Broken Record Catcher In The Rye

Holden thinks about his childhood when he visits places he went when he was a child and wishes he did not grow up. Holden distances himself away from change and retreats away from his problems instead of facing them by staying in his irealistic fantasy world. Holden shows this when he says “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody's move. . . . Nobody's be different. The only thing that would be different would be you. (Chapter 16)” One night Holden is drunk walking back to the Edmont hotel and drops and breaks the Shirley Beans Children's Record that he bought for twelve year old Phoebe, this shows Holden's effort to keep Phoebe from growing up. The breaking of the record is his failing effort because he can't stop Phoebe from losing her innocence. Holden gives Phoebe the record when he sneaks into his house to see her, in this time period while they are talking Holden explains how he wants to be the catcher in the rye when he says “ I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going 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 (Chapter 22)” Holden's catcher in the rye fantasy reflects his innocence, his belief in a pure long lasting youth, and his desire to protect that young spirit. It also represents his extreme disconnection from reality and his odd view of the world. Holden's dream to be the catcher in the rye relates to the natural history museum because they both have a deeper, more symbolic meaning. Holdan shies away from change and does not want people to grow up like he did, so in his mind the solution is to catch all the people that fall off the edge into adulthood and keeping them a child

When the record shatters, it demonstrates Holden’s dream to avoid the world of adulthood. Holden does not want to let go of his past, however he has to and face the future: “It broke into about fifty pieces … I took the pieces out of the envelope and put them in my coat pocket. They weren’t any good for anything, but I didn’t feel like just throwing them away,” (170). The broken pieces represent his memories and his childhood.

Several adolescents in today's world are wanting to grow up to become independently at a young age and decide on their own to leave school. In J.D. Salinger novel “The Catcher in the Rye” he introduces the life of Holden Caulfield a seventeen year old boy who experiences difficult times in his life. Holden was a young boy that was kicked out from several schools. When he was going to high school they school was going to kick him out because he was failing four classes and passing one which was English, but before they kicked him out he decided to leave and quit school. In today's world, there are still several young people that are experiencing and making their own decisions for what they have been through in life.

The “Little Shirley beans record” symbolizes not only Holden's love for Phoebe but also the innocence that holden can't let go. “There was a record I wanted to get Phoebe called “Little Shirley Beans” It was a very hard record to get. It was about a little girl that wouldn’t leave her house because of her front teeth and she was ashamed to” Throughout the book it has been hard for holden to go out of his way for anyone, especially if it happens to be a tough challenge. Holden is using time, effort, and money to track down this record for his little sister. Holden chooses to go to the park in central park to watch the wildlife. Introduce quote “Then something terrible happened, just as i got to the park. I dropped old phoebe's record, It broke into about fifty pieces. It was in a big envelope and all but it broke anyway.” Holden wanted the record because it was a means to represent holden's innocence. The girl in the record that was too scared to leave her house could symbolize holden and his fear to confront adulthood. When the record broke displayed holden losing his innocence.

This song is significant to this chapter because Holden talks about his ambitions and the troubles hes gone through in his past and this song is just about going after what you want in life and not stopping along the way and that represents Holden a lot.

This song speaks volumes as to what Holden is trying to find in life. He wants to be happy, but he is often depressed with his life. In the story it is revealed that the museum is his indeed “happy place”. In the story it reads “I get very happy when I think about it. Even now” (120). Holden admires the fact that nothing in the Museum changes and wishes that the museum could represent how his life would go. Simple, and manageable all characteristics he wishes he could trace into his real life. The song brings this all together because no matter how long it’s been since Holden’s last visit it still gives him the same spark of happiness as the last time. Being happy is definitely the main point of this

The human condition refers to the inescapable features of being a human being. It is related to those human feelings that search for the meaning of life. It is the saga of events in life that changes people’s perception. In the big picture, the human condition is also the reasons which causes a child to grow and mature into a man. J.D. Salinger explores this condition through his character Holden in his book The Catcher in the Rye and director Fred Schepisi in his film Six Degrees of Separation, through his main character, Paul.

