In the famous, but often times previously banned novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, seventeen year old Holden Caulfield is trying to find his sense of direction in a world where he describes the majority of people in his life as phony. As the first chapter begins, it is clear Holden is currently living in a mental institution, although the reasoning behind so is never directly stated, the reader can infer it may have to do with Holden's depression troubles. For the most part, Holden's troubles are to blame on his own actions, he fails to realize his irresponsibly is the major cause of the negative aspects in his life. Holden's troubles of being an academic layabout and being reclusive seem to center from his biggest issue …show more content…
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 …show more content…
59) Holden's failure to find someone to call is when his isolation comes into view, and earlier in the novel, he admits to wanting to commit suicide because of how lonesome he is. "I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead." (pg. 48) Not only does Holden not have friends, but his own parents do not have a good relationship with him. In chapter seven, Holden talks about his mother buying him hockey skates instead of racing skates. "She bought me the wrong kind of skates-I wanted racing skates and she bought hockey-but it made me sad anyway." (pg. 52) Holden's present from his mother symbolzes she does not even know her own chld well enough to know his interests. Besides his absense of friends and distant relationship with his parents, Holden's biggest sense of lonliness comes from the death of his younger brother, Allie. Allie is first introduced when Holden writes an english composition for his roommate, Stradlater. Allie's old baseball mitt had poetry written all inside of it, therefore Holden decided to write the composition on it due to it's details. Holden's brother had passed away from luekimia while they were in Maine on July 18, 1946 when Holden was just
The carousel and gold ring finally allow Holden to accept change as a natural part of life and that it is necessary for one to grow as a person. Holden buys a ticket for Phoebe, his kid sister, to ride the carousel but refuses her offer to go on as well. Instead, he sits and watches: “ I went over and sat down on this bench and she went and got on the carousel” (211). By doing this, Holden chooses to no longer be a child. He starts to accept that he needs to start maturing and watches Pheobe, like the other adults are watching their children. This is a step in the right direction for Holden as up until this point in the novel, he has refused to change because of his fear. While Holden watches Phoebe ride the carousel, he watches her reach for the gold ring. As she reaches, Holden thinks to
The Catcher in the Rye was about Holden, who admires in children attributes that he struggles to find in adults to talk to him and he is undergoing treatment in a mental hospital. Holden Caulfield,who is 16 year old teenager went to three schools, but fails four of his five subjects only passed English he also struggles with the fact that everyone has to grow up. In the novel, Holden tells the reader through a few days of his life, in which he flaunts his hostile environments. Throughout the book,
One of Holden’s main defense mechanisms in the novel is isolation and same isolation can derive from his constant depression.. Holden chooses to isolate himself many times throughout the storyline because of his saddening past. An article by Debbie Roome acknowledged “Depression is another prime cause of isolation. A depressed teen loses interest in everyday activities and drops out of social groups at school” (Roome). The reader will in fact see this early on in the book demonstrating Holden flunked out of his school! The quote “Where I want to start telling is the day I left Pencey Prep. Pencey Prep is this school that’s in Agerstown, Pennsylvania” (Salinger 2) is an example of where Holden flunked out of his school, he in fact failed
Holden as a character displays the alienation of himself through his behaviour. Holden is not the same as many people and believes that everyone is a ‘phony’. Throughout the novel Holden realises more and more that he is different and sees the world differently to others around him. Holden has created an identity for himself and doesn’t want that to be diminished therefore he alienates himself from the rest of society to decrease the chances of that happening. Holden’s old school, Pency Prep, has the motto “since 1888 we have been shaping young boys into splendid, clear-thinking men.” (pg. 2) This increases Holden’s motivation to leave the school as it will be shaping his identity into something he doesn’t want to be; a man. Holden is all about protecting those younger than him from the dangerous world of adult hood and by alienating himself he feels he has a better chance of
Holden Caulfield encounters himself facing issues of acceptance of death, growing up, and parental neglecting that prevents him from completely understanding why it is that he is severely depressed. One of the hardships Holden must cope with is his inability to come to terms with death, of his younger brother, Allie. We often discover
A disparate situation is presented to readers in The Catcher in the Rye. Early in the novel, Holden expresses the reason for his difficulties in school as his being: “always surrounded by phonies.”(Salinger 13) Holden is correct; he is completely incapable of relating to his peers. However he takes no time to consider potential solutions to his problem. During his conversation with Mr. Spencer, Holden communicates that he deals with his troubles by simply quitting; putting minimal effort into academics and socialization. Since Holden never addresses his emotions directly, he fails to realize
Holden replies with "okay" because he's feeling upset. When Holden feels lonely he tempts to feel this way, vulnerable. It makes sense that he's looking for a friend to make him feel better and not alone. The connection we see here is that when we feel lonely we try to seek friends, even sometimes random people. But, we should learn from this and try to find people who who actually care about you. It’s important to express how we feel to someone because keeping those feelings inside can make you feel like you're drowning in your own feelings. Find friends who do care about you and want to help you, not for their own
Holden's disconnection from his family and friends causes an isolation that then leads to the deep depression expressed in the novel as “his great fall”. Sending him to boarding school portrays the physical and emotional distance that Holden faces with his parents. After the death of his younger brother it is implied that Holden displayed the tendencies of a distraught teneager. By “flunking four subjects and not applying myself and all.(6))” Yet instead of dealing with the issues of their problematic son they instead choose to send him away to boarding school as a means of not having to have that problem. Holden is so far disconnected from his parents emotionally and physically that it becomes a sure fire way for him to lead the life of a
At first glance, Holden is trying to find closure about his short time at Pencey. He wants to let go of all his failures on his own term. Of course, the school is expelling him on their terms, but Holden wants to physically leave and say goodbye on his terms. At a deeper glance, however, Holden wants to feel some
ambitions and desires for his life but he is faced with the basic conflict in the story,
The author has put in plenty of themes, messages, ideas, issues, and motifs. The character, Holden Caulfield is alienated from society, is experiencing the painfulness of growing up, thinks that the adult world is full of phoniness, and is sick of hearing about the American Dream from his teachers. JD Salinger has created a book that has raised plenty of questions and controversy towards the readers. The Catcher in the Rye shows how a teenage mind works. JD Salinger has used a stream of consciousness writing style where the character (Holden Caulfield) talks in first person as he presents his thoughts and feelings to the readers. The setting has taken place in the early fifties and the book uses a lot of profane words. The New York
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, portrays Holden Caulfield as a manic-depressive. Holden uses three techniques throughout the novel to cope with his depression. He smokes, drinks, and talks to Allie. Although they may not be positive, Holden finds comfort in these three things.
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.
Everybody feels depressed at some time or another in their lives. However, it becomes a problem when depression is so much a part of a person's life that he or she can no longer experience happiness. This happens to the young boy, Holden Caulfield in J.D Salinger's novel, The Catcher in the Rye. Mr. Antolini accurately views the cause of Holden's depression as his lack of personal motivation, his inability to self-reflect and his stubbornness to overlook the obvious which collectively results in him giving up on life before he ever really has a chance to get it started.
Everyone in the society can have some influences in any way, negatively or positively. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden encounters many people throughout his journey. These relationships he has influence his view of the world, allowing him to mature from someone who dislikes the shallow cruel world to understanding this is how life is. This development is shown through "phonies" he meets throughout the novel, his brother Allie, and his sister Phoebe.