pure, uncorrupted youth, and his desire to protect that spirit. On the other hand, it represents his extreme disconnection from reality and his naïve view of the world. Phoebe exposes to Holden a living embodiment of childhood. And it is a scene with her where she exposes to Holden the illogical nature of his supervisory actions, indicating that his desire to preserve her innocence will only halt her own inevitable development. Phoebe is the Greek word for “protector of children” (Bloom 2009, p185). Within the novel she is Holden’s protector. She comforts him, provides him with financial security, and protects him from getting in trouble with their mother. Reiff describes this reversal of roles between Holden and Phoebe as “Now, instead of saving the world by protecting the children, Holden wants to reject the world and shut himself off from evil by becoming a ‘deaf-mute’ in the West. It is Phoebe who rescues him from this total withdrawal” (Reiff 2008, p71). Phoebe forces Holden to view her as a human—living and progressing— rather than as a forever preserved child, and it is this humanization that causes Holden to accept her eventual progression into

Love also becomes an important aspect, each thrive for passion and affection from others and have someone they confide in. Holden places deep care into his younger sister Phoebe because they connect on many levels, both as childlike mind and in interest. He also longs for closure towards his deceased brother Allie. Holden worries about his parents thoughts, he respects them. He is concerned about his mother’s reaction to getting kicked out of yet another school. The only two people he feels he has truly connected with are his sister and Allie, often in times of need they are the first he contacts. Throughout his cycle of depression he talks aloud to Allie. (Quote: Holden: “I felt so depressed, you can't even imagine. What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud to Allie. I do that sometimes when I get very depressed.”) He shows he cares about Phoebe by constantly wanting to call and chat with her; he often talks about her. On the contrary he contradicts himself by finding an excuse to not call, or to not visit. By isolating himself he also goes against himself because he

The protagonist, Holden, is moving away from the issue of existential anxiety and path of self hate into the path of self compassion, breathing, awareness, acknowledgement, acceptance, action, and appreciation, by demonstrating acts of kindness to others. In the beginning of the story, Holden would often judge a person instantly, such as Ackley and Stradlater, but later in the novel, we notice that Holden shows less judgement and more endearment in the form of the steps of self compassion. An example appears when Holden picks out a gift for her sister, Phoebe. When he picked out the record Little Shirley Beans to give to her, he said, “I could hardly wait to get to the park to see if old Phoebe was around so that I could give it to her” (Salinger, 116).

Parents raised in the hard years of the Great Depression became avid consumers of new products themselves after the War and often were willing to provide their children with the goods, services, opportunities, and indulgences they missed during their own childhood. Holden is bought off with expensive clothes and accessories, such as his expensive Mark Cross suitcase made out of ‘genuine cowhide and all that crap’. He is rewarded by his grandmother with large sums of spending money. However, parents often miss what their child truly craves from them, and this is shown directly throughout the text when Holden’s parents do not demonstrate any attempt to show genuine love, care or concern for his preternaturally sensitivity, vulnerability and very much isolated state. Often throughout the novel Holden expresses his fear and unhappiness at being alone. ‘All I did was, I got up and went over and looked out the window. I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead.’ (42) Such a mindset was not uncommon amongst adolescents during Holden’s era, as many were left to their own disposal and did not possess good relationships with their

The concept of being a child who was glorified by his mother at a young age, and who was flat out just spoiled, gives context to Holden 's inability to deal with issues on his own, reflecting on his social skills and behavior challenges.(Yardley) So when Holden 's younger brother Allie passes away his initial reaction is to break the windows because he doesn’t know how else to deal with these types of issues. This aggressive reaction that Holden takes is understandable, but at the same time unnecessary; most kids would deal with the loss of a loved one by seeking comfort from others, but in this situation Holden no longer had his mother to pamper him because they were busy grieving the loss as well. Leaving Holden Caulfield alone.( Irving 84)

After spending some time in New York, Holden decides to reach out to some of his old friends. He calls an old friend, Carl Luce and asks to meet him for dinner. While he can’t make dinner, he does agree to a drink and they arrange to meet at a popular bar in the city. Holden arrives at the bar early and begins drinking. After a moment, he begins to describe others in the bar. He describes the singers and people sitting near him in a negative tone, criticizing them and their behavior. He says “The bartender was a louse, too. He was a big snob” (157). Although Holden doesn’t know him personally at all, he immediately forms a negative opinion of him. This feeling of resentfulness towards others is likely due to the critical way he thinks about himself and his constant feeling of being an outsider. As the story progresses, Holden takes a trip to visit his little sister Phoebe. He sneaks into his parents’ home and finds her sleeping. He notices she has a nice skirt and jacket set laid on the chair and explains how his mother has impeccable taste. He also notes most kids dress terribly and says, “You take most little kids, even if their parents are wealthy and all, they usually have some terrible dress on” (166/167). Even after continuously saying how much he loves kids and how great they are, Holden still has a negative opinion about them. He consistently has a negative opinion about others,

Though teenagers cannot relate to this, I think that parents can relate to Holden Caulfield because of one moment that Holden went through with his little sister Phoebe. This can be seen because of this quote by Holden, “All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she would fall off of the goddam horse, but I didn't say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but its bad if you say anything to them. ”(124)

Phoebe is even seen by Holden as an impressive young child, and tells his audience that, “she'd wear white gloves and walk right between us, like a lady and all” 68). Holden compares Phoebe to “a lady” and convey’s even though she is a little child, she looks and acts like an adult at times. However, Holden does not want Phoebe to grow up the way he did, wants to protect her innocence, and does not want Phoebe to end up like him. That is why Holden wants to be “The Catcher In The Rye,” and wants to “catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff” (173). By not letting the kids fall off the cliff, he is protecting

However, as the novel nears the end, Holden experiences his pivotal moment and takes on a different perspective of life. Rather than just going through with his plan of isolating himself from the superficial society, Holden decides to stay and face it, with its adulthood and phoniness. Seeing Phoebe attempt to grab the gold ring along with other kids, Holden thinks to himself, “I was... afraid she’d fall off... but I didn’t say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it... If they fall off, they fall off” (211). Holden reaches the conclusion that he can’t be a catcher. He can only watch the children and in no way can he avert them from committing their own wrongdoings; he is not able to save them from shedding their innocence as they grow older and they will eventually. Releasing himself from the task, “[Holden] felt so damn happy” (213). A burden has lifted as he liberates himself from such a responsibility. He doesn’t have to carry the weight of executing the responsibility he shackled himself with, one that greatly affected him mentally. He knows that he does not have to keep up this pretense anymore.

Holden values Phoebe’s opinions and listens to her when she speak. He feels Phoebe is very wise and very intelligent for a girl her age. Holden has a very caring relationship with his younger sister he doesn’t want to hurt her and he wants to make her happy. Phoebe also cares about Holden they have a very strong relationship for instance, when Holden says he’s leaving Phoebe wants to go with him. Phoebe cannot go with Holden go with Holden because she is a child. Since he cares about her he decides not to go because he doesn't want to hurt Phoebe. Holden also spends the entire day trying to make it up for Phoebe by taking it to museum and taking her on the carousel. He feels this way about Phoebe because he’s related and he has known her his entire life. Even though he has known his mother his entire life he does not have as close of a relationship with her because of the age