As Catcher in the Rye progresses, Holden’s experiences become more meaningful and reflective; as a result, the protagonist accelerates towards his inevitable breakdown, revealing a pain-riddled, lost, thoughtful, oddly hopeful, and utterly real personality in the process. Holden is increasingly disgusted with how normal people approach life, thus making him unsure in how to approach his own life. “People never think anything is anything really. I’m getting goddamn sick of it” (Salinger 190). This prodded question of what is meaningful reverberates throughout the movies, plays, books, stories, and other creative works that span the length of human existence. Nodding at the true root of his obsession with phoniness, Holden often struggles with …show more content…
Salinger frames observations about society and self in the crass, upper-middle class American vernacular of Holden Caulfield. Somehow, he finds a way to permanently slot this distinct, developed character into the consciousness of teens across the world - generation after …show more content…
“O Pencey, My Pencey!” Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Jeffrey W. Hunter, vol. 243, Gale, 2008. Literature Criticism Online, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/FKJSBC144834905/GLS?u=avlr&sid=GLS&xid=34245e04. Accessed 2 May 2018. Originally published in The Catcher in the Rye: Innocence Under Pressure, Twayne Publishers, 1993, pp. 27-49. Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Little, Brown and Company, 1991. Silverberg, Mark. "You Must Change Your Life: Formative Responses to the Catcher in the Rye." Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Jeffrey W. Hunter, vol. 243, Gale, 2008. Literature Criticism Online, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/UGTZGE555899909/GLS?u=avlr&sid=GLS&xid=6449beca. Accessed 2 May 2018. Originally published in In The Catcher in the Rye: New Essays, edited by J. P. Steed, Peter Lang, 2002, pp. 7-32. Whitfield, Stephen J.“Cherished and Cursed: Toward a Social History of The Catcher in the Rye.” Children's Literature Review, edited by Jelena Krstovic, vol. 181, Gale, 2013. Literature Resource Center, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/H1420114072/GLS?u=avlr&sid=GLS&xid=16e25638. Accessed 2 May 2018. Originally published in New England Quarterly, vol. 70, no. 4, Dec. 1997, pp.
J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye features a complex narrative surrounding a troubled young student, Holden Caulfield. Difficulties he faces throughout the story force Holden to confront his fears of adulthood and maturation and the responsibilities therein through the difficulties he faces throughout the story. Academic controversy surrounds whether Holden learns from these confrontations and adjust accordingly, maturing throughout the story. While initially this seems rather subjective, a thorough analysis of Holden’s actions throughout the story as well as of the symbolism injected by Salinger makes it quite clear that Holden does undergo a significant maturity arc as the story progresses. Holden’s social development and maturation
Paper by Megan Gamble. J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye uses literary elements to create the alienated main character Holden Caulfield. When the novel begins Holden has just been expelled from his prestigious boarding school and is headed to New York City. Salinger used certain literary elements throughout the novel to develop his lead character in way that is understandable to the readers. Salinger uses literary elements such as setting, characters, and the theme of innocence to bring to life the alienation of Holden Caulfield.
From its publication, The Catcher in the Rye gained widespread aversion from schools through its blatant profanity. But despite the time gap since the publication in the 1950s until now, the book explores immortal themes of adolescence and maturing still relevant today. Symbolizing the average teenage life, adolescents throughout the country are able to connect to Holden without question. As Holden agonizes over his purpose and depression, teens relate to this some intangible part of themselves. Holden frustrates over dating, drinking, low grades, switching schools, and life in general. Suddenly, in a second, as the adult world threatens the once serene childhood, as the weight of responsibility of being an adult crashes, Holden crumbles.
One of the greatest American Literature writers, J.D. Salinger, was familiar with a rough childhood by experience. He was able to parallel his experiences to the experiences of Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in The Catcher in Rye. In this novel, Holden experiences conflicts that most youth are not familiar with. The conflicts in Holden Caulfield’s life are caused by various forces and circumstances.
