Life Of Pi And Catcher In The Rye Analysis

Throughout the story Holden emphasizes his love for childhood innocence. In a passage he says “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the golden ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything.” (Salinger 211) This immediately points to his affinity for innocence and not having the limits of being and adult. The

Reveals about situation: This is a complete revolution from the last chapter. Previously, Holden described his love for Jesus, but his hate for organized religion. However, he is now giving nuns money for their next collection for charity. This proves that even if Holden disagrees with someone, he still respects them, their beliefs, and their actions. Additionally, it proves that Holden in fact has a big heart and cares about those he is around, even if he may not show it all the time.

There is only one experience that unites every single person in the world. Many people in the world can agree that it isn’t always the greatest experience, and many people have an extremely hard time getting through it, but every single adult goes through the act of ‘growing up’. For many, the transition can be very depressing, and confusing. When a child is young becoming an adult seems to be enjoyable and exciting, but it isn’t until that child is forced into the cruel, harsh world where the innocence of childhood can be appreciated and missed. The novel Catcher in the Rye explores how teenagers who are nearing adulthood see the adult world to be incomprehensible. J.D Salinger illustrates the confusion of a teenager when faced with the challenge of transitioning into adulthood using Holden Caulfield.

The coming of age phase in a young person’s life is a transitional phase which prompts the idea of individualism, decision making, acceptance, moral challenges, disappointment, and individual needs. These years are essential for the overall learning and growing-up part of someone’s life. Coming of age characteristics transpired in the novel The Catcher in the Rye and The Absolutely True Diary of a part-time Indian pertain to, but do not exclude, the acceptance of the complexities and “grayness” of the world, confrontation with the adult world, and the individual needs and desires vs. external pressures/expectations/norms. In both novels, young boys are faced with tough choices that will later help them in the overall transition from

Salinger uses prostitution as a symbol for Holden’s yearning for intimacy and maturity. One night when he is arriving back at his hotel, a man approaches him offering a prostitute and Holden accepts. Holden then reveals to the reader that he is a virgin, but he tries to maintain his smooth attitude by saying he has “had quite a few opportunities to lose [his] virginity and all, but [he’s] never got around to it yet” (Salinger 92). He wants people to see him as sexually experienced because sex depicts his idea of manhood. When Sunny the prostitute arrives in his room, he gives her the fake name Jim Steele because he believes it makes him sound older and manly. Despite

Holden’s interactions with Sally Hayes and the nuns challenges Holden’s way of thinking because his corrupt way of thinking will prevent him from functioning very well in life especially with his negative outlook on life and others. Holden got lucky that he happened to know English literature so he could relate with the

After spending some time in New York, Holden decides to reach out to some of his old friends. He calls an old friend, Carl Luce and asks to meet him for dinner. While he can’t make dinner, he does agree to a drink and they arrange to meet at a popular bar in the city. Holden arrives at the bar early and begins drinking. After a moment, he begins to describe others in the bar. He describes the singers and people sitting near him in a negative tone, criticizing them and their behavior. He says “The bartender was a louse, too. He was a big snob” (157). Although Holden doesn’t know him personally at all, he immediately forms a negative opinion of him. This feeling of resentfulness towards others is likely due to the critical way he thinks about himself and his constant feeling of being an outsider. As the story progresses, Holden takes a trip to visit his little sister Phoebe. He sneaks into his parents’ home and finds her sleeping. He notices she has a nice skirt and jacket set laid on the chair and explains how his mother has impeccable taste. He also notes most kids dress terribly and says, “You take most little kids, even if their parents are wealthy and all, they usually have some terrible dress on” (166/167). Even after continuously saying how much he loves kids and how great they are, Holden still has a negative opinion about them. He consistently has a negative opinion about others,

Holden gets depressed seeing them only eating toast and coffee while he's enjoying bacon and eggs. This is because Holden senses an barrier between him and the nuns which makes him feel isolated and depressed [3]. These barrier are created by difference in lifestyle. Holden had already addressed interpersonal barriers and people trying to find common ground to shorten the distance and avoid ostracization with people, when he talks about Arthur Childs persistently trying to find whether Holden was Christian or not. Trying to reconcile the interpersonal barrier between the nuns, Holden donated money to the nuns. This feeling of guilt and sympathy for The Nuns, show that Holden has regard for others, even beyond his

As Holden is sitting in Central Park he is explaining how he is cold and says, “I thought i'd probably get pneumonia and die. I started picturing millions of jerks coming to my funeral and all… i knew she wouldn't let old Phoebe come to my goddamn funeral because she was only a little kid.” (Salinger 154-155). He is coming up with a scenario of how his funeral would be and most people do not think of brutal things like this just because they are cold. He says “millions of jerks” most likely referring to all of the adults, whereas when he mentions that his mother “wouldn't let old Phoebe come” to his funeral it proves how much he protects the innocence of her childhood and her purity.

