How Is Holden A Sympathetic Character

Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D Salinger is a classic novel that is not only controversial but contains relatable characters such as Holden Caulfield. Holden is a 16 year old boy who has gone through so much pain and hurt throughout his life that he has given up in school and during the novel you start to see that he has given up at life itself as well. Holden struggles with depression, unhealthy drinking habits and with failing out of school. These three struggles are very relatable to teenagers these days. In the following paragraphs I will show you the connection between teenagers these days and Holden and the the similarities that make him such a relatable character. Holden is an ideal and universal representation of teenagers.

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.

Teenage years are difficult. Time tells this story of struggle again and again. The Catcher in the Rye is a classic novel showing the struggles a teenager goes through while transitioning into adulthood. The main character, Holden Caulfield, is a judgmental and temperamental boy who struggles to see the positivity in life. Throughout the story, Holden searches to find himself, as he feels forced to grow up. He holds onto aspects of his childhood and isolates himself so much that it is even harder for him to transition. J.D. Salinger uses the red hunting hat, the museum and cigarettes as important symbols in the story to convey the themes of transitioning from childhood to adulthood, loneliness, and isolation.

The Catcher in the Rye is one of J. D. Salinger's world-famous books about the disgruntled youth. Holden Caulfield is the main character and he is a seventeen- year-old dropout who has just been kicked out of his fourth school. Navigating his way through the challenges of growing up, Holden separates the “phony” aspects of society, and the “phonies” themselves. Some of these “phony” people in his life are the headmaster whose friendliness depends on the wealth of the parents, and his roommate who scores with girls using sickly-sweet affection. This book deals with the complex issues of identity, belonging, connection, and alienation. Holden senses these feelings most of the time and is guilty about many things in

J.D. Salinger 's "The Catcher in the Rye" portrays a troubled teen in New York City. Over the few days the novel depicts, the boy displays his critical and unhealthy mindset. Eventually he has a mental breakdown. Through psychoanalysis of Holden Caulfield, one may suggest that Allie 's death, social development, and an identity crisis are large contributing factors in Holden 's mental breakdown.

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.

In J. D Salinger 's novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist, Holden, goes through many hardships in his journey to self-knowledge. In the beginning, Holden has to deal with being kicked out of school and not having any place to call home. He is also struggling with the unfortunate tragedy of the death of his beloved younger brother Allie. At the same time, Holden is trying to deal with growing up and accepting the adult world. Throughout the novel Salinger addresses the conflicts faced by a young man struggling with the trials and tribulations of growing up while also confronting personal loss and loneliness along the way.

Lies, failure, depression, and loneliness are only some of the aspects that Holden Caulfield goes through in the novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger. Salinger reflects Holden’s character through his own childhood experiences. Salinger admitted in a 1953 interview that "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book.… [I]t was a great relief telling people about it” (Wikipedia). Thus, the book is somewhat the life story of J.D. Salinger as a reckless seventeen-year-old who lives in New York City and goes through awful hardships after his expulsion and departure from an elite prep school. Holden, the protagonist in this novel, is created as a depressed, cynical, and isolated character and he

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.

A lot of sympathetic characters are hero-like. They are perfect, flawless and ideal, but a good, deep character is relatable by being a little flawed. J.B. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” is the thematically expansive and inspirational American classic following the main character Holden Caulfield through a week in New York. The reader sees his struggles and comes to their own conclusion of whether or not Holden is a sympathetic person. I personally think that Holden is a sympathetic person and he is a very relatable person and many could relate to the issues that he has such as depression, loneliness and the feeling of wanting to leave and start again with a new life. From his behavior, we can tell that Holden Caulfield is a sympathetic

Holden also has several redeeming qualities that keep him from being the rouge that many censors and critics wanted to label him in the fifties. As mentioned previously, Holden feels deeply for others and spends much of his time trying to understand them. For example, he admits to being a virgin and attributes this to the concern he has for the girls he is with; "he feels he would be taking advantage of their weakness if he had relations with them. " (Lettis, 6) "They tell me to stop, so I stop. I always wish I hadn't, after I take them home, but I take them home anyway." (Salinger, 121) He is also brutally honest, a quality children possess and adults seem to lose as they age. Holden dislikes things he

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye presents a look into the mind of Holden Caulfield, a popular literary icon numerous teenagers have rightfully found themselves relating to at some point. While the familiar emotions of Holden were welcoming for me, his anecdotes and witty remarks proved entertaining as well. The story chronicles Holden’s exploration through New York post-expulsion, with his point of view influenced by his growing alienation with the world. He represents that growing sense of unease at growing up and facing a reality that is not always pretty, and, in his case, a need to save children from having to face that reality. I personally admired the fact that he was not just an angry teenager in the world as stereotypes suggest.

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.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger follows the story of a young Holden Caulfield and his struggle at the end of his childhood as he attempts to become more individualized in society. At the age of sixteen, Holden is expelled from his school, Pencey Prep, for failing almost all of his classes. So instead of going home to his family, Holden decides to leave and go out on his own into the world. This proves to be very hard for him as he is still very immature and at times does not know how to communicate all of his ideas to the people he meets. Throughout the story, Salinger uses an array of language to help to portray the character and attitude of Holden and that helps readers to really dive into the idea of who Holden is as a person.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger explores themes of youth and innocence. Holden Caufield is a seventeen year old who is having conflicts with himself; depression. He rarely puts effort into his school work due to his depression, which is why he is being kicked out of Pencey Prep, his fourth high school. When Holden is happy, the reason is usually when he is thinking about or around his siblings. Holden’s relationship with his siblings Allie, Phoebe, and D.B. reveals that he relates more with innocence, in turn valuing it.