Catcher In The Rye Central Theme

his group of friends, and now he isolates and tries to forget himself. In friendship,

At the museum that Holden visits while he is waiting for his younger sister Phoebe to come meet him, Holden gets asked by a group of young boys if he knew where the mummies are. Holden tells the boys where the mummies are because he was younger he would go when to see them. Surprisingly, Holden knows a great deal about the mummies, more than he did on his test at Pency. The museum is a reflection of how much he knows and his childhood because Holden really knows more than he thinks he does. Holden would visit the museum as a child with his school to learn about many different things. To Holden, the best part about the museum was, “everything always stayed right where it was” (121) Holden must learn to accept that not everything can always stay right where they are, things must change in order to move forward. His childhood is important to him because it was a source of good

In Edith Wharton’s novel Ethan Frome, the setting is in Starkfield, Massachusetts, a small, stale, freezing town with people tending to gossip about everyone. Ethan has been faced with many difficulties; the death of his parents, his “sickly” wife Zenobia, and the arrival of Mattie Silver. The author uses Ethan’s personal and societal past events to show how one’s feeling of isolation can cause one to seek comfort in another being.

The Catcher in the Rye displays many theme throughout the novel, and all of these themes can be seen through the main character Holden and his relationships with certain individuals. Themes like loss of innocence, reality vs. illusion, lack of communication and the list goes on and on. However, another big theme that is often illuminated is dealing with change, which is something Holden isn't the best at dealing with. Many of us can relate to Holden in general, but especially with this topic because it affects us all, things change but from these changes we grow and learn which holden struggles to grasp. Dealing with change is a topic see in The Catcher in the Rye, and is displayed through Allie’s Death, character development, and Phoebe growing up.

This scene highlights Holden’s moment of vulnerability when he confides to his sister Phoebe about the hat, saying, “I thought it was ‘cause they're crazy about me or anything, but I like it. I like it a lot" (59). The quote highlights Holden’s need for individuality and his struggle to find genuine connections with others. Similarly, the Museum of Natural History symbolizes Holden’s longing for preservation and stability in a world that is constantly changing. He describes his feelings toward the museum, drawn to the museum’s frozen displays.

Finally, his relationship with his parents reveals his isolation because he distances himself away from the love he is needing and searching for. Likewise, the protagonist’s desire

Phoebe greatly influences Holden’s life by making him want to become a nicer person. She is Holden’s youngest and only sister and is only 10 and still has her innocents. This means Holden will do anything to keep her this way. An example that shows this is, “‘Do you want to take a walk to the zoo?’”. This quote demonstrates that Holden didn’t want to hurt Phoebe anymore.

Holden seems to have the most scorn for people who think or try to act as if they are something they're not. His bitterness, which stems from his need for a perfect and simple world, is directed towards people who hide their true personalities behind masks thus shattering his dream of a "black and white" society. Holden's need for a society devoid of complications and surprises is made evident when he visits the Museum of Natural History. Holden loves going to the Museum of Natural History because it symbolizes the ideal world he wants to live in; a world that never changes, where everything is plain and simple, and easily understandable. When external forces force Holden to see reality, that the world is a very complicated and ever changing entity, Holden rejects it as a form of phoniness. However, in his constant search for the infinite imperfections of his world, Holden fails to realize that he too is a phony. Holden admits to being a compulsive liar and also has a habit of being needlessly cruel. When Holden meets Mrs. Morrow, a classmates mother, on the train, he purposefully feeds her misleading information about her son Ernest. Holden tells her that, "[Ernest] is one of the most popular boys at Pencey," when he actually believes that "her son was ... the

The author from The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger utilizes motifs loneliness and depression to show how Holden a teenager from the book explains the struggles he had during the great depression. J.D. Salinger uses the motifs of loneliness and depression to illustrate the theme that when people feel lonely they try to connect with people to get rid of it.

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

His solitary life takes a tole on him. "The most difficult part of being in the forest was the loneliness. It became unbearable each day. One things

In the first chapter of this novel, we get introduced to the protagonist and narrator of the novel, Holden Caufield, from a rest home in which he has been sent for therapy. He refuses to talk about his early life, although he does explain that his older brother “D.B” sold out to writing for Hollywood. His story and breakdown begins in the school of Pencey Prep, a boarding school set in Pennsylvania. The setting for the early chapters in the narration is his "terrible" school, to which he describes the atmosphere to be “as cold as the December air on Thomsen Hill”. Holden’s student career at Pencey Prep has been destroyed by his refusal to apply himself. We know this after Holden explains he failed four of his five subjects, passing only English. Due to his lack of effort and determination, he was forbidden to return to the school after the term. The Saturday before Christmas vacation began, Holden overlooked the football field, where Pencey usually

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help develop and inform the text's major themes. One of the recurring themes in the novel The Catcher in the Rye is the omnipresent theme of death. It could be argued that the novel is not only full of references to death in the literal sense, physical disappearance, but also in the metaphorical, taking the form of spiritual disappearance, something which Holden often focuses on, along with the actual theme of mortality. It is possible that this occurs because of his reluctance to interact with the living world. As his means of escaping from the reality he despises, his mundane thoughts and the “phoniness” that he is surrounded by. Holden becomes increasingly attracted

Loneliness is usually a common and unharmful feeling, however, when a child is isolated his whole life, loneliness can have a much more morbid effect. This theme, prevalent throughout Ron Rash’s short story, The Ascent, is demonstrated through Jared, a young boy who is neglected by his parents. In the story, Jared escapes his miserable home life to a plane wreck he discovers while roaming the wilderness. Through the use of detached imagery and the emotional characterization of Jared as self-isolating, Rash argues that escaping too far from reality can be very harmful to the stability of one’s emotional being.

Gaiman introduces the audience to the young narrator’s coping mechanisms through his portrayal of the narrator as an ostracized child dealing with disappointment. The novel starts off by the narrator saying, “nobody came to my seventh birthday” (9). Gaiman presents the narrator as abandoned and excluded from society. While the narrator moves on from his unsuccessful birthday, he realizes that “they were not my friends … they were just people that I went to school with” (10). Addressing his invited guests as school people suggests that the narrator distances himself from society more than he already is; although the narrator does not have a friend, he has a cat that serves as a companion. But unfortunately, companionships don’t last long as