This family comes together in a time when they all need it. Phillip at one point tells Judd he’s on his side and has his back no what the situation is. Then every time Judd and Wendy meet on the roof to talk they are creating a turning point during a bad time. It can be see that each brother, sister, brother, brother, and/or mother, child moment is a growing point where something/someone else is thinking and acting different. The Altman family displays resilience by walking away at the end and assuring each other that they have their backs.

One morning while Holden was eating breakfast, he met up with two nuns. He saw that they are one of those typical nuns who walks around with a basket collecting money for a cause. Holden says, “I could make a small contribution. You could keep the money for when you take up a collection” (122). Holden saw the poor financial state the two nuns seems to be in.

Holden is ashamed of his actions because the nuns aren’t phonies. Holden looks up to the nuns because they have goals and have made decisions in life using good character and strong

She feels more secure knowing that wealth and luxury will support her better, and if her spouse can provide this she would prefer that over someone else who genuinely loves her but cannot provide that support for her. In contrast, Holden is more ashamed of his wealth and mindlessly uses it for this reason. Children do not fully understand the concept of money and its’ value. Hence, every aspect of life that is focused on in adulthood, such as wealth, is not relevant to a child. Throughout the entire novel, Holden shows that his mindset towards wealth resembles that of a child’s. When the opportunity for a selfless act arises, Holden cannot seem to control himself over the amount of money he spends, “After [the nuns] left, I started getting sorry that I’d only given them ten bucks for their collection” (Salinger 113). Holden thinks that he has money to spend whenever he desires to spend it, and as a result of this, he fails to understand that he is privileged. He chooses to disregard the fact that his family is wealthy, similar to a child’s viewpoint on

While eating quite a large breakfast, Holden struck up a conversation with the two nuns sitting next to him. He had noticed their straws baskets and asked them if they were taking up a collection for charity. One of them replied no, but Holden still wanted to make a contribution of ten dollars. Reluctant at first, they finally accepted him contribution and thank him “so much it was embarrassing,” (Salinger 123). Holden asked where they were going and found out that they were teachers going to teach at a convent. One of them taught English, the only subject Holden did not fail. When they started talking about Romeo and Juliet, the nuns actually wanted to know and listen to Holden’s opinion of the play. This was one of the few times where Holden actually felt accepted by someone. The nuns enjoyed talking to him, and he truly enjoyed talking to them, as well. This acceptance made an impact on Holden because when his sister, Phoebe, asked him what was one thing he like, all he “could think of were those two nuns,” (Salinger 187). The two nuns at breakfast accepted Holden for who he was and listened to what he had to

This passage proves that Holden is dissatisfied with the boys at his school, he believes they are fake and he does not social well with them. Although Holden doesn’t want to interact much, when he does end up interacting with people, he usually gets the short end of the stick. For instance he invites Ackley, a boy he meets at Pency Prep, along to the movies, but Ackley won't return the favor by letting Holden sleep in his roommate's bed. ‘“I’m not worried about it. Only, I’d hate like hell if Ely came in all of a sudden and found some guy-”’ (Salinger 49). Another instance is when Holden pays Sunny even though they don’t have sex, and ends up getting scammed. At a young age, Holden lost his younger brother, Allie. This had a huge traumatizing effect on him; Holden felt useless because he was unable to help his brother. Holden turns his emotions into anger; stating that he punched out all the windows in the garage. Another time Holden felt unable to help was when his peer, James Castle, was harassed and bullied, leading to James’s suicide. Holden says, “... and there was old James Castle laying right on the stone steps and all. He was dead, and his teeth, and blood, were all over the place, and nobody would even go near him. He had on this turtleneck sweater I'd lent him”’ (Salinger 170). Holden feels that society had