Holden Caulfield In Hero's Journey

In the beginning of the story we get to meet a character named Holden. A character with a weird personality. The number of readers who have been able to identify with Holden and make him their hero is something that I think is weird. Holden has a discontent and a vivid way of expressing life which makes him resonate powerfully with readers who come from backgrounds completely different from his. It is tempting to inhabit his point of view and just deduce what is wrong with him. The obvious signs that we see in Holden are troubled and unreliable narrator are manifold. He fails out of four schools, he manifests complete apathy towards his future therefore he is hospitalized and gets check ups by a psychoanalyst for an unspecified complaint.

I consider Holden Caulfield to be a morally ambiguous character. The Catcher in the Rye is truly a story about Holden’s views and opinions of himself and the world. This makes his morals a main topic of the book. He raises many questions from readers, and his strange actions aren’t completely explained. The questioning of Holden Caulfield’s morals is what makes The Catcher in the Rye a great book.

Throughout Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield expresses his disdain for “phonies” at practically every opportunity he gets. He prides himself in being authentic and speaking his mind and blames his lack of friends and his alienation on the faults of others. He pushes people away because he cannot stand to be around their fake personalities. However, though Holden may not realize it, it is not because of the flaws of his peers that he is a loner, but instead because of his own judgemental and abrasive personality.

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a story about the trials of life and the toll it can take on the psyche. I believe that Holden Caulfield is an under credited hero. He is a teenager forced to grow up in a time of turmoil with severe emotional handicaps placed upon him by family, friends and life in general.

Analise Calleo- Catcher in the Rye Essay In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger portrays an intriguing image of a teenage boy, Holden Caulfield, who deals with abnormal struggles. Throughout the book , Holden leads us through his life and seems to gloat about his pessimistic attitude towards life. As the book goes on, there is a pattern that is important to take note of. In the novel, Holden always says how he “doesn’t feel like it” (when it comes to expressing his feelings), but it is very obvious that Holden uses this phrase over and over to be oblivious towards his emotions.

     Although Holden is extremely cynical and struggles with relationships, he is not all bad. Inside he is moral and generous. He was very charitable when he gave a considerable donation of twenty dollars to the nuns. Holden has a strange way of loving people.

Tragi-comedy happened to be the most dominant mode of postwar writing and it can be linked to the anti-hero in late 1940s and 1950s fiction. Anti-heroes emerged in quick succession in various guises following the trend of European picaresque tradition of rougish anti-heroes and part from the discomfort with rising middle-class expectations of the decade. The list includes Holden Caulfield in J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the rye (1951), Ralph Ellison and his eponymous Invisible Man (1952), Hazel Motes in Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood (1952) and Cross Damon in Richard Wright’s The Outsider (1956); Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (1947) and Humbert Humbert in Vladimor Nabokov’s Lolitha (1958). The trend continued in 1960s fiction

Holden lost Allie to cancer. Conrad lost his brother to a boating accident. Holden idolized Allie. Allie was special; he had red hair, he was left handed, he wrote poems on his baseball mitt. Allie was sensitive and caring, and to us Holden made Allie sound like a saint. Allie’s death played a major role in Holden’s life. The day Holden found out, anger took over, causing him to break the windows in the garage, hospitalizing him with a broken hand. Holden’s depression was caused by the death of his brother, and because of that, he is

Allie died of leukemia in the Caulfield summer home in Maine when he was eleven and Holden was thirteen. Allie’s death occurred when Holden was in a very formative year in one’s life, and had a major effect on his mental health. Allie’s demise caused Holden to lose his sense of self and home. Angered by the death of his beloved brother, Holden punches a wall and windows and injures his hand, which causes him to be sent to the hospital and later miss the funeral ceremony. The ache that lingers in his hand reminds Holden of the pain that Allie’s untimely death caused. Allie’s life ended while he was still young and unchanged by the harsh reality of the world, and he is suspended in a sort of childlike purity in Holden’s mind. Holden oftentimes calls upon the memory of Allie when confronted with dark and frustrating thoughts and troubles. Allie is one of the only people Holden does not believe to be a phony, like he does with so many others. Holden’s worldview is skewed because of Allie’s death. Allie is somewhat of a saint in Holden’s mind, unblemished and wholesome. Holden describes Allie as the most intelligent member of the family and the nicest. Holden tells the reader, “He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent” (Salinger, 49). Allie is undoubtedly the most influential force in Holden’s

Holden loved Allie, and was disturbed from the news of his death. Holden was hospitalized after punching his garage windows. When Holden explained Allie’s traits, he said, “But it wasn’t just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways” (Salinger 50).” Holden thought the most of Allie. He thought Allie had the most potential out of anybody he had ever met. He also thought Allie was a genuinely good person, and that he did not deserve to die. One of the greatest causes to depression is a death or a loss. When Holden finally came up with an answer to phoebe’s question to think of something that he liked, Holden’s answer was that he liked Allie. Phoebe told Holden that Allie is dead. Holden then said, “I know he's dead! Don't you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can't I? Just because somebody's dead, you don't just stop liking them, for God's sake especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that're alive and all" (Salinger 222-223). Holden was constantly depressed about Allie because he was always thinking of him. Allie was the nicest person Holden had ever met. The death of a person with an impact like that would cause anyone devastation. His mindset makes him believe that no one else will be as good to him as Allie was. He thought the best person that will ever be in his life was gone

Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child. “All of a sudden I

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.

The self-narration of Holden’s life is what gives the reader an insight into the way he thinks and feels. It helps you understand why Holden is the way he is. Without this explanation from him, you wouldn’t empathise with him, or like him very much at all. It’s the little stories he tells, like the story about Allies baseball mitt, “…Allie had this left-handed fielders mitt… he had poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere. In green ink.” (Salinger, 1945-6, p.33) or about how he knows Jane Gallagher, “You were never even worried, with Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were happy. You really were” (Salinger, 1945-6, p.72) that make you see the softer side to him.

When Holden Caulfield is introduced in the story he seems as if he were to be any other normal teenager. He doesn’t like school and continuously complains about it. Holden claims he does not like his school or any other school he has been a part of for that matter. Like any other teenager Holden talks and thinks about girls. Holden has always had a crush on this girl named Jane. Holden has only a few

This is the story of a 16-year-old boy named Holden Caulfield, who is the narrator of The Catcher in the Rye. He is a student at Pency Prep School which is Holden’s fourth school. He has expelled from three other schools. And again, he is kicked out from Pency Prep because he has failed four out of five of his classes, excepted English. He will return home to Manhattan on Wednesday. He so fed with everyone and everything in Pency. He thinks everyone is phony. He decides to leave that night and not wait until Wednesday. To avoid his parent from the truth the he’s kicked out from Pency, he has to stay in hotel for a few days before returning for his punishment. Holden wears his red hunting hat all the time and everywhere he goes.