Similarities Between Catcher In The Rye And The Bell Jar

Holden Caulfield faces a dilemma throughout “The Catcher in the Rye”. Holden wants to protect his innocence as a child. As he leaves Pencey Prep; venturing off into the vast city of new york, he tries to get somebody to listen to him and meaningfully respond to his fears about becoming an adult. Holden has grown six inches in the past year and one side of his head is full of grey hair, both symbols of the inevitability of the progression of time towards adulthood and its disappearance of innocence. He is so obsessed with protecting his innocence he can't even through a snowball at a car because, “it looks so nice and white.

In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is a rather unique character. He has several complications with other characters that he runs into, and does not seem that he is able to relate to anyone. However, Holden has a younger sister named Phoebe, and he seems to connect with her in a way that he does not with anyone else. She is only ten years old, so she and Holden both have a childlike mind. On the other hand, Phoebe seems to have a positive outlook on life while Holden sees most things in a negative light. Another contrast between them is that Phoebe puts in effort at school, and Holden is clearly not concerned his performance at school.

Holden has numerous distinct attributes pertaining to both childhood and adulthood. His transition from growing and relational life, to an uncontrolled spiritual realm, this stresses him. He has instances of introspection that helps him encompass a realization for his own livelihood. When he shares with his sister Phoebe what he would sincerely like to do with his life he says “I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.” (Salinger 173) That quote reveals the reasoning for the title of the book because Holden wants nothing more than to protect the innocence of children.

In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden’s outlook in life is either the innocence of childhood or the cruelty of adulthood. He believes that the innocence of childhood is very valuable and it should be protected from

In J.D.Salinger’s novel, Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield, the main character of the novel, is a walking paradox who desires to hold onto his innocence and ,in his mind, thinks that people who lose their innocence will either turn into a “phony” or a “jerk”. During his journey towards trying to preserve his innocence Holden affected his desire to hold on to his innocence through his action, such as his experience with a prostitute named Sunny, his interaction with Sunny shows him that most of the world of adults is just an illusion. Another person who affects Holden desire is his 10 year-old sister Phoebe Caulfield, his interaction with his sister phoebe shows how it’s ok to lose your innocence because with the loss of that innocence you

Many readers will agree that The Catcher in the Rye is a coming of age, but some may disagree that it is not because of Holden’s personal view of children. The disagreement may have resulted from Holden’s childish acts, such as, being

The relationship between Holden and Phoebe forms a major theme that the novel aims to deliver. The fact that he is having this conversation with Phoebe, a child who is anything but simple and innocent, reveals the oversimplification of his worldview. Holden himself realizes this to a degree when he acknowledges that his idea is “crazy”, yet he cannot come up with anything more pragmatic; he has trouble seeing the world in any other way. His “catcher in the rye” fantasy reflects his innocence, his belief in pure, uncorrupted youth, and his desire to protect that spirit. On the other hand, it represents his extreme disconnection from reality and his naïve view of the world. Phoebe exposes to Holden a living embodiment of childhood. And it is a scene with her where she exposes to Holden the illogical nature of his supervisory actions, indicating that his desire to preserve her innocence will only halt her own inevitable development. Phoebe is the Greek word for “protector of children” (Bloom 2009, p185). Within the novel she is Holden’s protector. She comforts him, provides him with financial security, and protects him from getting in trouble with their mother. Reiff describes this reversal of roles between Holden and Phoebe as “Now, instead of saving the world by protecting the children, Holden wants to reject the world and shut himself off from evil by becoming a ‘deaf-mute’ in the West. It is Phoebe who rescues him from this total withdrawal” (Reiff 2008, p71). Phoebe forces Holden to view her as a human—living and progressing— rather than as a forever preserved child, and it is this humanization that causes Holden to accept her eventual progression into

When his visiting Phoebe’s school he discovers crude language written on the wall. Holden immediately thinks of ‘Phoebe and all the other little kids’ and how he would hate them to see the foul words. This proves that Holden has a natural protective instinct and symbolically takes on the persona of ‘catcher in the rye’ as he wipes the words off the wall. Holden wants to shield the children from seeing the obscenities of adulthood prematurely, just as the catcher wants to protect children from falling off the ‘cliff’. At the end of the novel Holden appears to have more acceptance of the idea of growing up. As he watches Phoebe on the carousel he deduces that sometimes you ‘have to let them fall’ (referring to the children on the carousel.). Holden now understands that growing up is inevitable and fighting it is useless. However, regardless of this new found clarity, he still obsesses about living in an uncomplicated world. He delights in the fact that the carousel goes ‘round and round’ because it continues to fuel his fantasies of staying in one place forever. It would seem that even though he has made progress, Holden still struggles with letting go of the life he wishes were

