The character Holden, in the Catcher In The Rye, is emotionally and mentally unstable. He tries to escape reality by living in his own fantasy world. He has difficulty coping with the problems in his adult world and retreats to his childhood memories. He has unrealistic dreams and adventures. He isolates himself into his own depressed and miserable world. There are moments where he experiences joy and pleasure but this is only temporary. Even though Holden is suffering from depression, he evolves at the end of the novel. Although Holden struggles with the reality of growing up and coping with the problems in his life, he learns that life is full of good and bad and he can’t escape life’s difficult times. At the end of the novel when Holden …show more content…
In the beginning he tries to escape everything in his life. He runs away from his parents, gets expelled from schools, categorizes everyone as phony and isolates himself from the world. Instead of dealing with his problems he escapes to his idealistic childhood memories. He lives in great pain and depression. He becomes so lonely that he takes risks to visit his sister Phoebe. As he was leaving he says, “For one thing, I didn’t give much of a damn any more if they caught me. I really didn’t. I figured if they caught me, they caught me. I almost wished they did, in a way.” (Pg. 233-234) This portrays that Holden is tired of running away and wants to be loved and taken care of. Holden desperately needs support at a time like this when he is so mentally unstable and needs to be in an environment with his family. This shows a slight change in Holden because before he wanted nothing to do with his parents. Later in the book Holden plans to run away somewhere out west. He says,” … I decided I’d go away. I decided I’d never go home again and I’d never go away to another school again… I thought what I’d do was, id pretend I was one of those deaf mutes. That way I wouldn’t have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody… and then I’d be through with having conversations for the rest of my life.” (Pg. 257-258) Later when Holden tells Phoebe about his plan she became very angry because
The whole book is set as a flashback of Holden's past year. When he starts narrating the story, he mentions that he got "pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy". This says that Holden has had a tough year, with a breakdown, he is in some kind of place where he's taking it easy. His previous diction/word choice gives us hints that he might actually be in a mental hospital(words like madman). He describes the place as 'crumby' and also says that his brother, D.B., visits him every weekend. And, at the very end of the book, last chapter (26), Holden says, "...this one psychoanalyst guy they have here, keeps asking me if I'm going to apply myself when I go back to school next September." 'Psychoanalysis' is, according to FreeDictionary, " The method of
Holden is unable to accept realities of life because of his negative personality. He claims that many people are phony and that they try to do things to make them look better than they are. Holden also thinks of many things as depressing. “It was really nice sightseeing, if you know what I mean. In a way, it was sort of depressing, too, because you kept wondering what the hell would happen to all of them” (p. 123). Holden always finds a down side to a situation. He fails to recognize the good sides of life, and this prevents him from seeing advantages in adulthood that are not present in his life.
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
What does change in Holden during the course of the book is his idea that he can somehow change the world and help it to move out of its corrupt state. Holden is also moved to the eventual realization that not only can he not change the world but he is also unable to hide
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,
Holden Caulfield, a 17 year old boy who is reminiscing a about his 16 year old self’s journey from childhood to adulthood. This in such journeys one tends to make big decisions and loses their innocence, but Holden refuses to. In J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye one may only see Holden Caulfield as a rich boy with first world problems that are way too trivial to feel lost about. Throughout the duration of the novel Holden spent it in New York City, where he moped around for a few days. While there he found himself in different situations asking the same questions about change. Holden has immense issues with change, specifically growing up. Like any person growing up requires one to understand the benefits of change and to embraces them,
Hope 's, failures, accomplishments, joy, excitement, and sadness are all feelings that Holden experiences through the novel. Feelings aid in the dictation of how we live our lives. The feelings may seem insurmountable at one point in time are actually temporary in the bigger picture. This perspective is something that Holden lacks through the course of the novel. After leaving boarding school Holden feels like his life is over he is unable to see that life could change. After Allie died Holden felt like his life was over without his brother he was lost and alone. After he felt like the people around him gave up, he felt like his life was over he had no support. Again and again, Holden 's feelings kept pointing in a negative direction. This struggle is what ultimately directs Holden 's actions and emotions. Holden is naive to the reality that emotions are like a rollercoaster there are great highs and great lows. However, at the end of the day the rollercoaster ride will finish. The underlying theme is to never give up on any of them through the highs and lows of life. You will always have things that hold you back, but at the end of the day success only comes when you are able to conquer those challenges. Catcher in the Rye is a story about a young boy who is lost in the world and has faced his fair share of challenges in his life. After getting kicked out of a boarding school and pretending to be an adult. He finds himself lost and without hope.
