Lectures and Cynicism Mr. Antolini’s Role in Catcher in the Rye In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden seeks out Mr. Antolini due to his similarity to D.B., but soon discovers that Mr. Antolini is just like the other adults in his life, thereby reaffirming his cynicism towards adults. The distraught Holden seeks a solace from Mr. Antonili due to the preconceived notion that Mr. Antolini’s opinions would parallel his own, only to be completely mistaken. Moreover, the interaction between Holden and Mr. Antolini is similar to that of Mr. Spencer and Holden’s interaction, showing that Mr. Antolini is just like the other adults in his life. In this notion, one can observe why Holden tries to prevent his loved ones from growing up. …show more content…
Antolini’s lecturing of Holden changes Holden’s perception of Mr. Antolini from being similar to the affable D.B. to being similar to the authoritative Mr. Spencer, reaffirming Holden’s cynicism towards adults. As Holden is complaining about his Oral Expression class at Pencey, he states that it is more entertaining when one “digresses” from the subject when they are giving a speech (278). Holden expected that Mr. Antolini would understand and agree with him, as his views were usually in line with Holden, such as their disappointment in D.B. for going to write for Hollywood (235). However, Mr. Antolini surprises Holden by asking, “You don’t care to have someone stick to the point when he tells you something”(239)? By imploring Holden to explain his statement, Mr. Antolini parallels Mr. Spencer in the way that he turns the conversation about his failing out of Pencey on Holden. Mr. Spencer makes Holden explain to him why he failed the class (16). Holden, who has trouble with articulating his thoughts, tends to seize up when this occurs, making the conversations doubly unpleasant. “Oh I don’t know,” Holden replied to Mr. Antonili, “I didn’t feel much like explaining. I was feeling sort of dizzy or something, and I had a helluva headache all of a sudden. I really did” (238). Holden was so uncomfortable with Mr. Antolini’s turning the conversation on him that he was physically sick. This parallels to when Mr. Spencer was conversing with him, Holden recounts “All of the …show more content…
Antolini serves to reaffirm Holden’s cynicism towards adults. Mr. Antolini simply wanted to help him, but his advice was a redundancy to Holden, who only saw that Mr. Antolini was just like every other adult in his life, against him. This perhaps explains Holden’s cynicism towards adults, as he had gone to Mr. Antolini with expectations of a solace, but he soon discovered that Mr. Antolini was just as against him as Mr. Spencer. Holden believes that nearly every adult in his life is against him, creating a cynicism towards adults, which perhaps is the root of why he is trying to prevent his loved ones from reaching
J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye features a complex narrative surrounding a troubled young student, Holden Caulfield. Difficulties he faces throughout the story force Holden to confront his fears of adulthood and maturation and the responsibilities therein through the difficulties he faces throughout the story. Academic controversy surrounds whether Holden learns from these confrontations and adjust accordingly, maturing throughout the story. While initially this seems rather subjective, a thorough analysis of Holden’s actions throughout the story as well as of the symbolism injected by Salinger makes it quite clear that Holden does undergo a significant maturity arc as the story progresses. Holden’s social development and maturation
In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, cannot accept that he must move out of childhood and into adulthood. One of Holden’s most important major problems is his lack of maturity. Holden also has a negative perspective of life that makes things seem worse than they really are. In addition to Holden’s problems he is unable to accept the death of his brother at a young age. Holden’s immaturity, negative mentality, and inability to face reality hold him back from moving into adulthood.
Though Holden’s purpose for approaching Mr. Antolini in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is to talk to someone who will support him, instead he find’s Mr. Antolini ready with hard questions to make Holden think about his past and his future, which is something he is not ready to do yet. Holden seeks out Mr. Antolini after coming from a place of betrayal with his sister Phoebe who he thought would help him. Mr. Antolini was someone who Holden thought would agree with him in his principles after seeing what he did for James Castle. Mr. Antolini gives Holden advice that goes against seemingly everything Holden thought he learned from Mr. Antolini previously. Holden expects for Mr. Antolini to be his savior, like he sees him with James Castle, but Mr. Antolini didn’t save Castle, he merely cleaned up the mess.
In result of this behavior by his parents, he was never able to learn to trust an adult. He didn’t even find one teacher at the multiple schools he attended that he could trust. One teacher he had some respect, but still no trust, for was Mr.Antolini, one of his old english teachers. Holden went to Mr. Antolini’s house, after visiting his sister, for a place to sleep since he could not stay at his house. While s at Mr. Antolini’s house, Holden fell asleep on the couch and he woke up to Mr. Antolini petting his hair from the ground. Not only did this incident freak Holden out, but it also reassured his negative view of adults.
Nevertheless Holden has so much personal pride he refuses lower him to that level. For if he does, in his eyes, he will be the same as all those other ?Phony Ivy League bastards? (85). As a result of Holden giving up on school, he is unable to proceed with the natural evolution that must occur for him to move on in society. Mr. Antolini later points out to him ?Learning is a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn?t education. It?s history. It?s poetry? (189). His goal for Holden being to see school as something he loves and not something he is being forced to do. Mr. Antolini tried to give Holden a reason to be motivated and in which case not to give up so easily.
