Literature Review : Holden's 'CatcherChildren'

In the section “Tips from the Science of Memory-for Studying and for Life”, found in our textbook, “Experience Psychology”, the Arthur Laura A. King discusses the importance of study habits. She addresses the skills needed to turn short-term memory into long-term memory through organizing, encoding, rehearsing and retrieving the information we study and memorize. “No matter what the model of memory you use, you can sharpen your memory by thinking deeply about the “material” of life and connecting the information to other things you know.” (King. 2013).

Holden's Escape of Corruption Through Childhood and Innocence in The Catcher in the Rye Works Cited Missing Holden Caulfield was in conflict with the society he was living in. He regarded it as corrupted and totally insincere; and therefore he attempted to escape from falling into this corruption of adulthood, by holding onto his childhood innocence. However he was unsuccessful in his strong sense of desire to prevent this inevitable fall into adulthood. Later in the novel after coming to terms with this fact, he developed a new desire to act as ' The Catcher In

People rely on incoming information and stored information to perform their everyday functions. However, humans have a natural capacity of how much information they can attain. We are unable to store all of our acquired information without different systems that organize our information. Working memory is one of these systems that temporarily holds and manages information for cognitive processing (119). Baddeley’s working memory model is made up of four components that allow for temporary information to be stored (109).

Contrast and Contradiction- During the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden’s older brother, Allie, and younger sister, Phoebe, play an important role in the story. Allie and Phoebe are the only ones Holden goes into depth about. None of the other members of Holden’s family are mentioned like his mom, dad, and other brother DB. In the beginning of the story Holden said he was not going to tell about his whole life, but only about what happened last Christmas. Holden contradicts what he says in the beginning of the story when he tells about his brother and sister, “My brother D.B.’s a

I think it’s odd that Holden can remember useless information about a girl that he likes that he hasn't seen in awhile but can't remember anything about history.

Holden, the protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye, is an antisocial, unstable, depressed “madman”. His sister, Phoebe, on the other hand, is a lively, social, caring child. Holden is 16 years old and has flunked out of 3 different schools. Holden does not try hard in school, causing him to constantly fail. Phoebe, is an intelligent young girl who tries hard in school and has many friends. When Holden comes home to visit Phoebe, he reads one of her notebooks. In her notebook it has a message written between her and a classmate: “Please pass to

Holden Caulfield is the main character and narrator in J. D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Moreover, Holden is a strong character because, as he tells his story, he is not afraid to speak his mind. For instance, Holden’s views of the world are thoroughly and passionately expressed throughout the novel. One of the views he expresses is the way he views childhood and adulthood oppositely. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caufield views childhood positively and adulthood negatively.

Holden’s relationship to his sister Phoebe and his outlived relationship with his brother Allie both exercise as means of preserving his own adolescence and innocence. Holden analyzes the traits of his younger siblings and longs to keep those aspects of their individuality alive within himself. Sustaining ties to his childhood is one of Holden’s compulsions; which is balanced with his second compulsions which is to ward off ones advancement into adulthood. We can see these qualities of Holden through his lack of motivation to excel in school. Another example of this tendency is when he is reluctant to have sex with Sunny the prostitute, although a part of him was eager to take a step towards adulthood, he was too timid and scared of losing his own innocence. Phoebe immediately realizes Holden’s obsession with preserving the innocence within people; especially her, and she calls him out "You don't like anything that's happening. . .

Holden deeply admires his little sister, Phoebe. She is warm hearted, kind, intelligent, and a person Holden would love to be. He admires her childness as well. A huge part of it is the innocence kids have when they are young. Evidence: “She had her mouth way open. It’s funny. You take adults, they look lousy when they’re asleep and they have their mouths way open, but kids don’t. Kids look all right”(159). Phoebe’s childlike actions are clearly acceptable since she is only a kid. This is what Holden enjoys and feels depressed about. He likes the feeling of getting away with things that kids can, and doesn’t want to lose this. Towards the end of the book, we see how Holden has changed a bit. He uses an example to show the lessons kids need to learn when growing up: “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the golden ring, you have to let him do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them”(211). Holden uses this example that has us see another side of holden, how kids need to learn from their mistakes. He has trouble throughout the book learning from his actions, and this helps him become a stronger individual. Throughout the book, Holden has been known for lying, and how it just happens. At this time of his life, he’s with his sister at the zoo, happy as can be and shows a side of him that’s honest. “Did you mean it what you said?

Holden is torn between two stages of growth: one side of him is still a child subconsciously attempting to hold on to the feeling of comfort childhood has, and the other side wishes to be grown and independent. Holden never truly had a proper segue into adolescence, as his maturity was marred by the sudden death of his brother. He still somewhat clings to the remainder of his childlike virtue, causing an imbalance as during the journey to adulthood a person must shed their innocence. But the difficulty does not stop there: Holden’s impossibly high standards make it difficult for anyone to grow close to him. He desires human companionship, but the only person he can remotely stand to be around without getting increasingly irritated is his ten-year-old sister, Phoebe. Holden’s longing for intimacy is restrained by the ghosts of his innocence, and the internal conflict between the two eventually leads to his downward mental

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.

When Holden is writing the composition for Stradlater, he states many amazing things about Allie, “His teachers were always writing letter to my mother, telling her what a pleasure it was having a boy like Allie in the class” (pg. 38). Teachers wrote letters on how good Allie was in class and how intelligent he is. As a kid most teachers thought you were a good student, but since Holden thinks everything is phony and a waste of time he never got any nice letters. When Holden was in his hotel room, he explains what Phoebe is like, “I mean she’s had all A’s ever since she started school” (pg. 67). Holden reflects on sister as if she's a child genius. As a smart girl it doesn’t show much at what else she can do. Holden overestimates his two siblings while facing the fact that he is still

The Catcher in the Rye is in its entirety, a essence of the preservation of innocence and the pursuit of compassion. The novel is meticulous in how it intertwines the teenage struggle with society and a looming adulthood. It also deals with issues of depression and mental illness. These issues are important because it helps the reader understand the rationale of Holden Caulfield. Holden suffers from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as evidenced by his psychological and physical behavior.

Re- reading The Catcher in the Rye, the readers learn in fifty pages in that Holden Caulfield’s revered younger brother, Allie Caulfield, has died of leukemia. To worsen this tragedy, Holden saw Allie as the smartest, happiest kid alive. Holden not only lost the brother he loved but he saw Allie be in every way the better of the two. What a burden for an adolescent. We don’t have to look beyond this to understand Holden’s

While talking to Mr. Spencer, who is former teacher of Holden’s, Holden does not really care to talk and does not give much of a response to the questions asked by Mr. Spencer. When he decides he has had enough of these questions he lies and says, “I need to go right to the gym” (15) Holden does not care to chat with Mr. Spencer because Holden is kind of upset that he can not seem to do well in life and keeps getting kicked out of school. Holden’s brother D.B. is a very successful writer and his little sister Phoebe is very smart, and Holden feels the pressure to do well like the rest of his family. Holden is kind of ashamed and removed from others because of what has transpired and does not want to talk about because it will only make him feel worse. At the end of the book while staying in a mental hospital Holden tells the reader, “Don’t ever tell anybody anything.