The Catcher In The Rye Quotes Analysis

Holden Caulfield values his brother, Allie. When Allie died of Leukemia on July 19, 1946, Holden was left devastated. However, Holden always thought that Allie was the most interesting person that he has ever met. Allie was one person that

The Catcher in the Rye is a book by J.D. Salinger. It talks about a teenage boy who has mental issues. He is never happy because he thinks everybody is phony. His parents do not care at all about him, and that makes him very sad so he gets expelled from all school.

To begin with, Holden has isolated himself from the world, much like many adolescents who have created their own alienation from society to deal with their dilemmas. Social alienation is a condition reflected by low common values when one feels, isolation from a human is the end result they believe they need. “I felt like giving someone a buzz. My brother, My sister, Jane Gallagher's mother, Sally Hayes, Carl Luce. So I ended up not calling anybody.” (Salinger, 77) These are the words of Holden which reflected his current state. Here, one can see, Holden has options to talk to someone and interact but refuses. For many people, alienation can be both a good and bad state, It prevents one from getting hurt or losing people because

As long as he does this, Holden will disallow himself from making outside connections. Ever since the death of Allie, Holden was so hurt and disturbed that he put up a metaphorical “social-emotional wall” between himself and others to abstain from getting hurt again. After losing Allie, whom Holden loved dearly, and regarded as “the nicest” and “the most intelligent” kid, he closed up, and subconsciously decided to hide his true character (22).

This may bring up the question of how others thought of him, especially during this act.

Although Holden’s madness may be dismissed as the irrational actions of a misguided teenager, his alienation reveals the harshness of reality and the consequences of emotional trauma. As a result of Allie’s death, Holden loses his childlike naivety and is exposed to life’s adversities. He becomes “confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior” (208) to the point where he purposefully irritates others in an attempt to avoid social interaction. When Holden is at a bar with his former schoolmate Carl Luce, Luce immediately mentions how Holden’s “mind is immature” (163) and suggests that Holden needs a psychoanalyst. However, Luce makes no attempt to sympathize with him, let alone help him cope with his madness. Luce’s insincerity mirrors that of the society; the adult world does not even remotely care about Holden’s emotional turmoil. Even though society’s indifference leads to his longing for human

Holden needed guidance and had many questions about sexuality, and desperately needed someone to discuss it with him. One source writes, “Holden struggles with his emerging sexuality. He is unable to relate in any meaningful way to the girls he encounters

I don't know why. ”(59) Holden quite obviously is show to care at least a little bit about leaving school, because, to put it simply, he’s human. Though he often acted like he had no friends, the way he behaves often tells a different story. Despite what he says about his roommate, Ackley, Holden still talks to and hangs out with him because some part of him likes having someone around. One last issue that may contribute to the problems Holden faces from school is that he could do better.

Holden calls a girl, Faithskldfjlsdf, to come over,they had never met, but he was lonely and she used to be a stripper

Back in the day though he was reckless and didn't listen to anyone and did as he pleased, he was respected by many of the young men he hung around with until one day,

Holden Caulfield fits almost perfectly into the mold of modern day teenage behavior depicted by Clark and his findings. He states that, “(t)he postmodern family is often so concerned about the needs, struggles, and issues of parents that the emotional and developmental needs of the children go largely unmet.” Although we do not have much knowledge of the Caulfield family’s relationship, we do know that Holden’s parents continue to send him to boarding school after boarding school even though he continues to fail out of each one. They do not care to take his feelings into consideration or ask Holden how he feels about his schooling situation, demonstrating the above quote and providing further explanation of Holden’s actions in the novel. Another observation that Clark has gathered on the minds of deprived teenagers is that, “‘...just when they most need our help, they are unable to take their parent’s hands.’ They feel this way about

He was an untidy person and a scruffy personality. He usually spoke in a bombastic way. He also spoke in a rhetorical or sarcastic way but he showed a keen eye for detail. He knew that his father was slighted by the exclusives, that 'aristocratic body' who, he later wrote, 'would monopolize all situations of power, dignity, and emolument … and raise an eternal barrier of separation between their offspring and the offspring of the unfortunate convict': and the knowledge bred in him a determination to destroy their power.

Holden’s compulsive lying creates a barrier of protection around him when he interacts with strangers. His cynicism and judgment of others is a front as well, specifically designed to protect him from the rejection of others. When people let him down, the sting of rejection hurts a lot less because he has already expected everybody to be “phony”—or more specifically, a vain, status-obsessed suck-up. By calling everybody a phony, Holden creates a safety net and justifies the way others treat him; this is his self-fulfilling prophecy. Holden’s constant decree of “phoniness” also unveils the purpose behind his journey in New York City: he is searching for authenticity and he finds that he can only locate it through the innocence of childhood.

Behavioral: used curse words as a normal aspect of his dialogue. Discussed his life with a lot of detail to his family (such as when he explained to his grandson about the idea that he thinks he should sleep with many women and not just one woman).

“Yeah” he said. That killed me; he answered the phone like he was a hotshot. It was like he was busy and didn’t want to talk to anyone.