In the beginning of the chapters, Salinger makes Holden seem relatable to other teens. “I could feel a terrific lecture coming on. I didn't mind the idea so much, but I didn't feel like being lectured to and smell Vicks Nose Drops and look at old Spencer in his pajamas and bathrobe all at the same time.” (Chapter 2) Many young teenagers can relate to this quotation, since not many people find it amusing listening to an elderly lecture. Later on in the book, his childish personality begins to show more and more as the plot moves. At some points, he would like to connect to the adult world and at other points, he rewinds to the idea of every adult being “phony” or insincere people. One example of this is when Holden meets with Sally Hayes on a date. At first, Holden seemed to believe he is in love with her at first, but he came to the state of annoyance and exasperation when he couldn't connect to the adult world Sally was living in when he asked her to move out of state with her. Holden imagines himself as the “catcher in the rye.” He conceptualizes a field of rye perched high on top of a mountain cliff, full of

Holden does not realize his misconstrued state in life. He believes he is an adult; however he is clearly a young man who has lost his way in life. He has every confidence that the world works in the way he imagines and even says: “It’s funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they’ll do practically anything you want (Salinger 84).” Holden displays a sense of arrogance in the way that he envisions that he is better than the rest of the world. Holden believes he is an adult who knows how to handle himself, but he must constantly rely on the guidance of his little sister Phoebe for direction in his life (Svogun n.p.). Holden is just a boy who portrays himself as more than he is, but soon realizes that what he believes himself to be is in fact not genuine.

The transition between childhood into adolescence is an essential period in one’s life that shapes how individual feels about themselves. This transition can be difficult for some individuals because they are unable to find their self-identity. In J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield neglects growing up and finds it difficult to search for his life ambitions. Similarly, in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood struggles internally to fulfil her ambitions and conform to societal expectations. Eventually, this affects the psychological state of the protagonists and leads them to fall into depression. In J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Holden and Esther lose their self-identity,

In THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger, Holden is talking to his younger sister, Phoebe, after he snuck into his apartment. During their conversation, Phoebe asks Holden what he would like to be when he grew up to which Holden responds with, "I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all." Holden's answer is naive and he himself criticizes the idea saying that it was "crazy." His answer allows the reader to delve deeper into Holden's character and interpret Holden as a protector of innocence. Holden's answer supports the novels underlying theme of how it is challenging to maintain childlike innocence in an adult-like world notioned by the Holden's imagery of a cliff and how "nobody big" is present.

The Catcher in the Rye is a book that not only grabs a hold of your emotions, but also transforms you into the life of Holden Caulfield. In 1951, J.D. Salinger published what is still being taught in schools all around the United States. Todays adolescents can still relate to the emotions displayed by Holden throughout the entire novel, much like the adolescents in the 1960's could. For instance, Holden is trying to find his way around life at such a young age. At the time, the age group "teenagers" did not yet exist. Holden was still a child, trying to be an adult. Today's children can also relate to this because, as teenagers, we jump into an age where we don't have our bearings yet. We begin to take on more responsibilities, but we still

In Holden Caulfield’s mind, he lives in a world that can be split into two halves: the world of the innocent and the world of the corrupted. These worlds are equated with children and adults, respectively. He despises “the adult world and its cruelty and artificiality” (Chen) otherwise known as “phoniness”. With The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger explores an adolescent’s journey as he navigates through the gray area of an otherwise black and white world. Throughout the book, Holden frequently tries to blend in with either side of the spectrum, only to be pushed back into limbo. Despite Holden’s glorification of the purity of a child and detestation of the impurity of an adult, he doesn’t

     Throughout “The Catcher in the Rye”, Holden Caufield longs for intimacy with other human beings. One of Holden’s main problems is that he sees childhood as the ideal state of being. He thinks that all adults are phonies.