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Holden's Troubles In Catcher In The Rye

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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

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