Examples Of Denial In Catcher In The Rye

Holden thinks children are authentic and in order to stay authentic in a world full of phonies he seeks to preserve his childlike nature. In chapter 13, Holden talks about the concept of his virginity, he says “If you want to know the truth, I’m a virgin. I really am. I’ve had quite a few opportunities to lose my virginity and all, but I never got around to it yet. Something always happens.”(92). Holden admits he’s still a virgin and to many people losing your virginity is a step to adulthood. This is Holden’s way of trying to protect what little he has of his childhood to prevent himself from becoming an adult. That “something always happens”(92) is his own subconscious telling him to stop and to save this moment for someone who he really likes not a prostitute whom he bought. Holden even says earlier ,in the novel, “I don’t like the idea...I think if you don’t really like a girl, you shouldn’t horse around with her at all”(62). The author is trying to show how kids can avoid being an adult in the real world. Although he tries to protect his youth, Holden also likes to pretend his is an adult. He does things like being an avid smoker, constantly wanting to drink, and wanting to hookup with girls. Doing acts like these: ”After a while I sat down in a chair and smoked a couple of cigarettes.”(63), “‘Would any of you girls care to dance?’ I didn’t ask them crudely or anything. Very suave, in fact.”(70), “Boy, I sat at that goddamn bar

He left 3 days before they were supposed to go home for winter break. He goes to a hotel for at least a week and walks around the city. He does not want to go home and face his parents mostly his father because Holden has got kicked 3 other private schools and his dad would “kill him.” Holden’s sister Phoebe says to him “I suppose you failed in every single subject again.” His little sister was not surprised at all that he failed out of his school again. Phoebe is 10 years old giving her bigger brother a talk about why he’s not good in school. Phoebe should not be able to give his older brother advise because she is the younger one. Holden should be mature enough to lead his sister to do good overall in life by facing his

Holden is constantly using crude phrases that would have shocked the original readers of the book. This is to represent the fact that Holden is trying to merge with the adult world and he assumes that by using more ‘adult’ language he can achieve this. The present day Holden refers to most of the people he met during the time he was in New York as ‘’Old.’’ This helps him to disassociate himself with the past and shows that he feels it is a different part of his life. So although during his ‘journey of discovery’ Holden appears not to have emotionally progressed towards adulthood, clearly he has now evolved and grown up, be it just a

He even went as far as trying to call up a sexually open girl and arranging a meeting with her for a drink. The action of calling this girl and attempting to meet up with her shows that he realizes his need to grow up, acting older than he probably should, and making rash decisions in his attempts to act like an ‘adult’. His flashbacks serve as a reminder that no matter how hard he tries to forget Jane, he will always have feelings for her. It also serves as a pointer that Holden still desires to be with Jane, as the more he tries to forget her, the more he remembers all of the moments they shared, from the time he first decided to talk to her, to the time he tried to comfort her when she began to cry, to the many times they played checkers or held hand together. He begins to talk to himself about the smaller details of Jane, her interest in reading and sports, the way her mouth is alway just a tiny bit open, the way she lights up when she is interested in something and how her mouth begins to seem to move in all directions as she's talking about it. The memories of his past and the actions he took in what would be considered the present all show that Holden is changing as a person, becoming more accepting of his repressed sexuality, and

The resistance of maturity and adulthood is greatly expressed throughout the novel The Catcher in the Rye. J.D. Salinger describes the events of an adolescent and his inability to escape the difficulties of his past causing a delay in maturity. Both fear and trauma created during past events caused a delay or rejection in maturity. Holden is unable to move on from his past and is constantly trying to live in a memory. This causes him to want to stay with his childhood and resist transitioning into adulthood. Holden’s fear of adulthood causes him isolate himself from society in order to preserve and protect his childhood innocence. Lastly, Holden’s inability step out of his immaturity

Holden losing his virginity is another way for him to grow up, and not being able to lose it is an example of Holden resisting change and growth, While in New York, Holden visits the Natural History Museum and mentions how he wishes everything would stay the same, just like the exhibits in the museum, in which “nobody’d move” and “you could go there a hundred thousand times” and everything would still be the same (pg. 135). Since Ally’s death, Holden does not want anything else in his life to change, so no one else can leave him. Holden's inability to come to terms with Ally's death results in him not wanting to grow up and his being scared of change. In addition to