After finishing his flashback, Holden states, “...one psychoanalyst guy they have here…” (Salinger 213). The audience can infer that Holden is currently at some type of rehabilitation clinic, possibly for his depression. Luckily, it shows that Holden had realized his problem he had with depression and that he is taking a stand in order to change his life around for the better. At the end of the novel, Holden comes to turn with himself since he noticed how his life was not all that good and that he should really focus on being the “mature man” like Mr. Antolini said he should . However, Holden never really formally comes to turn with his parents and even throughout the book, it can be inferred that he did not have a strong bond with them. Now that Holden is starting his life over again, he has many opportunities and chances to make it better. Predicting that Holden finished therapy, he will most likely go on with his education and make himself useful in the world, both for himself and for
Holden is struggling to become a young adult throughout the story.The first example is when he is fascinated thru the streets of New York.”my bags were there and all,and I figured I’d sleep in that crazy waiting room where all the benches are”.This quote shows that Holden is not ready for the adult world after getting kicked out of pency he chose these bad choices.He had to sleep in a waiting room of a subway and is going thru lots of problems.He had to sleep there because he does not want to tell his dad that he got kicked out of pency and does not want to accept his Consequences like a real adult.
The Catcher in the Rye displays many theme throughout the novel, and all of these themes can be seen through the main character Holden and his relationships with certain individuals. Themes like loss of innocence, reality vs. illusion, lack of communication and the list goes on and on. However, another big theme that is often illuminated is dealing with change, which is something Holden isn't the best at dealing with. Many of us can relate to Holden in general, but especially with this topic because it affects us all, things change but from these changes we grow and learn which holden struggles to grasp. Dealing with change is a topic see in The Catcher in the Rye, and is displayed through Allie’s Death, character development, and Phoebe growing up.
Throughout the novel Holden is rejected and exploited by the society around him. As he is conflicted with himself to find a purpose in life he constantly tries to connect with a superficial society. The ongoing failure and fake personas he meets adds to his depression and cynicism. But instead of facing the problems by growing up and to move on Holden uses this negativity and isolation to protect him. Holden tries show that he is better than everybody else as this is the little stability he has left. When in reality Holden is just scared of the interaction of people because they just submerge him with complications he doesn 't know not yet how to deal with. Holden not being be able to cope with the idea of growing up adds to his loneliness which is the core of his pain. When his encounters first interaction in the novel, Holden Caulfield is an uncaring outcast who sees no motivation in life. As he says to Mr. Spencer, he feels trapped on “the other side of life” (Salinger). Holden constant attempt to fit into society is hidden because of his detachment to people. His only stability right now is to search for his own individuality and to face adulthood himself. That is why
In all forms of literature, characters develop and progress throughout the story after experiencing several events that change them as a person; this is what gives the story substance and interest in the readers’ eyes. This statement is also the case in J. D Salinger’s novel “The Catcher in the Rye” as the protagonist Holden Caufield goes on a journey of self-discovery resulting in change in his overall view of the world around him. Throughout the novel, Holden is driven by the idea of preserving the innocence of children and sheltering them from the adult world, but as the story progresses he comes to the realization that growing up is an inevitable part of life that must be accepted. Holden also changes from being someone who rarely shows
He tries to be someone he is not , Holden feels lonely when phoebe is riding the carousel and he is sitting at the end of the chair in the rain all alone, also when he sees the seesaw boys at the park and you can tell that they do not want him around. Things like that are the things that Holden felt like he wasn’t good enough for anybody and also really sad. Also when he found out that Jane had slept with Stradler, he was about to be done with everything, he felt really disappointed and mad at life, because he really feels something for
Supporting claims are made that within Holden’s subconscious he is dealing with emotional turmoil of abject rejection that he then expresses through refusal to even entertain the idea of conformity. Numerous outside critiques also claim that Holden’s only true desire is to be accepted, “Holden is angry at everyone. Anger, of course, is the flip side of hurt. Holden is wounded by his disappointment in the faults of the world. He feels that he is different, doesn't fit into his environment. . .
Holden is a teenage boy whose has just been kicked out for failing his classes from his private school he attended. And even though Holden is smart and shy, he is still a protagonist, and lives in New York. Holden is a narrator and one of many main character of the novel. The novel talks how Holden's week in New York went before Christmas break following him leaving from school , a Ivy league school in Pennsylvania where it was based on Salinger's The Catcher In The Rye.