The Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield the main character in J.D. Salingers book The Catcher in the Rye is a very sophisticated character due to his conflicting viewpoints throughout the book. Holden is very different compared to the average Joe, Holden has made it a point in his life to be different and tends to disagree with almost everything taking place in society. This is seen throughout the book with almost every one of Holden's thoughts and actions. One could say Holden is an immature 17 year old. He likes to spend his time at bars and loves to smoke, a lot. He likes the idea of being an adult but he simply can't be because of his age, he tries to get people to allow him to buy drinks and he is fascinated by the idea of sex, even though he doesn't really understand what it's all about. Something key to note though is Holden is very nice to women, if they tell him to stop for one reason or another he will. Holden also curses like a sailor it seems almost every sentence that comes out of his mouth has to have some sort of swear word in it. From an outside …show more content…
Most people won't show that they are lonely but Holden make it clear he is because he is always trying to make plans with people he knows or even in one case a girl he never even meet but his friend told him about. Holden is a very judgemental person and he does this to help isolate himself from society. He can't stand phonies which is almost everyone he meets is. Holden judges people who he considers boring, insecure, and people who are fake. When makes plans with people he soon realizes that it was a mistake because he finds the persons flaw and he feels like it ruins his plans and wonders why he even asked them in the first place. The people he asks to do something with are people he sees as non phonies but after doing something with them he realizes they are and tells himself he won't hang out with them
The novel "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger is very interesting novel in which the main character, Holden, intrigues the reader with his unpredictable actions and upfront judgments of his surroundings. Holden alienates himself to try and help protect him from the outside world and conserve his innocence. He constantly proves this to reader many in times in the novel by, telling characters he feels different, wearing clothing that makes him stand out even though it may make him look stupid, and failing to come through in relationships with characters in the story.
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
I do not relate to Holden because although we have a few things in common, the majority of the main characteristics that make him up do not apply to me. Holden is a white, wealthy, male student who goes to boarding schools. Holden and I share the traits of being white and not being in the lower class, but I am a female and do not attend boarding schools. I have never experienced living away from my family for an extended period of time. Another thing is I can not relate to being a boy. I was born female and can not experience some things the way Holden would being a male. While basic facts about Holden can be used to compare us, there are many significant things about his personality that make us differ more. Holden gets in a lot of fights, some which are his fault and some that are not.
Unlike Holden Caulfield, Frank tired in school, had parents that depended on Frank to help with the other children. Frank was expected to grow up faster than most kids by having to take care of his sibling when his parent started to fall apart. Frank many times had to find small jobs to help support his family because his father as we know kept on drinking all the money he made away. Frank has the biggest heart, for an example of why he has the biggest heart is before he had a job he would say how he would get a job and wouldn’t drink it away. Referring he would be different than his father, better father, and really wanted to do as much as he could for the family, think like an adult. He was Striding to be a better person in general. Even
Holden Caulfield is the main character & narrator. He's insecure, emotionally stunted, very bitter and has a cynical view about he world around him. He is a mentally ill 16 year old who views the world around him with bitterness with a longing for the world around him to never change. He is extremely judgmental about others. He is in a psychiatric hospital months after the events of the novel take place.
You couldn’t even hear any cars any more. I got feeling so lonesome and rotten I even felt like waking Ackley up.” (50) holden just doesn't feel right. If Holden was lonely why did he leave anyway? Another thing holden was exposed to at an early age, was sex.. Holden never actually has sex in the book, but rather he thinks about it a lot.
Yet another issue Holden endures throughout this novel is loneliness . There are many reasons that he is very lonely all throughout the novel. The biggest reason he doesn't talk to anybody is because he is afraid he is going to get hurt emotionally. For example he is scared to call Jane and is scared to let her in his heart because he doesn't want to loose another person he loves, like his deceased brother Allie. Another example of his loneliness is when he meets the prostitute in the hotel. Holden knows that he can have the comfort of another human for a little while, but he doesn't want to do anything with her because he knows she will just leave after they are done having sex. In a way he is looking for something that will last longer, like a relationship, but he is too scared of being hurt . Although, “loneliness is difficult to fess up
Holden spends most of his time in the middle of the novel looking for someone to talk to or have drinks with that doesn’t qualify on his terms to be a phony. When holden first arrives at his hotel, he sees a couple out his window spitting their drinks into each other's faces, which makes him feel extra lonely. He calls up this girl whose date at a party gave holden Her address and said “She’s not exactly a whore or anything but didn’t mind doing it once and awhile.” The girl declined and holden just went down to the club that was built into the hotel instead. Holden states throughout the middle and part of the end how depressed he is, and this depression is most of the time brought on by being lonely and having no one to get drinks
Every person gets influenced by someone even major characters, in both suitable and adverse ways. Holden Caulfield is a 17-year-old boy that is the protagonist and narrator of the novel The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. Holden is influenced by many characters and tries to learn from his own experiences and from the ones of others as well. Some even change him in ways that make him grow up and change as a character. Not only that, Holden goes through many difficult hardships and through his cynicism he tries to protect himself from the agony and dissatisfaction of them. Many people influence him, especially Jane Gallagher, Allie Caulfield, and D.B. Caulfield.
Holden Caulfield is a very complex character. Holden is the main character in Catcher in the Rye. Holden failed out of his fourth school, Pencey. Holden goes to New York by himself: throughout the week: in the time Holden is in New York the reader learns a lot about his personality traits and who he is as a person. Holden is very opinionated on how the worlds works: his thoughts and views on the world change throughout the book. Holden Caulfield displays many different characteristics, character changes, and shows many signs of health problems.
J.D. Salinger published Catcher in The Rye in 1951. The main protagonist in the novel, Holden Caulfield experiences many conflicts and predicaments. It is common for Holden to hold opinions on characters throughout the book. His opinionated nature shows that human interactions mean a lot to him. Holden generally likes genuine people opposed to phony people. The comparison of genuine and phony is shown throughout the novel, especially when Holden meets new people. His true personality is shown to the reader when we see whom he respects and despises.
He is very intolerant and annoyed by anything that he deems fake or “phony”. Many times he links adulthood to phoniness, which shows that he believes adults are liars and is afraid of becoming one himself. It seems that the only reason Holden is lonely and is shut out from the world is because of no one other than himself. He becomes very judgmental of other people at times so he can feel content with himself, and so he can have a reason not to grow up and deal with society. To hide his fear and insecurity of interaction with adults and others who make him feel uncomfortable, he holds himself to a higher standard than others and portrays himself as something of high superiority. It is obvious that he needs consolation and love above anything else, but he isolates himself out from interaction with other people because he wants to be protected from the problems that may come from
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.
Holden Caulfield is the main protagonist in the novel, Catcher in the Rye. He is a seventeen year old who is resentful of the adult world, while he is displaying immature, almost childish behaviour as the novel progresses. He is afraid of change and struggling through life, even though he has the whole world ahead of him. (Vanderbilt, 2014)
Most people, young or old, know how hard it can be to make friends and have connections with people. One of the main experiences that a teenager goes through is having relationships and friendships with other people. In the novel, Holden has a hard time keeping friends and people in his life that he can turn to. Holden goes to a small private school, called Pencey Prep, and has two roommates, Stradlater, and Ackley. Although they are roommates, at times they are not the best of friends. Holden tends to say or do something that makes them upset with him and weakens the connection between them. We see this when Holden and Stradlater are talking in their room