How Does Salinger Use The Characterization Of Holden Caulfield

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, cannot accept that he must move out of childhood and into adulthood. One of Holden’s most important major problems is his lack of maturity. Holden also has a negative perspective of life that makes things seem worse than they really are. In addition to Holden’s problems he is unable to accept the death of his brother at a young age. Holden’s immaturity, negative mentality, and inability to face reality hold him back from moving into adulthood.

In the book, “The Catcher in the Rye”, Holden Caulfield has many conflicts and life lessons. Throughout the story the author, J.D. Salinger, creates events that make the main character realize that in life people change and grow. The message behind the story is let children grab the “gold ring” and you can’t always be the catcher in the rye. All of the things that make Holden who he is have many resemblances to the life of the author, J.D. Salinger.

The reader often searches for a glimpse of himself in the characters he is reading about, and this is especially true with the adolescent readers of The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. The author paints a picture of a conflicted youth by emphasizing his idiosyncrasies, and although Caulfield’s traits may seem exaggerated and alien at times, he is a character who is relatable to American youth today. Holden Caulfield has a strong sense of civic duty that is overshadowed only by his suicidal tendencies, is exceedingly sensitive to the evil in the world and prone to angst, yet empathetic to the emotional upheaval other children will experience when entering adulthood.

One of the greatest American Literature writers, J.D. Salinger, was familiar with a rough childhood by experience. He was able to parallel his experiences to the experiences of Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in The Catcher in Rye. In this novel, Holden experiences conflicts that most youth are not familiar with. The conflicts in Holden Caulfield’s life are caused by various forces and circumstances.

J.D. Salinger’s opinion of the world in The Catcher in the Rye shows both his hatred and fascination for the ingenuine nature of society. Throughout the novel Holden Caufield is conflicted between commenting on the “phoniness” of things around him, “a heading under which he loosely lumps not only insincerity but snobbery, injustice, callousness to the tears in things, and a lot more,”(Behrman) and the impulsive, self-loathing mentality he portrays. Salinger utilizes many aspects of his own life and displays them in the fluctuating character of Holden Caufield, showing his conflicted opinion on society. At times, he expresses his self-hatred towards the condescending attitude of the actions he himself makes. The Catcher in the Rye’s purpose is to prevent all the teenage angst and self-loathing by saving them from corruption.

    J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is the chronicle of a young man's metamorphosis from immaturity to unsure manhood. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, is a sixteen-year old boy who leaves the prep school he has been expelled from to escape the frightening reality of dealing with his parents. However, during his visit to New York City he is faced with the harsh reality that he cannot continue to hold onto his childhood. Holden is an extremely complex character and it is only by examining each layer of him that the reader is able to understand his painful metamorphosis.

Jerome David Salinger is an odd character with a colorful background. He was a young man unable to complete college and obtain a degree, yet he was made very popular due to his writing abilities. “Despite his slim body of work and reclusive lifestyle, ‘Salinger’ was one of the more influential twentieth century American writers.” states Biography.com, “His landmark novel, Catcher in the Rye, set a new course for literature in post World War II America.”

Holden Caulfield plays a timeless character in the sense that his way of life is common for the American teenager, in his time as well as now. Today parents dread the terrible and confusing adolescent years of their child's life. In J.D. Salinger's book, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is in this terrible and confusing point of his life. At this point in his life, as well as in modern teenager's lives, a transition occurs, from child to adult. Holden takes this change particularly rough and develops a typical mentality that prevents him from allowing himself to see or understand his purpose in life.

Salinger, Holden Caulfield a teenager struggles with the harsh reality of having to grow up and become an adult. He experiences the hardships of growing up and struggles mightily, getting kicked out of private schools and being a rebel everywhere he goes. Holden wants to save his little sister and other kids innocence so they don’t have to go through what he is going through. Salinger shows that Holden has to go through these rough times and he cannot stop others from going through it too. Holden learns everyone will have to endure their hardships to grow up into an adult. This shows young readers that everyone will have to grow up. No one can live life as a child with no worries and struggles. This prepares the reader for what is to come and so that during their journey they will be reassured everyone else has their struggles growing up too. Life is about enduring these struggles, becoming an adult, which can help the reader grow up into an adult and contribute to

ambitions and desires for his life but he is faced with the basic conflict in the story,

Although J.D Salinger and Holden Caulfield are different in some ways, J.D Salinger wrote “The Catcher in the Rye” with Holden having a unique personality that matches parts of J.D’s. In “The Catcher in the Rye” Holden cannot seem to stay at one prep school, where J.D kept dropping out of post-secondary schools. Holden had a very hard time when it came to girls, just like J.D who got married twice, than divorced. Even though he knew people, Holden often keeps to himself. When learning about J.D, you see that keeping to himself comes from J.D because of the things he had been through and how he lived his life.

Salinger perfectly captivates themes of death, protection of innocence, and individualism in this novel. His writing style easily conveys Holden Caulfield’s thoughts to the audience without blurring anything together. The abundance of details and information in this novel separates it from others. Over the time span of a couple days, you hear every thought rushing through Caulfield’s brain and eventually know him like the back of your hand. By the end of the book, you will have a deep connection to him and understand his beliefs.

In a J.D Salinger novel, The Catcher in the rye interprets the adolescent world full of patience and misery. Holden Caulfield, hardly being the complete opposite of a typical protagonist. Instead, being the archetype of an anti-hero facing adolescent over anxiety. He is a teenager forced to grow up in a time of turmoil with severe emotional handicaps placed upon him by family, friends and life in general. Caulfield sets himself on such a journey and is portrayed as an individual on a quest for validation in life. Although he lives in a constant strive through society that is completely indifferent to him, he does display qualities of a certain hero. Such a hero that will eventually attempt beyond his comfort zone, finding himself in a world unknown to him, facing towards new challenges placed on his life. Despite the discomfort, Holden as a hero develops a sense of freedom and independence, becoming a stronger, more sophisticated individual, bringing new ideas to society.

The moral dilemmas and diversity attained when one reaches adulthood can appear complex and incomprehensible, hence change is difficult. 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 and changing their own sense of values and morals. “. . . I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff…. I’d just be The Catcher in the Rye and all,” shows his idea of catching children that fall off the cliff in the rye field which is a metaphor for his desire to keep other children from growing up. It depicts his fear of the transition and changes into adulthood. “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed

In conclusion, Salinger has given his readers his three ingredients to the meaning of life; innocence, isolation, and insanity. These elements are what create his existentialist protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Who tries to keep The Myth of Sisyphus alive, by keep pushing that boulder or in Caulfield's mind, catch the innocent children from falling into adulthood. But in the end Caulfield comes to the realization of his insanity of delaying the inevitable, everyone must fall and it is up to one’s essence to get back