How Does Holden Grow Up In Catcher In The Rye

Additionally, Holden is constantly looking for answers to where the ducks go when not at the lagoon. For instance, “Do you happen to know where they go, the ducks when it gets all frozen over?” (Salinger 60). Holden’s concern for where the ducks go proves his anxiety and Holden feels he lacks anywhere safe to head to go in the world. Holden shows a growing ability to adapt to adult life. He also says people cannot rely on others to help them and sometimes people just have to do things without the assistance of others. Furthermore, part of growing up is to be able to go the distance for one’s own self. The ducks represent the Holden’s journey toward maturity because, throughout the novel, we see his journey see what he should do after his life after being kicked out of the school. The ducks symbolize Holden’s maturity has better and they symbolize the process of learning how to deal with his fear of becoming an adult. They show what would happen to Holden- being taken off by the zookeepers or fly away on his own. However, Holden is immature about admitting that he needs help because he cannot see how his behavior is, but he would rather live in the unknown place alone in New York City and refuses to admit that he needs protection from his parents. After speculating around and observing others, he goes to the Central Park to find the answer about “ducks”. Another example is, “… Then, finally, I found it. What it was, it was partly frozen… damn near fell in once, in fact- but

Teenagers lives their life differently. However, when the time of being a adolescent arrives, they all have the same confusion and mindsets. J. D. Salinger’s novel, “The Catcher in the Rye”, is about a seventeen year old boy named Holden Caulfield, who lives his life with complexes and problems of his owns. Holden lives his life according to his favor and commit unreasonable actions. Holden has a difficult time trying to understand what being a teenager is. Holden Caulfield is a typical teenager because he expresses the problems of being a teenager.

Every human actions meets in nature and they find their own characteristic feature in a good or bad way. Not everyone can say it is a pleasant experiment, but no one can deny that it happened. This single event is ‘growing up’. The transition between childhood innocence and adulthood is long and confusing, often uncovering questions that cannot be answered. During this time the adult world seems inviting and free, but only when we become members of a cruel, society can the happy ignorance of childhood be appreciated and missed. The novel Catcher in the Rye examines how adult life appears complex and incomprehensible to teenagers on the brink of entering it. Through the main protagonist Holden Caulfield, J.D. Salinger captures the confusion of a teenager when faced with the challenge of adapting to an adult society.

Adolescence is often a confusing time where people still have elements of childhood, but they are beginning to enter the world of adults. People end up stuck between two points in life and feel that they can not quite fit into either. In J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye, sixteen year old Holden Caulfield experiences the contradicting feelings of being a teenager while he is alone in New York City. He masquerades as an adult and his experiences represent various aspects of being an adult. He tries to act grown-up and engage in adult life, but at the same time he resists it and tries to hold onto the way things are. Salinger explores the image of adulthood using symbols. Symbols of adulthood hold for Holden a certain longing and resentment as he struggles with the turmoil of adolescence.

The ducks are first brought to the reader’s attention while Holden is visiting his teacher, Mr. Spencer, regarding his removal from Pencey. While conversing with Mr. Spencer, however, Holden’s mind drifts elsewhere. His mind drifts back to New York as he wonders to himself if the lagoon in Central Park is frozen over, and if so, where do the ducks go? A direct parallel can be drawn from the ducks in the lagoon to Holden’s present situation. He is mandated to leave Pencey, but has no idea where he belongs after leaving. Just like the ducks in the lagoon, “Holden is essentially homeless, frozen out” (Trowbridge par. 1). Holden’s life has not been filled with an abundance of stability and now what little he had is gone, albeit due to faults of his own, and he sees an unsure and hazy future. Holden inquires about the state of the ducks to the driver of the first cab he catches in New York, and the driver believes that he is kidding. Later on, he asks another cab driver if somebody came around “in a truck or something to take them away” or if they flew away “by themselves” (Salinger 81-82). Knowing what happens to these ducks, knowing that they are safe and secure even though the lagoon is frozen would provide Holden with a sense of comfort about his current state of affairs. What seems to be a ridiculous and meaningless question to the

The process of growing up is reflected through having innocence, trying to hold on to that innocence, and losing that innocence. In Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield's mental breakdown is attributed to his hold on innocence and fight against adulthood, which is displayed first through his fixation on his red hat, then the ducks, and finally the museum of natural history.

