Holden Caulfield Comparison

People of all ages experience a transitional stage throughout life, which would be the transitional stage from childhood to adulthood usually occurring during the mid teen years of life. This phase is considered to be the time when many children start to leave childhood for the life of adulthood. During these times of change many human beings experience confusion and potential problems of growing up in the adult world. Throughout the United States many people become confused of who they are as a person growing up, such as the protagonists of The Catcher in the Rye and The House on Mango Street who both experience difficulty in leaving childhood life for adulthood life. These two characters

Unlike Holden Caulfield, Frank tired in school, had parents that depended on Frank to help with the other children. Frank was expected to grow up faster than most kids by having to take care of his sibling when his parent started to fall apart. Frank many times had to find small jobs to help support his family because his father as we know kept on drinking all the money he made away. Frank has the biggest heart, for an example of why he has the biggest heart is before he had a job he would say how he would get a job and wouldn’t drink it away. Referring he would be different than his father, better father, and really wanted to do as much as he could for the family, think like an adult. He was Striding to be a better person in general. Even

Holden Caulfield from J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn exist as the central protagonists of their respective texts. Caulfield and Huck undertake a journey in their text, in which the character learns from their experiences and meet different people, who alter their outlook on life. These main protagonists are still not mature, and this stands displayed throughout the two books, however the must mature soon, as they are becoming adults.

The standards that young adults are held to in America are exceedingly high. While they are extremely different for men and women, everyone is subject to them, and they can be difficult to handle. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is expected to be much more of an adult than he is mentally. He resorts to defence mechanisms such as aggression and isolation to try to deal with the pressures he is put under. In The Bell Jar, Esther Greenfield lives life in a society that expects her to be less than she is.

Throughout the novel, Holden's rebellious ways indicate that he refuses to conform to adult's expectations of him. The “phony” adults of society have no right to control him according to Holden. Several examples from the plot show that Holden's experiences with trauma affect his faith in authority figures. One of these traumatic events was the suicide of Holden's roommate, James Castle. According to Holden, James Castle is a very quiet student whose comments irked the wrong clique at Elkton Hills. He mistakenly called a very popular and influential person “conceited”, and that person's friends drove James to suicide. Although Holden despises the fact that they killed James, he is appalled at the lack of legal action taken by the school. He cannot believe that “All they did with the guys that were in the room was expel them. They didn't even go to jail” (188). While James Castle's death mortified Holden, he felt utterly perplexed that society could ignore and disregard the fact that an injustice had been committed. This causes Holden to lose faith in authority, especially in school administrators, to act in an ethical manner. Holden's distrust in authority stems from more than one event, however. His family life could have contributed to his lack of faith in authority figures. Holden tends to distance himself from his parents and tries to avoid them throughout the novel. Holden mentions that "[his]

Holden Caulfield, the main character of J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye," undergoes an intense journey marked by encounters with various people and experiences that shape his perspective and ultimately lead to his admittance to a rest home. Among the influences on Holden, the most significant are his family, his struggles with mental health, his interactions with Phoebe, and his disillusionment with societal expectations. Firstly, Holden's family dynamics significantly impact his mental state and decision-making. The loss of his younger brother, Allie, to leukemia deeply affects him, leaving him with feelings of grief and isolation. Holden's relationship with his younger sister, Phoebe, serves as a catalyst for his realization of the

In contrast, JD Salinger’s character Holden Caulfield, from The Catcher in the Rye, would be characterized as a spoiled rich kid because he does not meet the requirements of a Hemingway code hero. Though this character may seem to fit into the category of “code hero” because of his moral code, in reality he is too frail and emotional, he has no desire to free himself from society’s constraints, and he has not endured through his struggles. Firstly, Holden is often overwhelmed by his emotions and feelings, to the point where they cause him a mental breakdown and he is admitted to a mental institution. Ernest Hemingway writes his heroes as men capable of controlling their emotions so that they will not get in the way of their life, which is

