Examples Of Quixotic Contemplation In Catcher In The Rye

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.

Holden’s depression about his brother’s death, affects his personal life. This matters because it explains why Holden always acts so negative in the book. These feelings are more remorse than the “normal” person. The book also goes heavily detail in these emotions, which could persuade the reader to feel these same emotions about others. Holden gets so wrapped up in all of his emotions, that he begins to critique others around him, even the people who are trying to help

One of the hardships Holden must cope with is his inability to come to terms with death, in particular that of his younger brother, Allie. Holden seems to have experienced a

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, cannot accept that he must move out of childhood and into adulthood. One of Holden’s most important major problems is his lack of maturity. Holden also has a negative perspective of life that makes things seem worse than they really are. In addition to Holden’s problems he is unable to accept the death of his brother at a young age. Holden’s immaturity, negative mentality, and inability to face reality hold him back from moving into adulthood.

Earlier in his life, Holden’s brother Allie dies from leukemia. Holden describes his brother Allie, “He's dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You'd have liked him. He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent. 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. And they weren't just shooting the crap. They really meant it. But it wasn't just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody. People with red hair are supposed to get mad very easily, but Allie never did, and he had very red hair. I'll tell you what kind of red hair he had…” (Salinger 21). But Holden gets very upset and punches all the windows in the garage the night Allie dies, and damages himself so badly he has to go to the hospital. Doing that, he causes himself to miss Allie’s funeral. So holden never gets a chance to get any foreclosure with Allie. And he feels so much regret and guilt that he does not even know it. Having this guilt on his shoulders makes him feel depressed. Something that he does not realize he has. He does know that he misses Allie, but he can not process why he feels like something is wrong with his connection to Allie. Holden is affected by this everyday. It

Teenage years are difficult. Time tells this story of struggle again and again. The Catcher in the Rye is a classic novel showing the struggles a teenager goes through while transitioning into adulthood. The main character, Holden Caulfield, is a judgmental and temperamental boy who struggles to see the positivity in life. Throughout the story, Holden searches to find himself, as he feels forced to grow up. He holds onto aspects of his childhood and isolates himself so much that it is even harder for him to transition. J.D. Salinger uses the red hunting hat, the museum and cigarettes as important symbols in the story to convey the themes of transitioning from childhood to adulthood, loneliness, and isolation.

Salinger highlights the struggle after a loved one’s death through the protagonist, Holden, who accounts the memories of his brother Allie: “He used to laugh so hard at something he thought of at the dinner table that he just about fell off his chair. 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” (Salinger 38). At an adolescent age, Holden had to go through the tragedy of his brother's death, where he demonstrated strange behavior due to his emotional instability. Holden had ruined his friendship with Stradlater, who’d asked Holden to write him an English prompt where Holden wrote about Allie’s glove, but had disappointed Stradlater, thus Holden tore the paper. Holden became furious due to the connection Holden had with his brother, he portrayed the misunderstanding that society and adolescents have of one another after a

Although Holden “hardly even know[s]” James, he sees him as someone who is real and not phony, admiring his resistance to lie (Salinger 171. The deaths of Allie and James cause Holden to contemplate suicide in order to escape the world of phoniness he lives in. Consequently, Holden’s constant thoughts about suicide lead to his own loss of innocence and advancement toward adulthood.

J. D. Salinger, in his novel, “Catcher in the Rye,” reveals how Holden’s life and relationships are affected by the death of his brother. Holden’s brother, Allie, died on July 18, 1946 from leukemia. Before Allie died, the relationship between two were inseparable. Being the younger brother, Allie wanted to be like Holden. Holden often reminiscences times when Allie wanted to spend time with him. “I remember once, the summer I was around twelve, teeing off and all, and having a hunch that if I turned around all of a sudden, I’d see Allie. So I did, and sure enough, he was sitting on his bike outside the fence.” (explain).

One of the many things Holden does in the book is consider suicide. Holden says, “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would’ve done it, too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed.” (Salinger, 104). Holden is so depressed that he considers jumping out of the window of a building.

When Holden was younger, his brother died of Leukemia. Even though Holden was older than his brother, he idolized him because he was a sensitive, intelligent, and lovely kid. However there is a deeper meaning to the adulation. Holden venerated Allie because he was young and innocent, furthermore, he was not perverted by the world of sex and adults. The allegory of Allie is critical to the novel because it gradually becomes clear that Allie’s demise was one of the most distressing experiences of Holden’s life and plays a key role in his current

Holden experiences extreme difficulty accepting his current realities and one of the main factors causing this is the lasting negative impact his brother Allies death had on his life. Firstly, when Holden decides to leave his school, he tells readers , “I don’t care if it’s a sad goodbye or a bad goodbye, but when I leave a place, I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t, you feel even worse” (Salinger, 4). Holden’s need for closure is evident in this quote. When Allie died, it was very unexpected and he was not prepared to let him go, resulting in his denial that his brother is actually

Trauma is one of the main causes of Holden’s alienation and disillusionment. Most teenagers experience some degree alienation and disillusionment however with the death of his brother allie and a fellow classmate Holden has to undergo the five stages of grieving and this appears throughout the book. This engages the modern audience because the process grief has not changed with time, nor has the process of moving from childhood to adulthood, which confuses and alienates Holden. Salinger’s narrative treatment…this will then connect to the next paragraph.

Similarly, loss suffered by Holden acts as a contributing factor to his inner turmoil and mental illness. Holden’s younger brother Allie passed away in 1946, and has haunted Holden ever since. He states: ‘He’s dead now. He got Leukaemia and died.’ The bluntness with which Holden reveals his death is representative of the effective use of simple language on the part of Salinger. Complex vocabulary is not used because it is not needed- the incident stands out more against a plainer backdrop. The fact that Allie died of Leukaemia also makes the event more devastating. He died extremely prematurely and Holden’s downfall suggests that his death impacted him in a huge way. Holden was intensely fond of his brother and refers to him throughout the entirety of the novel. He comments: ‘You would have liked him’ when personally addressing the reader. We therefore feel involved in his story and emotion is evoked when we hear of his passing. It also acts as an explanation for Holden’s difficulties. He struggles immensely throughout adolescence as he fails to accept the transition from childhood to adulthood, perhaps because he described Allie as ‘mature’ for his age. This could perhaps be why Holden has such negative associations with growing older: all he sees ahead is death. Therefore, loss endured by both Holden and Esther leads to their eventual depression and isolation from society.

Holden’s connection with his little brother Allie was very special to him. This is evident in the way he talks about Allie. He holds Allie up to these great expectations, saying “You’d have liked him” (Salinger, 1945-6, p.33) and convincing you how great he was and how intelligent and special he was. You are now able to connect and sympathise for Holden, because he has told you all about the things that mean most to him, and you can’t help but feel a little sorry for him.