This shows that Holden strives to be more adult, but is frightened by sexual experiences. This is also shown in his anger about Stradlater and Jane. Once the prostitute arrives in his room, she undresses but Holden becomes uncomfortable and just wants to talk. He lies and claims that he had a recent surgery on his “clavichord”. Holden pays the prostitute

When his flashback begins, Holden Caulfield is kicked out of Pencey Prep School and goes to New York before his parents find out that he was kicked out. He wants to be treated like an adult, but struggles with accepting his emotions and interacting with other people. Holden begins the novel when he is seventeen by saying that he is not going to tell his whole backstory, and he is just going to state what happened to him the previous Christmas around 1949, before he got “run-down” and was sent to a mental institution to “take it easy” (Salinger 1). Holden starts telling his story the day that he left Pencey Prep in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. That Saturday, Holden is standing on top of Thomsen Hill instead of attending Pencey’s big football

His history teacher says, “‘Do you feel absolutely no concern for your future, boy’’’ (Salinger 8)? His history teacher tries to get him to worry about his future and offers advice, but Holden feels awkward and

However, he admits that while the couple’s actions are “crumby” (Salinger 81) and crude, he is still aroused and “wouldn’t mind” (Salinger 81) doing it, especially to a girl he is attracted to. While Holden wants to preserve his innocence by not thinking about sex at all, he agrees that he is a “sex maniac” (Salinger 81), and is a fiend about losing his virginity. Holden even goes as far as to make rules for himself. On page 82, he recounts, “I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it-the same night, as a matter of fact” (Salinger). He is slowly losing his innocence, and while he hates to admit it, Holden’s constant thoughts about sexuality is a sign of adulthood. To him, one should only have sex with someone they truly love. Holden is almost proud of himself for having such a morally correct view of sex. This is why he is so riled when he discovers that Stradlater had sex with Jane Gallagher. Holden realized that Jane barely knew Stradlater and felt that he, if anyone, should be dating Jane. His increasing thoughts on sexuality and loss of a conventional or shielded view of sex show that his loss of innocence is apparent.

As a child, life is simple. Stress is rarely prevalent and playing is the only thing a kid has on there mind is playing. On the other hand, the average adult’s life is surrounded by anxiety and temptations. These two stages in life are completely opposite from each other and due to that, it is an arduous transition from childhood to adulthood. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, is going through this grueling transition. However, Holden is not willing to accept that he is going through this period in his life. Even after going through that outrageous weekend which should have effortlessly changed Him into a man; Holden Caulfield is still immature due to his continuous poor decision making,

Essay “I was surrounded by phonies... They were coming in the goddam window.” by J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye. The novel ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ is about a teenage boy, named Holden, that goes back to the city where his parents live because he has been kicked out of his last school. He goes all around New York City to try to find himself and to try to figure out what has happened and what he might do in the future with himself since he does not want to grow up with a bunch of ‘phonies’ as he says. this book might not be relevant to teenagers now-a-days because not many schools allow students to read about this book for many reasons.

In one part of the novel, Holden says: “In my mind, I’m probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw. Sometimes I can think of very crumby stuff I wouldn’t mind doing if the opportunity came up. I can even see how it might be quite a lot of fun, in a crumby way, and if you were both sort of drunk and all […] Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it—the same night, as a matter of fact.

Before he is officially expelled, he decides to depart from the school and travel to New York City. During his time in the city, Holden searches for happiness and solace, knowing that if he returns home he will be scolded for his failure to secure the grades needed to remain in school. Holden canvases the city in search of a friend. Through his encounter with a prostitute

As time passes, as does age grow. The constant turning of time and growing of age can be stopped by no man, and is in fact more often sped up. This often manifests itself in a premature aging of children, and a desire on the children's part to resist this inevitable process. This is, certainly, the struggle that the coming of age novel, "Catcher in the Rye" by J. D Salinger both highlights and addresses. In his famous novel, Salinger shows the societal pressure to one's naivety and gain a 'mature' outlook on the world.