How Does Holden Change Throughout The Catcher In The Rye

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

In Charlie and Holden’s life a common theme is trauma. In Holden’s life he has his brother Allie whom he was close to pass away to leukemia. In Charlie’s life we find out at the end of the book he was being sexually assaulted by his Aunt his whole life. Each of the two responded in their own ways to this trauma, but both isolated themselves. Therefore in both texts the reader learns trauma leads to isolation.

When Holden is taking a cab to a hotel, he asks the cab driver if he “know[s] those ducks in [the] lagoon right near Central Park South?” and if “By any chance, [he] happen[s] to know where…the ducks [go] when it gets all frozen over?” (Salinger 60). Holden is frightened by change and disappearance, as he wants to continue being young. Holden is worried about where the ducks go because he is scared that he too will have to leave soon, since he must grow up and enter his life of adulthood. As Holden drunkenly walks the streets of New York, he finds “[the lagoon]…partly frozen and partly not frozen” and although he “walked all around the whole damn lake…[he] didn’t see a single duck” (Salinger 154). Holden desperately wants to find a duck still at the lake so that he could hold on to his hope that he doesn’t have to grow up. Instead, Holden finds the lake “partly frozen and partly not frozen”, which signifies the current state of the transition he’s in, between childhood and adulthood. The ducks in the lagoon symbolize that Holden cannot remain a child forever, and that he must accept change and no longer be afraid to grow

Holden Caulfield is the main character and the protagonist in the novel The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D Salinger. As Holden starts to tell his story, you can see that Holden holds a peculiar behavior towards himself and everyone else around him because he is psychologically unfit. Throughout the story it becomes relatively apparent that Holden is not just an average teenager going through typical problems but rather he is an emotional and mentally damaged teenager who finds a hard time conforming to society and can not find stability and acceptance. Holden deals with delusional fears, fantasies and depressive and manic impulses and thoughts that all contribute to his underlying emotional problems.

In the book “The catcher in the rye” the main character Holden Caulfield’s behavior was very odd and unpredictable. He did things that put him in danger and ended up in a resting home because of his sickness. One of the many reasons for his behavior was because holden was very depressed. Throughout the book Holden tried again and again to talk to somebody and somebody actually listen to what he had to say. Holden also over-thinks what “could’ve happened” and that depresses him. Also holden said how a number of things depress him, for instance phony people and the death of his little brother Allie. Holden is very strange he acts this way because he is depressed.

“Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone” (Salinger 122). The idea of standing still, freezing time has come to many. Holden Caulfield knows this thought quite well in The Catcher in The Rye written by J.D. Salinger. The youth has both an internal and external struggle with growing up and becoming a part of society to the point that he stops at nothing to prevent the glaring inevitable.

The Catcher in the Rye, experiences first hand the effects of two devastating traumas in the life of Holden Caulfield. These incidences, the death of his brother, the suicide of a school friend and his constant feeling of loneliness, eventually leads him to reject what he feels is the "phoniness" of the adult world. The death of Holden's brother, Allie, greatly affected his ties to reality and as it did start/trigger his mental breakdown. For instance, in chapter twenty-five, while wandering around New York, Holden continually prays to his brother saying, "Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie don't let me disappear," until he reached the other side of each street. This mental stability implies that Holden does not feel that he has a connection with his own surroundings.

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

Growing up is a scary and painful thing but it can never be avoided. Some of the toughest struggles come with growing up and there is no way to control it. In The catcher in the Rye story Holden is faced with obstacles that come with growing up but tries to avoid them and soon realizes he can’t After Holden is kicked out of Pencey he realizes he is getting older and life is getting tougher for him. Since he knows what it is like to grow up Holden tries to keep the innocent children from going to adulthood.

Just like how Tambu is strongly influenced by her family, Holden’s parents and their indifferent attitude towards the children have a great impact on his interpretation of adulthood, which is not appealing. Critic Jonathan Baumbach describes that “Holden is continually confronted with the absence of good” in the search for goodness in the adult world. (Baumbach, 1964) This is shown in Holden’s encounter with a cabdriver in the city, where the adolescent “all of a sudden” (54) asks where the ducks in Central Park go during winter. The spontaneity, which frequently recurs in the novel, enhances Holden’s confused feelings.

Teenagers often go through many changes as they grow and mature. Sometimes they alienate themselves from others, experience guilt, and deal with pain and confusion of sexuality. Holden experience all of these throughout The Catcher in the Rye. Holden has decided he is tired of pencey for many reasons but a big reason is because he gets irritated by his roommate Stradlater. Stradlater is taking one of Holden's old girlfriends Jane, out on a date and that really upsets Holden. Stradlater teases Holden about having sex with Jane and causes a fight between the two. Holden right off the bat alienates himself by heading back home to Manhattan three days early to stay in some sort of hotel, and he doesn't tell his parents so

Many teenagers struggle with the concept of self-identity and growing up. Troubled 16-year old Holden, from the Catcher in the Rye, is no exception. The Catcher in the Rye follows the story of Holden and his journey to adulthood. To Holden, this adulthood is a world full of lies and phoniness. Due to his lack of interest in the world of growing up, Holden is a character who seeks to find the innocence in others and is a strong believer of staying young and preserving yourself. In the Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger argues that as you come of age, innocence is replaced by the hardships of

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” is a common question asked in elementary schools to ingenuous children who have a glint in their eyes when they think about their futures. As students ascend higher and higher in their academic careers this inquiry will be posed to them less and less and eventually the innocence that marked their youth will be forever lost. Sadly, the process of growing up is a difficult endeavor as many struggle to shed off their youthful innocence and fully accept the responsibilities that come along with adulthood. No one captures this struggle quite like author J.D. Salinger in his book Catcher In The Rye, which depicts the journey of adolescent, Holden Caulfield as he grapples with the fact that he is no longer a child.

Have you ever struggled with the thought of growing up, well Holden has the same problem. The Catcher in the Rye is a book based on the life of a teenage boy who is a very troubled individual. Holden refuses to grow up, and he struggles with the thought of losing his innocence. The way he chooses to deal with this is very strange. Holden is a very immature boy. He got kicked out of the high school he was attending. Since he got kicked out, he is now scared to go home and have his parents find out. He is also very immature in the way he lies about anything and everything he can. I think he is a compulsive liar and he lies for his own amusement. Something that you will notice about Holden is, he criticizes everyone he sees. He makes fun of people

Holden Caulfield is a young man that has struggles in his life. Much like any other man his age, Holden thinks that everyone else is against him. He believes that all the phonies of the world are nowhere near his level of knowledge. Everyone else is out to get him or not worth his precious time. He does not want to make anything of himself. Holden had so much potential. HE grew up in a successful family and was extremely intelligent. But then his brother died and everything changed. His whole family fell apart. His brother moved away, he was shipped away to boarding schools, taken away from his whole family. In a situation like that, losing a child, the best thing to do is stick together as a family and support each other. If Holden’s family had stuck together after the death of his brother, Allie, Holden would have been in a much better place in his life. But he was not that lucky. He flunked out of four prep high schools. Holden could not have cared less about succeeding in his life. His only goal in life is to become the catcher in the rye. (insert book