How Is Holden Caulfield Character In Catcher In The Rye

Yet another demon that Holden avoids is the process of having to grow up. Throughout the book, he seems hesitant to develop any real ambitions or goals. He is a perpetual failure at school. He refuses to associate himself with mature ways of living, and so isolates himself from anyone his own age or older. This is all directly connected to Holden's picture-perfect image of his childhood. He sees this particular period of his life as his own personal paradise. He does not want to finalize the fact that he has to concede it's innocence in the end. Towards the end of the book, Holden shows his desire for life to remain as it was by saying, "...certain things should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone." Holden does not want to join a world of phonies and greed, a world lacking in carelessness and irresponsibility. He won't, whether consciously or not, accept the fact that he has no choice.

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.

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

Holden fears adulthood because it brings responsibilities and trouble. He believes all adults possess an aurora of "phoniness." His disgust of everyone around him reveals his fear of growing up. Holden exhibits insecurity, so to make himself feel better, he exercises the power to condemn people for the way they behave. Holden

He doesnt want to accept the reality and prefers to live in his own world where adults arent superficial and hypocritical. He can not come up with anything better to live by than his fantasy of being the catcher in the rye and reflects his innocence in the uncorupted youth, and all he wishes to do is protect that spirit. I see where he comes from though because its hard to accept the real world and have to grow up leaving behind that purness. Its something holden didnt want to loose and protet others who might be in danger of loosing it

An example of this was shown back when he decided to hire a prostitute, and felt bad for her. There, the moment the prostitute arrived at his hotel room, he quickly noticed how young she was in comparison to himself and also noticed her green dress. This allowed the seemingly tough and careless Holden to feel depressed, as he imagined imagining her buying that dress, and how young she is working in such a dangerous industry. This incident was luckily able to leave a positive impact on Holden, as it somewhat helped him open his eyes about what could potentially happen to him if he continues with this self-destructive behavior. Another example of his caring behavior was his refusal to allow his sister Phoebe to move into a cabin in the woods with her in fear that she will ruin her life, like him. In the book, Holden responds to her sister by saying, that she isn’t allowed to come with him. This incident shows the turning point in Holden’s rebellious behavior, as he realizes that he has hit rock bottom, forcing him to borrow money from his sister for his plan of moving west, and also realizes that his plan is not practical, allowing him to reflect on his previous actions, helping him tell right from

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 losing his virginity is another way for him to grow up, and not being able to lose it is an example of Holden resisting change and growth, While in New York, Holden visits the Natural History Museum and mentions how he wishes everything would stay the same, just like the exhibits in the museum, in which “nobody’d move” and “you could go there a hundred thousand times” and everything would still be the same (pg. 135). Since Ally’s death, Holden does not want anything else in his life to change, so no one else can leave him. Holden's inability to come to terms with Ally's death results in him not wanting to grow up and his being scared of change. In addition to

Holden does not want to be forced to grow up, but instead tries to act more mature than he actually is. During Holden’s time and still today “teenagers [find] themselves stranded between adult things and childish pleasures.”(Schuessler) For Holden, this feeling of being stuck between childhood and adulthood created anxiety within him. Thus from this anxiety he feels he must act mature, but although trying to act mature he still believes he acts younger that he is. No one around Holden can understand him and the issues he is having with growing up, which makes it even more difficult for Holden himself to understand, so instead of trying to understand he runs away to New York. Holden engages in risky behavior because he believes it makes him mature. All teens engages in risky behavior and “some risk-taking among adolescents is evidence that they are trying out more adultlike roles” (Cloud) In Holden’s case he was not acting more adultlike. He was trying to act more mature, but he did not want to be an adult. Participating in risky behavior because he believed it made him mature is demonstrates how truly immature Holden was. Holden is confused about who he is and makes many immature decisions because he believes that they are mature decisions and he does not care how they affect his future. Some readers can argue that because of Holden’s awareness of the fact that he

And yet I still sometimes like I was only about 12. Everybody says that, especially my father. It’s partly true, too, but it isn’t all true. (13) Holden talks about how ironic it is that he looks old and mature on the outside, but he often acts like he is 12 or 13. He acts this way to try and avoid mature situations.

In the novel Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a novel about a journey Holden Caulfield took. In the beginning of the novel Holden seems immature and idealistic. While he is going through his journey, he is opened to the adult world, although it's very hard for Holden to grow up he is "growing up in pain" (40). His journey wasn't very successful, he doesn't manage to grow up and doesn't want to become an adult. I think he is scared because adults have a lot to handle.

This symbolizes him holding on to his past, not wanting things to change. As Holden meets with all of his old friends, he claims many of them to have become phonies. All of his friends have grown up, and Holden is left behind, and still acts like a child. "[Holden's] central dilemma is that he wants to retain a child's innocence" (Bloom 22). As everyone around changes he just wants to stay the same, young and sheltered.

Holden is anxious when it comes to entering Adulthood because he is frightened by the thought of having to do everything on your own. He has realized that once you become an adult the only thing you depend on is yourself. Ultimately Holden is afraid of losing his innocence and he needs to learn that there is

When the reader looks back at Holden’s history they can make assumptions as to why Holden wants things to stay the way they are. The general assumption would be because Holden is very distant to people who are dear to him. He mentions his younger sister, Phoebe frequently but cannot connect with her in any way due to Holden’s enrollment in a relatively distant school. Holden also recalls his two brothers, Allie and D.B., whom he is exiled from in result of Allie’s tragic fate and D.B.’s migration to California. The death of Holden’s favorite person, Allie, results ultimately in the unstable mental condition that controls Holden. Holden’s fascination with children and their mentalities is driven from Holden’s mourning of Allie’s death. While Holden tries to resist changing, he is identifying himself with Allie. Critic, Hermit Vanderbilt, agrees that, “Obviously despairing at the cosmic injustice of such an early death, Holden falls into a schizophrenic disorder interested in keeping him from growing up and keeping the role of Allie alive.” (Vanderbilt 299). In addition to the laments of personal loss, Holden also desires a stagnancy of time because of his fear of losing his moral purity. This is shown when Holden speaks about how his older brother, D.B., has lost his moral standards in the pursuit of fame. Holden feels D.B. has strayed far from his truly respectable writing when D.B. “sold himself out” to the expectations of Hollywood. Holden refers to D.B. as a