How Does Holden Caulfield Existentialism

Until this point in the book, his view had been set in stone with the many examples he presented for the reader. Nonetheless, after this quote, he presents to us the towering reason for his own phoniness, the fact that he is not fully sane. This changes everything for the reader because it shows that everything he has said in the book could have been a lie to cover up a secret. On top of this epiphany, he also states that he lied about loving Sally in the very same quote. This lie is another prime example of Holden being a phony and not being truthful.

This quote says much about Holden as a character and his efforts to be somewhat of a “bad boy” who has little apprehension regarding his future (removal from school, failing academically, and even admitting this to his parents.) 2. (p.9) “I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.” This quote contradicts all of Holden's comments, regarding phony people because he himself is even not trustworthy.

This demonstrates the common idea throughout the entire novel that Holden believes that life should not be as complicated as it seems. He assumes that everyone is hypocritical in their own ways, and it is what makes the world less than what it should be. He also says in the book, “Even if you did go around saving guys’ lives and all, how would you know if you did it because what you really wanted to do was be a terrific lawyer, with everybody slapping you on the back when the goddamn trial was over, (...) How would you know you weren’t being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn’t.”

As Holden observes the elders and adults in his world, he senses a loss of innocence from when they were children. He sees the adult world as “phony”, influencing himself to avoid falling in to the cruelty of the adult world. He wants to catch children before falling in to adulthood before they lose their innocence just as how many children are lost while playing in a rye field. “That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.

I would like to analyse this point in a specific way. First of all, Holden talks about the world

Holden, a young man of a privileged background, is an existentialist hero in the way that despite his social disillusionment and belief that everyone in society is working for their own personal gain, he still pushes forward and desires to be “the catcher in the rye”. Holden rejects the idea that we are born with our own set of meanings and rather desires to help others find their own meaning. In a way, believing that life is meaningless. To him, even things like religion are just another excuse to create more phony people. God may not exist, or if he does, his will is ruined by institutions and the phonies that run them.

Throughout the novel we see Holden’s division of adulthood and childhood. Holden is a 16-year-old male who is currently growing as a young adult having a feel for the adult world and what it brings. Holden fears becoming an adult, because he believes that the way adults live is “phony”. He does not agree with many things they do. This makes Holden cling onto his childhood and any innocence still left in his life.

The only Constant in Life is Change Classic books are called classic for a certain reason. Classics keep interests high and almost always has a deep meaning behind it. The Catcher in the Rye is no different. The Catcher in the Rye is a novel about Holden Caulfield finding his way in life, changing in many ways and ultimately finding who he is as a person. In the novel, “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger, existential elements are quite prominent throughout the story shown through the actions of Holden Caulfield.

As strongly as society wants to deny it, Holden was right; everyone is a phony in one way or another. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye Holden uses the word phony to describe the society around him and as a mechanism for his own isolation, but he fails to realize that he is the biggest phony of them all. Holden clearly perceives the insincerity of everyone around him and is nauseated by it; but despite his revulsion he still ends up being a phony himself. He reveals to the reader that even if someone does not want to be a fraud, and has attempted not to be, they cannot help it; everyone is a phony in the end.

He explains his answer by stating that all lawyers do is “make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot-shot” (Salinger 190). In a Capitalist society like America, such a lifestyle of being rich, owning cars, being surrounded by material comfort, and being a “hotshot” is considered a dream. It is clear from Holden’s choice of words, especially the word “hot-shot”, that he feels it an exclusive club. Furthermore, the inclusion of the word “all” suggests that these personages of Capitalist society only live for this purpose of material comfort. Logically, according to this view, those who live for material comfort but don’t succeed or earn such comfort would be unsatisfied with Capitalism.

Understanding characters are never finished. Even if you dig deeper than the surface meaning there will always be more to the story or the characters. In this case we are trying to understand Holden, a 16 year-old teenager who criticizes everyone and is always complaining about something. Most people will think because he is just an angry teenager who thinks he is the best but our problem is to figure out if that is really everything. At the surface you will see him just as another teenager who hates everything but the way he criticizes and what he says makes me wonder if thats it.

Holden’s changes throughout the story are testimony, to his own sincere transition in life. In the book Holden’s symbolized transition

In J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden Caufield, describes in detail the parts of his life and his environment that bother him the most. He faces these problems with a kind of naivety that prevents him from fully understanding why it is that he is so depressed. His life revolves around his problems, and he seems helpless in evading them. Among others, Holden finds himself facing the issues of acceptance of death, growing up, and his own self-destructiveness.

Both find themselves at a point of loneliness or confusion and they just read. Throughout the novel, Holden mentions, “what really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.” Many of Holden’s views on the world derive from this necessity of literature in his life. On the other hand, to explain the significance of his life and this world, Holden states that, “the mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.”

Although there are essentially two Holdens, there are still traits that remain the same. Throughout the story, Holden feels the need to explain and justify himself, as though people don’t believe him. Holden tells the story