Holden is a complex person with many conflicting characteristics. He has many
ambitions and desires for his life but he is faced with the basic conflict in the story,
corruption. This corruption is what drives him and at the same time restricts him
Holden 's being surrounded by corruption disgusts him. There are a few main
instances in which Holden encounters corruption directly. One type is Stradlater, the
'secret slob 'or Ernie, who 'performs for the people '. Two that affect Holden very
much is his brother D.B. 'selling out ' to the movies and Pheobe eventually having to
grow up. This corruption is very evident in Holden 's life and situation.
Corruption is what Holden wants to avoid but can not because he wants to grow
up
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Holden finds corruption in almost everything he sees but does not yet even
realize that he too is part of that corrupt world the minute he stopped being a child
and wanting to be an adult. By doing many of the things he does he displays a desire
to grow up, to act mature, to ultimately blend in with society but he is restricted by
his ideals of innocence. The way he orders his drinks, dances with the two ladies in
the hotel, and sends his money frivolously shows how Holden has
3) Page 1: Holden is accusing his brother of selling because he works for the movies. ie "prostituting"
The irony of Holden detesting phoniness and adulthood is that he acts so much like an adult with his curiosity and experience with alcohol and sex that he misses his own opposition. Holden hates the responsibility, morality, and accountability of being an adult and embraces childhood. This contradicts everything that he desires and to want to take part in. This causes his own corruption and enables a failure to relate to himself.
It takes most of the book before Holden begins to realize that he is helpless to stop this corruption. Finally, he realizes that not only is there nothing that he can do, but there is nowhere
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.
The carousel and gold ring finally allow Holden to accept change as a natural part of life and that it is necessary for one to grow as a person. Holden buys a ticket for Phoebe, his kid sister, to ride the carousel but refuses her offer to go on as well. Instead, he sits and watches: “ I went over and sat down on this bench and she went and got on the carousel” (211). By doing this, Holden chooses to no longer be a child. He starts to accept that he needs to start maturing and watches Pheobe, like the other adults are watching their children. This is a step in the right direction for Holden as up until this point in the novel, he has refused to change because of his fear. While Holden watches Phoebe ride the carousel, he watches her reach for the gold ring. As she reaches, Holden thinks to
Holden is the biggest hater of phonies, and at the same time, he is the biggest phony in the novel. In this novel, being phony is somewhat equivalent to being an adult. Holden wants to be seen like an adult. For this reason, he smokes and drinks heavily, and goes as far as being involved with prostitution. For people like Stradlater and adults, these are rather normal from their perspective. However, for Holden, they become paradoxes, as he absolutely loathes phoniness. Nearly all aspects of society, including movies, matinees, people’s behaviors, and even simple social interactions like conversations, are criticized by Holden for being phony. For example, during his date with Sally, Sally’s conversation with a guy they met at the matinee “killed [Holden]…it was the phoniest conversation you ever heard in your life” (Salinger 127). In a hope to make Sally understand his views on phonies, Holden says, “‘Take cars,’… ‘I don’t even like old cars. I mean they don’t even interest me. I’d rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God’s sake’” (Salinger 130). Then again, Holden becomes the phoniest person shortly after. He asks Carl Luce,
emotions and feels that living with a family is so complicated that he decides, `` He wanted
Holden is quite skilled at citing exactly what is wrong with other people. However he never acknowledges his own faults. He was sure the entire world was out of step with him. As Alan Stewart explains, ?Holden seemed to divide the world into two groups. He was in one group, along with a few other people such as his little sister, Phoebe, and
The relationship between Holden and the "phonies" shows how Holden despise the society at first. Whenever he meets people he thinks they are "phony" he would criticize them. For instance during the intermission of the play, the conversation between Sally and George
He was used to live in his brother’s shadow, but when the boat accident happened to them, he was the only one to survive. As he was always indentifying himself the less important one, he considered it was wrong that he was the one who would still have a life. As a result of nervous breakdown, he tried to kill himself with cutting his wrists in the bathroom, fortunately his father found out and save him. Then he went to the psychiatric for four months. When he comes back, there are still issues he needs to deal with.
There is another lesson Holden had to learn. He needed to learn how to be satisfied with his company. He was always looking for someone to call or someone to talk to. When he finally did have some company, he did nothing but criticize them. For example, Sally Hayes went out with Holden, and throughout the entire time he complained and criticized her. He
Although Holden is extremely cynical and struggles with relationships, he is not all bad. Inside he is moral and generous. He was very charitable when he gave a considerable donation of twenty dollars to the nuns. Holden has a strange way of loving people.
J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is the chronicle of a young man's metamorphosis from immaturity to unsure manhood. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, is a sixteen-year old boy who leaves the prep school he has been expelled from to escape the frightening reality of dealing with his parents. However, during his visit to New York City he is faced with the harsh reality that he cannot continue to hold onto his childhood. Holden is an extremely complex character and it is only by examining each layer of him that the reader is able to understand his painful metamorphosis.
Holden has an apparent dislike for society. He insists that "[he] is surrounded by phonies (Salinger 13)" and left Elkton Hills because of it.
The author has put in plenty of themes, messages, ideas, issues, and motifs. The character, Holden Caulfield is alienated from society, is experiencing the painfulness of growing up, thinks that the adult world is full of phoniness, and is sick of hearing about the American Dream from his teachers. JD Salinger has created a book that has raised plenty of questions and controversy towards the readers. The Catcher in the Rye shows how a teenage mind works. JD Salinger has used a stream of consciousness writing style where the character (Holden Caulfield) talks in first person as he presents his thoughts and feelings to the readers. The setting has taken place in the early fifties and the book uses a lot of profane words. The New York