How Is Holden Alike

Holden the boy close to none aspire to be. There’s a sense that he may be crazy from all the fights he picks; even on little things. From the time Holden leaves school to the time he is at the zoo with phoebe he is fighting, physically and mentally. Throughout the book Holden is constantly fighting with; himself, other boys, and plenty of girls.

Holden has matured in many ways throughout the novel. He had grown from an immature child who only cared about himself to a mature adult who wanted to make something of his life. In the beginning of the story we are introduced to

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 has all of these traits. In the novel, nearly every time Holden gets depressed, he turns to alcohol. At Ernie’s night club he got served alcohol even though he was a minor. He even got drunk at the Wicker Bar. He used alcohol to escape the sadness in his life, which many killers were known to do as well. Holden also grew up lonely. He lost motivation to do well in school, which got him kicked out of Quincy High, losing his friends. His brother is also dead which may contribute to his feeling of loneliness. Holden always fantasizes about saving all the children from growing up, being their ‘Catcher in the Rye’. If somebody were to get in the way of his fantasy, he might have killed them. Holden is also socially awkward, loving children but hating adults, calling them ‘phonies’. He only has a few friends throughout the novel. He gets very angry with his friends, like when Stradlater goes out with Holden’s ex-girlfriend, Jane, whom he still has feelings for. This made him leave Quincy three days early while he travelled to Manhattan. “I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by.” said Holden (Page 4). Finally, Holden has some sexually stressful moments in the novel, like when he hired a hooker to come upstairs into his room. He wanted to do it, but when she got into the room, he

He may still be a young boy but he is very independent and basically lives on his own for the entirety of the book, but his negative outlook transforms independence into isolation. He is incredibly lonely but also pushes people away when he has a chance to get close to them. Such as his date with Sally Hayes which was going very well until he pushed her away with his harsh words, “You give me a royal pain in the ass, if you want to know the truth” (Ch. 17 pg. 173). Just because Sally wouldn’t run away with him and be independent with him he pushed her away. Holden may think he wants to be free and independent but his negative outlook just feeds his loneliness and

He does not have many friends because he chooses not to make any. He also has a total lack of interest for his studies and for his school. Holden feels that school work is unnecessary and he doesn’t even try to succeed. In the beginning of our session, Holden mentions his old teacher Mr. Spencer. He then talks about a letter he wrote to Mr. Spencer and it said, “It is alright with me if you flunk me though as I am flunking everything else except English anyway. Respectfully yours, Holden Caulfield (The Catcher in the Rye).” From that point, I can already observe that he doesn’t care about any of his studies. In addition to this, Holden doesn’t seem to want to grow up. The fact that he’s failing every school he attends, drinks underage, and rebelling against every grown up, shows this detachment. Everyone just wants Holden to grow up and live a decent adult

The goal that that Holden has to try so hard to fulfil is symbolic of his need to differentiate himself from the "phonies" around him. Holden’s image of people is pretty bad because he believes no one acts how they truly feel. Growing up scares Holden because it leads to adulthood. In his eyes once he hits adulthood, it'll eventually lead into the same phoniness as the rest of the adults. His constant avoidance and dodging of people and situations causes him to become more and more distant from normal society and social stability.

            Holden is quite skilled at citing exactly what is wrong with other people.  However he never acknowledges his own faults.  He was sure the entire world was out of step with him.  As Alan Stewart explains, ?Holden seemed to divide the world into two groups.  He was in one group, along with a few other people such as his little sister, Phoebe, and

Holden Caulfield is rude. He’s arrogant. Not arrogant in the way that he thinks he’s better than everyone else, but more so that he thinks everyone else is worse than him. He is not what you’d call a typical protagonist in the fact that he is a complete and utter asshole. Usually, novels written primarily for young adult readers revolve around the idea of the “Hero’s Journey,” where the main character is some sort of broken, yet incredibly likeable character that you can’t help but root for. Holden, on the other hand, is cynical, self-centered, reserved, and obnoxious. Yet, somehow, no matter how terrible of a person he comes off as, you can’t help but feel bad for the guy.

His relatability stems from Holden’s own personal struggles, allowing those with similar feelings to relate to him.

The standards that young adults are held to in America are exceedingly high. While they are extremely different for men and women, everyone is subject to them, and they can be difficult to handle. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is expected to be much more of an adult than he is mentally. He resorts to defence mechanisms such as aggression and isolation to try to deal with the pressures he is put under. In The Bell Jar, Esther Greenfield lives life in a society that expects her to be less than she is.

     Although Holden is extremely cynical and struggles with relationships, he is not all bad. Inside he is moral and generous. He was very charitable when he gave a considerable donation of twenty dollars to the nuns. Holden has a strange way of loving people.

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

Nowadays, teenagers are very exclusive to others, and. While I may be similar to Holden in certain aspects of personality, I don’t

Holden is just a young man, but he is going through a very cruel and unforgiving world that will change him forever. He overcomes many obstacles and barley gets out of it with his sanity still in tact. Holden is a different kind of person and he is just not wired like everybody else. He is represented as an outsider that is clearly different. Holden can change in his views quickly and they can stay that way for quite a long time. Holden in the beginning is very very innocent, and doesn’t exactly know how bad of a place the world is and know how bad people can become. Holden is also very immature and doesn’t understand what he is doing wrong in being immature. Holden has many emotions and views that he does not exactly know how to deal with, or when to deal with. He has certain views that are very hypocritical and immature. He thinks that he wants to do something, that in the end he would only regret, and he never does do these things, but the fact that he thinks about it clearly shows off his immaturity. Holden fails to grow up, and that hurts him throughout the novel multiple times causing, ultimately his path to be very different than he expected. In J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden Caufield, is fails to evolve maturely throughout the whole novel, regarding women, thinking out his actions, and killing.