Holden Caulfield Sociology

Holden begins to feel guilty for leaving the Antolini’s home and tries to distract himself by reading magazines. These magazines, however, make him more depressed as it makes him think that he has cancer and hormone deficiencies. Holden then describes the Christmas trees and shopping around him and thinks about the time he went shopping with Phoebe. As Holden walks down the street he becomes very worried every time he steps off the curb and begins to thank Allie when he reached the other side of the street safely. Holden decides that he is going to head West and start a new life where he pretends to be a deaf-mute so that he will never have to have another useless conversation.

means to him. Suddenly, they hear their parents open the door the apartment. His mother checks on Phoebe. Phoebe loans Holden her Christmas money, which makes Holden cry. He gives her his red hunting cap and leaves the building.

While Holden undergoes hardships and fears of the adult world, his heroic characteristics slowly reveal. Holden often thinks everyone is phony because of his loneliness in life. During the conversation with Mr. Spencer, Holden asserts “Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side…Nothing. No game”(Salinger 8). From the beginning of the story Holden commented on the game of life, testifying his true feelings of isolation and unfortunate contradicting his identity as the son of an intellectual lawyer, having access to a favorable education, and immense wealth. In addition, Holden also encounters a rough relationship with both men and woman, as seen in the text, Holden got in a fight with his amorous and arrogant roommate Stradlater, then another conflict with the deal of the prostitute Sunny. However, the death of Holden’s beloved brother Allie clearly framed an abhorrent impact on him. As evidence from the book where Holden portrayed his behavior after realizing the death of Allie, “I slept in the garage that night he died…just for the hell of it.”(Salinger 39). The effect was undoubtedly painful and fearful, that led Holden into a depressive break down state, and it may have altered Holden’s concept of getting along with others.

In portion of the story, Holden went to the Edmont Hotel. He spends his time when he struggles to buy a drink because of his age and hits on thirtysomething. The Edmont hotel is where he met the hotel elevator operator named Maurice who send a prostitute named “Sunny” to his room.When Maurice told Holden that he can have a prostitute in his room, Holden was okay and didn’t think clearly about it. Holden wanted to lose his virginity til Sunny got all aggressive on him. His excuse was he’s recovering from an injury and can’t have sex. Holden gave her five dollar but she asked for ten. Sunny called Maurice up that Holden owes her ten dollars. Maurice told Holden it was five but instead of saying it nicely, he punched Holden in the stomach and

These people include Jane Gallagher, Carl Luce, his student advisor at Whooton, and Phoebe, his sister. Holden focuses a lot on Jane Gallagher in our sessions, although she is never physically present in his story. Holden's failure to contact her because of his indecisiveness to talk to her makes him more miserable about himself. His conversation with Carl Luce adds insult to injury. Holden told me how much he respected Carl Luce since he thought Luce would be able to understand him and tell him what to do. But when Holden becomes too nosy by asking Luce too many personal questions, Luce criticizes him, which makes Holden more depressed. Phoebe adds even more salt to the wound. When Holden comes back to meet his sister in hopes that someone from his family to understand him, she criticizes him for getting kicked out of school. He decides to seclude himself by moving west alone; I believe this decision was made based on the built-up depression that has been accumulating within Holden. Although the people he respects toss him away and refuse to understand him, Phoebe brings Holden back and gives him hope to

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 Caulfield has failed out of three other prep schools before his parents enroll him at Prencey. The first chapter takes place during the last days of Holden’s first term at Prencey. He has failed four of his five classes, and because of this, he has been asked to not return for the next term. The headmaster

Holden has either left or been expelled from about four prep schools, three of which are: Whooton School, Elkton Hills, and Pencey Prep due to his poor academic effort and his dislike of those around him, he feels .."surrounded by phonies." (pg.13) When the novel first begins, Holden informs the reader he is not allowed back at Pencey, his most recent school, as he has failed all but his english class. "They kicked me out. I wasn't supposed to come back after Christmas vacation, on account of I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself at all." (pg. 4) Although Holden is fully capable of excelling in his classes, his only real reasoning for the failure in his education is because he just does not care enough to put forth any effort. Failure does not seem to concern Holden, which itself is concerning. However, disapointing his parents