There is a time in everyone’s life that we all can relate to, although it may not be the same for everyone. This event changes people around the world in one way or another, this occasion is called growing up. It is the conversion from innocence to the confusing adult world. Where we become participants in an unjust society and become oblivious of the childhood that we miss and cherished. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, it explores the innocence of a teen in the late 1940’s and also how he lacks it.

In the book The Catcher in the Rye the main character Holden Caulfield is a depressed teen that goes through change his whole life and it's nothing he likes. Throughout the novel they're symbols of holden's ambivalence of his life. The author J.D Salinger once said “ I think that one of these days you’re going to have to find out where you want to go, and then you've got to start going there.” The problem with Holden is he doesn't know what he wants to do in life except stay in a glass case. person's life. Change is one of the biggest events of a ife can change in a good way or a bad way, but either way life changes.

The ducks are first mentioned when Holden is at Mr. Spencer’s house. When Mr. Spencer is asking Holden about his failure and his future, Holden’s mind goes on a digression about the ducks. Holden is subconsciously thinking about, and worrying about his future. He does not understand how the ducks can change so easily and adapt to a changed environment. The lagoon freezing over represents Holden’s life, which is similar to a half frozen lake. He is stuck in the phase between childhood and adulthood. To Holden, the ducks mean flying away, and changing his life completely. He does not like change at all, and is fascinated by how the ducks can so easily adapt to a changing environment.

In the previous chapters, some of Holden’s behaviors and the things that Holden mentioned are immature. In a way that, he wishes to stay as a child because he had a lousy childhood. Just like when he reads, he likes to read some part in novels over and over again. Holden must have likes the part and he doesn’t want it to end hence, he rereads it. Everything that Holden brought up in the first two chapters are negative.

Growing up is a tough decision as you start to get older. You have to decide whether you want to stay and act young forever so you don't have to worry about having responsibility rather than growing up and maturing. The Catcher in the rye epitomize the characteristic of fear, confusion and loneliness of a young teenage boy who is stuck among his past and presents, at the same time he is unease about the future. Holden Caulfield is a young teenage boy who is afraid of growing up.

In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger reminds readers about the process in which children inevitably need to grow up to face the real world. The main character, Holden Caulfield, is presented as a vulnerable, depressed adolescent whose constantly seeking escape, in every form, from the complexities of adulthood approaching. Escape which can be portrayed in the forms of sex, drugs, and alcohol from topics such as death and intimacy in which he is going to have to encounter in order to grow up, which terrifies him to no end. Nevertheless, Holden desires to escape the thought of the adult world by turning his attention to imagining a fantasy world.

Throughout the book, Holden highlights his fear of change through the use of the metaphor of the ducks and fish in the lake. In his narrations, he shares his doubts about the ducks with every cab driver he travels in. Holden tells his first driver his home address at first, but changes it to a hotel later. In his encounter, he questions, “You know the ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over” (Salinger 78)? Earlier, Holden remembered his home, which immediately brought up the topic of the ducks because of his unstable

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

In chapter nine when Holden takes a trip to New York City, he is very concerned with the ducks in Central Park. While speaking with his taxi driver, he says: "Hey, listen" …"You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over? Do you happen to know, by any chance?" ‘I realized it was only one chance in a million-I was just interested, that's all’" (Salinger 60). Holden perceives himself as a duck trapped in the motionless water, a gloomy atmosphere where he does not belong nor fit into. Subconsciously, he may be searching for a “warm escape” like the ducks, because he feels he should have a chance to find his place in the world too. His motive for wanting a “great escape” is because he fears the idea of maturing into a young adult. He feels that adults are “phony’s” and depreciate the values instilled in young children. Holden’s conversation with his taxi driver teaches him that there is a fine line between dreams and reality, and this helps Holden