Holden would dress in atypical clothes and would flunk out of all his classes in hopes to get the attention he lacked from his parents. His desperation for attention ultimately causes him to be seen as an outsider, and isolates him from his community. He tells his professor, Mr. Spencer, that he feels as if he is “trapped on the other side of life” and how he is trying to fit into a world where he doesn’t belong in. In my opinion, Holden’s alienation is also caused by his fear of becoming an adult. However, instead of admitting to his fear, Holden denounces it by stating adulthood is phony and fake. In the novel, he portrays childhood as a time of innocence, learning, and happiness; while adult hood is denoted as a dark, phony, and unhappy time. He constantly is criticizing adults of being “phony”, when in reality he is the phony one. Holden uses phoniness to represent all of the bad things in the world and uses it as a reason to isolate himself from the world to deal with his loneliness. Holden also isolates himself due to his craving for stability. Holden’s life had been constantly changing; changing boarding schools,

A common idea presented in literature is the issue of the freedom of the individual in the constant pressures of society. In the play “Death of a Salesman” by,

Adolescence, this is a time where you figure out who you truly are. This soul searching leads to self realization. Holden Caulfield from The Catcher In The Rye by J. D. Salinger, has trouble accepting himself. Throughout his days he would put on a cap just to be someone else. It is his get away place, a place of isolation. A way for him to seclude from the world and become someone he isn’t. This is relatable to numerous teens. Though Holden could be described using numerous adjectives, Holden's character can be perfectly described as ignorant, a liar, and a slacker. He is ignorant because he does not learn from his mistakes. He is a compulsive liar. Finally, he is a slacker because he avoids work. Holden is just like countless people out there who do not apply themselves. You see, Holden could be smart. He could be successful. He just doesn’t have the motivation or ambition to do so.

Holden’s desires and actions ultimately show how innocence is almost impossible to protect and is temporary. Holden wants to save everybody from maturing because he is afraid of change. All he sees are the bad things adulthood has to offer and is struggling with the hardships he is facing. He misses the innocence of his childhood and doesn’t want anyone else to lose it. Therefore, he tries several times to protect them from the downfall he is facing. Ultimately, his attempts are useless because innocence turns into an illusion as you mature. You can never change back once you become an

Societal pressure effect any who allow them to because everyone wants to be accepted by the masses. Holden does not try to be accepted, he does not feel societal coerce because he does not like society as a whole. “I had her glued to her seat. You take somebody’s mother, all they want hear about is what a hot-shot their son is.” (Salinger 33). In the quote, the reader can tell that Holden lacks a compassion for those around him. Throughout the entire book Holden constant puts down the people around him, the only people does not seem to have qualms with are child, particularly his younger siblings. Holden at no time in the book does not have an issue with the adult he was currently talking to. Not to mention, he likes to make himself sound mysterious and dark, but he’s not, he’s a rich impertinent little kid who was not given enough attention as a child. In fact, the fact that Holden does not show any pressure from society shows that he himself is so detached from actual society that he knows little about authentic life. The only inkling of factual societal pressure he shows that he faces is having to lie about enjoying one’s company, which to be honest is the low bar on the social ladder if a bar at all. He has no grasp on reality because he reduced his reality to the minimalist percentage possible due to him focusing in on the one

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.

Considered one of the best novels of the 20th century, The Catcher in the Rye has affected readers around the globe since its publication in 1951. Its contemporary critics, however, gave the novel mixed reviews. Compared to the ideals of 1950s America, Holden Caulfield, the emotionally immature, extremely judgmental, teen-aged main character of “Catcher,” embodies the antithesis. Holden was an affront to the new social order, which demanded conformity and propagated the “father knows best” mentality. Americans, however, despite the postwar economic boom, remained suspicious of authority. In idyllic suburban neighborhoods across the country, while families huddled around their new television screens, people discussed their neighbors’ movements, made distrustful even of their closest friends by the “Red Scare”. The American Dream seemed like a golden ring just out of reach, leaving people feeling like they were going around in circles without a clear destination or purpose. With his sense of nostalgia for better times, his bleak perspective of the future, and his contradictory nature, Holden speaks directly to this sense of confusion at the world that Americans felt during the 1950s.

From the very start of this essay, it is quite clear that the narrative perspective in Jack London’s “In a Far Country” is very different than the one in J.D.Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”. Both authors have managed to catch the reader’s hearts, but each of them through their specific, unique way of storytelling. Jack London has shown us the beauty and the cruelty of nature through his mesmerizing descriptions of the Great Wild, while Salinger had his own way of showing us that adulthood shouldn’t stop us from being the children we’ve hidden because of the responsibilities and problems life has brought unto us.