Holden Caulfield And Asher Lev In Catcher In The Rye

In J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden Caufield, describes in detail the parts of his life and his environment that bother him the most. He faces these problems with a kind of naivety that prevents him from fully understanding why it is that he is so depressed. His life revolves around his problems, and he seems helpless in evading them. Among others, Holden finds himself facing the issues of acceptance of death, growing up, and his own self-destructiveness.

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.

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

1- Salinger’s main character Holden, is seen to be struggling with his past, present and future in The Catcher in the Rye.

Holden Caulfield is a character who has been through rejection and wishes to protect others innocence. He is a teen boy who is the main character in Catcher in The Rye by J.D.Salinger. He has an older brother named DB, a younger sister named Phoebe, and a younger, deceased, brother named Allie. Holden retells his story on him, trying to be the catcher in the rye. Holden has been kicked out of different colleges. He has been rejected by different girls. Holden goes through his life story. He talks about being kicked out of Pencey, his friend Jane, his “acquaintance” Stradlater, and how, when, and where Allie died. Society is to blame for Holden Caulfield's decline in mental stability. Society does not help Holden. Instead, they ignore his

In the novel Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield, our protagonist, makes a mental journey in relation to dealing and coping with the grief accompanied with the death of his brother, and we are able to see how his mental status changes and how he needs guidance from loved ones. In this journey, he learns about how to make connections and that staying close to the people he loves can improve his outlook on life and overall mood. During the book, he isolated himself from others and always found the negative in everything, which did put him in a very grim place. In fact, he even becomes clinically depressed, as we can clearly see from our point of view. He soon learns that being with his younger sister Phoebe almost brought

Holden Caulfield, the main protagonist of the book is a young, emotional, and a damaged person. He faces difficulty with the death of his brother, his family being disappointed about his work in school, and not only his innocence, but the innocence of his sister, Pheobe. Holden doesn’t like to acknowledge, but we know many people in his life care about his well being and his success and happiness. The issue Holden is dealing with is prevalent throughout the entire book leading up until the end, and that is his innocence. He can’t accept growing up and is scared of reality. This is crucial for the book, not just to captivate the reader with relatable narration and emotions, but for the forward movement of the story and plot.

One of the greatest American Literature writers, J.D. Salinger, was familiar with a rough childhood by experience. He was able to parallel his experiences to the experiences of Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in The Catcher in Rye. In this novel, Holden experiences conflicts that most youth are not familiar with. The conflicts in Holden Caulfield’s life are caused by various forces and circumstances.

Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, all right—I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s a game about it? Nothing” (Salinger 8). Through this quote, the author shows the reader how Caulfield just accepts life as it is, despite being unhappy with it, and doesn’t make an effort to change his situation. In sum, Holden Caulfield is too accepting of reality and does not attempt to take control over his own life, which is uncharacteristic of a true code hero.

He initially tries to combat her claim but comes up short, realizing the only things he likes are Phoebe and his late brother Allie, forcing him to accept the truth. Caulfield finds that his being so absorbed in disliking almost everything brings upon a phoniness of his own, because although he is privileged (rich, male, white, access to education, etc.) he can find few to no pleasures in his life. Holden must embrace the fact that he is, in some way, like the people he so tirelessly hates.

Holden Caulfield is described a boy who does not care what happens or where he goes in life. These feelings are related to a heavy sadness that causes him to feel stressed

Caulfield’s loneliness is probably one of the main motifs all throughout the novel. “I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would've, too, if I'd been sure somebody'd cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn't want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory.” As he narrates his time in New York, it shows the readers how he looks for someone that understands him. In some ways, it shows that it is his source of pain and his security. Relationships, intimacy, and sexuality are some of the things he fears the most from the adult world. “Sex is something I really don't understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away. Last year I

Art and Vladek’s atypical relationship showcase the division created by the holocaust various different ways. Art immediately paints a picture of a; weak, frail, old man, who had

When Art is retelling his father’s story, he tries to repress all his emotions so the true meaning of this father’s narrative is revealed, but sometimes his feelings overtake him. However, Art does not leave the deaths of all the innocent Jews on the page; he carries them with him, and they weigh him down in depression. And even though he

Holden deals with his younger brother Allie’s death with both negative and positive memories. For instance, when Holden is writing Stradlater’s report for him, he chooses the main topic on Allie’s baseball mitt and even goes on about what a good person Allie was.