The Catcher in the Rye is one of J. D. Salinger's world-famous books about the disgruntled youth. Holden Caulfield is the main character and he is a seventeen- year-old dropout who has just been kicked out of his fourth school. Navigating his way through the challenges of growing up, Holden separates the “phony” aspects of society, and the “phonies” themselves. Some of these “phony” people in his life are the headmaster whose friendliness depends on the wealth of the parents, and his roommate who scores with girls using sickly-sweet affection. This book deals with the complex issues of identity, belonging, connection, and alienation. Holden senses these feelings most of the time and is guilty about many things in
In J. D Salinger 's novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist, Holden, goes through many hardships in his journey to self-knowledge. In the beginning, Holden has to deal with being kicked out of school and not having any place to call home. He is also struggling with the unfortunate tragedy of the death of his beloved younger brother Allie. At the same time, Holden is trying to deal with growing up and accepting the adult world. Throughout the novel Salinger addresses the conflicts faced by a young man struggling with the trials and tribulations of growing up while also confronting personal loss and loneliness along the way.
In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger tells a story of a young boy, Holden, who never quite understood his stance on life. Throughout the novel, Holden struggles to adapt to the inevitable transition into adulthood, often worrying more about others than himself. In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger uses connotative diction, repetition, and specific diction to convey Holden’s struggle of accepting life changes that led him to becoming mentally unstable. To start off, Salinger illustrates Holden’s nature by using connotative diction.
7) Page 14: Notice how Holden is disgusted or annoyed by all the aspects of Spencer that demonstrate his old age: “the bumpy chest”, the “house smelling like Vicks”, the man not being able to “flick a book on a bed”, his “stooped figure”. In the beginning of the chapter he wonders what purpose Spencer even has in still being alive.
Instead of acknowledging that adulthood scares and mystifies him, Holden invents a fantasy that adulthood is a world of superficiality and hypocrisy (“phoniness”), while childhood is a world of innocence, curiosity, and honesty. Nothing reveals his image of these two worlds better than his fantasy about the catcher in the rye: he imagines childhood as an idyllic field of rye in which children romp and play; adulthood, for the children of this world, is equivalent to death—a fatal fall over the edge of a cliff. His created understandings of childhood and adulthood allow Holden to cut himself off from the world by covering himself with a protective armor of cynicism. But as the book progresses, Holden’s experiences, particularly his encounters with Mr. Antolini and Phoebe, reveal the shallowness of his conceptions.
Throughout the novel, Holden attempts to find the true from of himself as he struggles with the social interactions around him. Due to the struggle and confusion that arouses from it,
Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye has been pronounced a literary classic for its atypical portrayal of adolescence, to effectively convey the protagonist’s alienation and confusion. The introduction of The Catcher in the Rye is underpinned by disorder and confusion through a stream-of-consciousness narration, which digresses from one subject to another. Consequently, Holden’s multitudinous thoughts and feelings appear to lack a cohesive pattern. Additionally, Holden’s prevalent ascription of other students as “phony” (Salinger, p.3) alludes to his alienation and isolation as a form of self-protection; he rejects those he does not understand. Furthermore, the vocabulary encapsulates typical adolescence dialect of the 1940s, and resultantly, alienates contemporary reader. This is typified through Holden’s use of colloquial speech, in particular, his exclamation “that killed me” (Salinger, p.42) to express his amusement. Therefore, the introduction of Holden’s disjointed monologue in The Catcher in the Rye foreshadows Salinger’s unique interpretation of adolescence.
The novel ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ by J.D Salinger is a coming-of-age story. It follows the short tale of Holden Caulfield, a sixteen year old boy, who throughout his experiences in the novel, changes and becomes more mature and independent. The story essentially has two Holden Caulfields, the one telling the story, and the one that the story is being told about. This essay will look at the differences and similarities between the two Holden’s’.
Antolini was trying to hinder him from going down the wrong path. Holden focuses on the little details like the gasoline rainbows in the puddles on the street and which suitcase is nicer. He overlooks the obvious, “big picture” which could better help him adjust and focuses instead on little, often-insignificant things he can handle. Moreover, Holden only pays attention to the things he’s interested in and doesn’t pay attention to the teachers or work given at school. This lack of interest has caused him to drop out of four schools and, therefore missing out on knowledge necessary for his well-being and self-discipline. Holden does not like change. Holden needs change, he needs to grow up. He needs to change his thoughts and behavior. Holden says “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 (122).”
In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger captures struggle of Holden Caulfield with the fight between adolescence and adulthood. The story is told from the perspective of Holden Caulfield, who can be described as a rude, stubborn, not very intelligent and negative. Through the novel we see the world in Holden's eyes and his perspective because of the noel being written in first-person singular. The author also uses sentences nd the way they are written to express Holden as a person. The short sentences show anger and resentment for different things and the fragment sentences and incomplete sentences show adolescent and intelligent. Imagery is used to further promote the sensory experience for the reader. In the novel Catcher in The Rye, S.D. Salinger uses Holden's point-of-view, sentence structure and imagery to help the reader understand Holden as a person.