      Holden's conflict with Maurice demonstrates his sincerity and his hatred in the evilness of the phony. Primarily, Holden is vigorously pushed to protect himself from Maurice. Holden arranges to spend time with Sunny a prostitute, and later is forced to pay double the agreed amount by Maurice, the hotel elevator operator. Maurice demands, 'Want your parents to know you spent the night with a whore? High-class kid like you?' He was pretty sharp, in his crumby way. He really was. 'Leave me alone. If you'd said ten, it'd be different. But you distinctly.';(Salinger 102) Holden is struggling to secure himself, by attempting to end the fight. Secondly, the evilness of the phony is shown during his conflict with Maurice. Holden cries, 'All of a sudden I started to cry. I'd give anything if I hadn't, but I did. 'No, you're no crooks,' I said. 'You're just steeling five' 'Shut up,' old Maurice said and gave me a shove.';(Salinger 103) The evil scenery causes Holden to, uncontrollably break down in tears. Holden's hatred of the phony is grown, as well as the protecting of the innocence. In addition to his physical conflicts with

The novel begins with sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield who is recounting two days back in December in the form of a long flashback. Holden has been expelled numerous times, his most recent, Pencey Prep. After getting into a fight with his roommate, Stradlater, Holden leaves school before he must return home on Wednesday to confront his family of his expulsion. Once he enters the train heading to New York he meets the mother of one his classmates from Pencey. Holden then misleads his classmates mother into believing that her son is popular among the students who attend Pencey. When he arrives in New York he encounters strangers dancing in a hotel, a prostitute, nuns, an old girlfriend, and his younger sister Phoebe. While Holden’s journey continues

On his travel, Holden meets Maurice - the elevator man at the Edmond Hotel - and gets set up with a prostitute - Sunny - that he hopes to have a friendly relationship with. When she arrives, Holden decides that he does not want her for sex, he wants someone to have a conversation with. This event ends up in an argument because she and Maurice tried to cheat Holden out of his money. Sunny tries to make Holden pay her $10 when they agreed on only $5. I think that Holden agreed in the moment because he felt pressured and figured that the prostitute would agree on just having a conversation.

After Holden arrives in New York he realizes he has nothing to do. He thinks about calling his sister or maybe even Jane but decides not to. Instead, Holden puts on his cap and hails a cab to the Edmonton hotel. Once in the cab, he asks the driver about where the ducks in Central Park go during the winter. This question shows that Holden is a bit immature for his age. Holden arrives at the hotel and states that it is “full of pervert and morons”. Holden then claims that he is “biggest sex maniac you ever saw” (Salinger 34), but then contradicts this when he says that sex is something he doesn’t completely understand. Bored, he thinks about calling up Jane Gallagher but instead calls Faith Cavendish a girl he’d never met but heard of her ‘easiness’.

The story begins by telling about Holden’s background. He was currently at his fourth boarding school, Pencey prep school. He already flunked out of the other three. At Pencey, he flunked four out of five of his classes, and has been notified that he is being expelled, but not scheduled to return home in Manhattan until Wednesday. Holden decides to visit his old history teacher, Spencer, to say his goodbyes, but quickly regrets it when Spencer talked about Holden’s poor academic performance the entire time. He becomes quickly annoyed and makes an excuse to leave his office.

He has a lack of social experience because of his lack of relationships. He ends up losing a relationship with his old teacher, Mr. Antolini, after he realizes that he was petting his head in the middle of the night and jumps to conclusions and leaves. Mr. Antolini cared about Holden and brought him to his place in the middle of the night and tried to make him realize his common sense, but Holden just throws away the opportunity. He also has an uncomfortable encounter with his old classmate Luce, whom he hates but calls because no one else is around and he is lonely in the city. Holden's social encounters help the reader to better understand the relationships that he has with

They accept, but they mock him for his age and he thinks they are boring. On his way back up to his room the doorman Maurice offers to send a prostitute to Holden’s room for five dollars, and Holden agrees. A young woman, identifying herself as “Sunny,” arrives at his door. She pulls off her dress, but Holden starts to feel “peculiar” and tries to make conversation with her. She obviously didn’t want to talk to him