This symbolizes him holding on to his past, not wanting things to change. As Holden meets with all of his old friends, he claims many of them to have become phonies. All of his friends have grown up, and Holden is left behind, and still acts like a child. "[Holden's] central dilemma is that he wants to retain a child's innocence" (Bloom 22). As everyone around changes he just wants to stay the same, young and sheltered.

Next, Holden has the fear of losing his innocence because of the Little Shirley Beans record. Holden is very drunk coming out from a bar just after meeting his old friend Carl. He then decides to go to the park. On his way to park, “I dropped old Phoebe's record. It broke into about fifty pieces. It was in a big envelope in all, but it broke anyway. I damn near cried, it made me feel so terrible, but all I did was, I took the pieces out of the envelope and put them in my coat pocket” (Salinger 154). In this incident, it shows him losing innocence because the record symbolizes innocence but he accidently broke it. The record is meant for younger people but since it broke it shows that he lose innocence. He decides to keep the broken pieces so he can at least keep

“This sentence I’m reading is terrific” I can be quite sarcastic when I’m in the mood (28)

Holden calls up Carl Luce to go drinks instead of dinner despite the fact Holden “called him a fat-assed phony” since Holden wanted to have a relief of his loneliness. In the meantime, Holden goes to the Radio City Music Hall to be annoyed by The Rockettes phony pre-movie dance. Until the kettle drummer comes to the stage and is the exact opposite, remembering how Allie and he agreed that the man seems to enjoy what he is doing. Watching the movie, about the war, Holden thinks about D.B.’s experience during World War II. Telling himself that he could never be a soldier and that if a war came again, he would be the one to volunteer to sit on top of an atomic bomb. When thinking of war, Holden is being selfish since the first thing that comes

J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye is widely recognized as one of the most self-destructive novels ever written. The novel’s protagonist Holden Caulfield is known for his anti-social behavior and his self-loathing, self-isolating character in the book. Holden’s traits could widely be compared to Napoleon Dynamite the protagonist of the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite directed by Jared Hess. Napoleon is characterized by his clichéd “school nerd” behavior and of course his own self-isolating habit just like Holden. Like Holden, Napoleon tries to put down people to isolate him from others. But even though Holden and Napoleon are alike on how they assume the traits of the people they meet,

Holden began to wonder if everyone happened to be this friendly at Beacon Hills. She did take it upon herself to hide in his locker but at least she was nice about it and making light of the situation. His brown eyes watched as her finger hooked his belt loop and pulled him in closer to his locker, blocking anyone from seeing what was going on in front of him. Her tone grew quieter as her teacher closed in but it she still spoke loud enough so that he could her. Holden was a bit...flustered to say the least.

Holden thinks children are authentic and in order to stay authentic in a world full of phonies he seeks to preserve his childlike nature. In chapter 13, Holden talks about the concept of his virginity, he says “If you want to know the truth, I’m a virgin. I really am. I’ve had quite a few opportunities to lose my virginity and all, but I never got around to it yet. Something always happens.”(92). Holden admits he’s still a virgin and to many people losing your virginity is a step to adulthood. This is Holden’s way of trying to protect what little he has of his childhood to prevent himself from becoming an adult. That “something always happens”(92) is his own subconscious telling him to stop and to save this moment for someone who he really likes not a prostitute whom he bought. Holden even says earlier ,in the novel, “I don’t like the idea...I think if you don’t really like a girl, you shouldn’t horse around with her at all”(62). The author is trying to show how kids can avoid being an adult in the real world. Although he tries to protect his youth, Holden also likes to pretend his is an adult. He does things like being an avid smoker, constantly wanting to drink, and wanting to hookup with girls. Doing acts like these: ”After a while I sat down in a chair and smoked a couple of cigarettes.”(63), “‘Would any of you girls care to dance?’ I didn’t ask them crudely or anything. Very suave, in fact.”(70), “Boy, I sat at that goddamn bar

Holden will not apply himself when he returns to school. It is empirically proven Holden will not change his ways because he has been kicked out of multiple schools, he has never followed through on a statement of change before, he makes excuses instead of solving the issues, and even after getting professional help at the end of the book, he still shows no change. This shows that Holden will not change, which is why he will not apply himself when he returns to school. Some people say that Holden will apply himself in school, however, it is empirically proven that Holden will not change and will not apply himself in school.