How Does Holden Caulfield Be A?

From the beginning of the book the reader can interpret that Holden is a person who seemingly likes to be detached from society. He isolates himself from the football game and instead decides to stand in solitude upon a hill, looking down at all those below him. As he strives to find a goodbye to Pencey Academy, one can see that this is not a new experience for him, as he divulges the details of his mobile past, jumping from one school to the next.

In the first chapter of this novel, we get introduced to the protagonist and narrator of the novel, Holden Caufield, from a rest home in which he has been sent for therapy. He refuses to talk about his early life, although he does explain that his older brother “D.B” sold out to writing for Hollywood. His story and breakdown begins in the school of Pencey Prep, a boarding school set in Pennsylvania. The setting for the early chapters in the narration is his "terrible" school, to which he describes the atmosphere to be “as cold as the December air on Thomsen Hill”. Holden’s student career at Pencey Prep has been destroyed by his refusal to apply himself. We know this after Holden explains he failed four of his five subjects, passing only English. Due to his lack of effort and determination, he was forbidden to return to the school after the term. The Saturday before Christmas vacation began, Holden overlooked the football field, where Pencey usually

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 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's poor relationships with his classmates and teachers, or people in general, was evident before he went to Pencey Prep as well as during his stay at Pencey Prep. When Holden thinks back to his previous school,

Holden is trying to protect children from losing their innocence, but how he is doing that is by trying to help his little sister. He is trying to help his sister by showing her fun, but he needs to take care of himself more. Because if he doesn’t he will slowly lose his mind, by having a mental breakdown. When Holden is hanging out in the city, he is thinking about how much his life sucks. For most of the book Holden is trying not to think about his life, because he doesn’t want to think about the consequences. Holden is pretty batty throughout the book, he is always thinking of a hundred things at one time. Holden is stressed out during the whole book, because he was kicked out of his school and is worried his parents will find out. So he hides in New York during the book, where he is doing stupid things.

Holden ignores his history teacher, who is his friend. Even though his friend consoles him and the school expels him, Holden does not care that he fails all his subjects and school. When the psychiatrist and Holden’s family ask him whether he is going to apply himself at school, he answers, “I swear it’s a stupid question… to know the truth, I don’t know what I think about it”(213-214). Regardless his family worries for his well-being, he is indifferent to failing school because he understands he will go back to school despite being expelled three times. He also does not take school seriously since he does not feel in control to make the decision to go back to school.

He connects with life on a very idealistic level which causes him to feel the flaws of others so deeply that he tries to cover himself by being in a state of disbelief. Part of Holden yearns for a connection with others on an adult level, while the other part of him wants to repudiate the adult world as “phony” and unjust and to recede into his own memories of childhood where things seem to be easier to deal with. He attempts to connect with other people over the development of the novel which leads him to interacting with other people as an adult and then deciding that he wasn’t ready for it. When Holden meets Sunny, it becomes clear to him that he is far from ready to be able to handle an adult situation. He starts to feel uncomfortable and makes the woman leave. Another encounter he had was at the end of his date with Sally Hayes, Holden tries to get her to run away with him, resulting in her strongly rejecting his dreams and him getting so upset that they part ways. Lastly, in his departure from Mr.Antolini’s apartment, he begins to question his ability to judge peoples characteristics. He had gone to the apartment to confide in his teacher about the choices he had made, but Mr.Antolini made him realize that his arguments weren’t very strong which made him unsure of himself and his views. Holden finally comes to terms with himself at the end of his story as he watches Phoebe ride the carousel. Everything seems to all come together at that moment. Holden shows signs of growth as he’s watching Phoebe. He realizes that the compassion he was missing had been there all along within his little

As the story progresses, Holden seems to learn that maybe everything isn’t always about him. He starts to develop a different mentality where the world doesn’t revolve around him. Holden tears up the essay he had written for Stradlater without hesitation when Stradlater doesn’t think that it is good enough. We can also see this change in Holden in the way that he treats his sister Phoebe.

George Bernard Shaw once said that, “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” In J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher and The Rye, Holden’s fear of change shows us that change, although difficult, is inevitable as one matures from a child to an adult. We see how Holden is overwhelmed with change which makes him enjoy things that stay the same. When Holden is able to look back at this experiences, he matures and is able to grow.

As the novel progresses Holden matures, and comes to the realization that facing his problems head on is a better choice than doing whatever he can to avoid them. His repeated record of being kicked out of school shows he’s is unwilling to change. The novel begins with Holden being kicked out of Pencey Prep; he talks to his teacher and roomates about leaving, and how he feels that he shouldn’t wait until Wednesday. He feels that the school “made me too sad and lonesome” and that he’ll leave and “take a room in a hotel in New York - some very inexpensive hotel and all - and just take it easy all until Wednesday” (Salinger). Holden’s choice to leave Pencey earlier than he is supposed to reflects his fear of confrontation.

Holden flunked out of Pencey and now he decides to leave in the middle of the night after a fight with his roommate. He does not know what to do when he leaves, as he knows his parents will never forgive him once they learn of his expulsion, so he decides to take the train to New York City. Throughout this he feels very lost and lonely in his mind, as he has no one to turn to. It is clear how he feels when he gets dropped of from the train station and wants to call someone, while doing this, he says, “The first thing I did when I got off at Penn Station, I went into this phone booth. I felt like giving somebody a buzz. I left my bags right outside the booth so that I could watch them, but as soon as I was inside, I couldn't think of anybody to call up……..So I ended up not calling anybody. I came out of the booth, after about twenty minutes or so, and got my bags and walked over to that tunnel where the cabs are and got a cab” (Salinger 66-67). This quote, coming from the time Holden finally got off of the train, explains perfectly how he is lost and lonely, leading him to not be able to adjust to the change of leaving school with nowhere to go. With no one to help him it was much more difficult to find himself. Another time when the readers

Holden appeared to be really directionless. He didn't even have ‘the faintest damn idea’ where he could go. Holden didn't want to go home because he was flunked by the school. Besides, he was contemptuous of the part of ‘phony’ society his family belonged to. At the same time, he couldn’t fit in the lower class society because of his background and unfamiliarity with their cultural norms. He was an

This book presents the challenges of transitioning from a child to an adult. Not only that this book likes to distinguish that ignorance and aggression can lead to disaster. The reason for that is because the main character Holden Caulfield is a teenage boy who does nothing, but stay angry and pick fights with people. He constantly calls anyone who gets in his way or tries to bring him to reality a “phonie”. This book definitely discusses growing up though as Holden is trying to come to terms with being almost an adult and tries to almost fight it during the book.

​Holden considers himself an outcast in comparison to those around him. Maturing at a young age, he struggles to find his purpose in the world and refuses to accept the beginning of adulthood. Still grieving from the death of his younger brother, Allie, Holden believes that his childhood was taken away from him tragically and unfairly. This mindset doesn’t allow him to grow