J.D. Salinger, the author of The Catcher in the Rye, uses the behaviour of protagonist Holden Caulfield to shape his personality in the way he alienates himself from the rest of the world. Holden alienates himself from the society he lives in, his relationships with others and also the relationship he has with himself. Holden struggles to cope with the fact that eventually he will have to grow up and so will everyone around him. Holden see’s the world not being perfect as a huge problem that he alone has to fix because everyone else is too much of a ‘phony’ to do it. The novel explores Holden’s weekend after he got kicked out of his fourth school, Pency Prep, and the struggles he faces with alienating himself.
J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye presents a look into the mind of Holden Caulfield, a popular literary icon numerous teenagers have rightfully found themselves relating to at some point. While the familiar emotions of Holden were welcoming for me, his anecdotes and witty remarks proved entertaining as well. The story chronicles Holden’s exploration through New York post-expulsion, with his point of view influenced by his growing alienation with the world. He represents that growing sense of unease at growing up and facing a reality that is not always pretty, and, in his case, a need to save children from having to face that reality. I personally admired the fact that he was not just an angry teenager in the world as stereotypes suggest.
“I was surrounded by phonies. . . They were coming in the goddam window. “ “The Catcher In The Rye”s , novel by J.D Salinger is about a struggled teenager named Holden Caulfield struggling with the fact that everyone has to grow up , having a concern with the loss of innocence. J.D Salinger’s purpose in writing The Catcher In The Rye was an act of liberation reflecting on Holden’s faith . He wrote this to get closure and to put words in his feelings in a way that others can relate to.
The reader often searches for a glimpse of himself in the characters he is reading about, and this is especially true with the adolescent readers of The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. The author paints a picture of a conflicted youth by emphasizing his idiosyncrasies, and although Caulfield’s traits may seem exaggerated and alien at times, he is a character who is relatable to American youth today. Holden Caulfield has a strong sense of civic duty that is overshadowed only by his suicidal tendencies, is exceedingly sensitive to the evil in the world and prone to angst, yet empathetic to the emotional upheaval other children will experience when entering adulthood.
Holden Caulfield plays a timeless character in the sense that his way of life is common for the American teenager, in his time as well as now. Today parents dread the terrible and confusing adolescent years of their child's life. In J.D. Salinger's book, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is in this terrible and confusing point of his life. At this point in his life, as well as in modern teenager's lives, a transition occurs, from child to adult. Holden takes this change particularly rough and develops a typical mentality that prevents him from allowing himself to see or understand his purpose in life.
In the bildungsroman Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger employs the struggle of individuality, inevitable maturation, and the childhood corruption of adulthood to reveal Holden’s alienation from society.
“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.”- Ludwig Wittgenstein. The narrator, Holden, tells the story in the vernacular language of a teen in the 50s: slangy and colloquial. J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is about a teenager's major struggle against death and growing up in the 1950s. The book takes place in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. Holden Caulfield, Phoebe, Allie, D.B., and Mr. Antolini are the main characters. There are plenty of symbolic things in The Catcher in the Rye. A major one is ‘the catcher in the rye’; Holden wants to save himself and other children from having to grow up into an adult world he thinks is bogus. Another is Holden's red hunting hat. It is a symbol of his alienation and attachment to childhood.
Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of J.D. Salinger’s classic coming of age tale The Catcher in the Rye, entices readers through his hyper-critical scrutinization of the post-war consumer world. The novel itself is acclaimed to be quite autobiographical; the similarities between Salinger and Holden are numerous. Holden is an avid critic of materialistic American ideals, and he aims to preserve innocence in others, and to save himself from falling into the land of adulthood. After failing out of prep school, Holden retires to the streets of New York City, searching for the little purity he has left. Through Holden’s manic and depressive moods, his language, and his relationship with his sister, Holden’s desire to escape the “phoniness”
The Catcher in the Rye appeals to three types of people: those that feel lost, those that feel angry, and serial killers. It’s a classic novel, and people read it because the novel speaks to the confused, scared, and apathetic. Choosing this book, I knew people that raved about it, saying it was their favorite, in that ‘it’s multi-dimensional and outstanding! I also knew people that hated it, thought it was ‘over rated and dragged on and on’. So I chose it, wanting to make my own opinion. There’s a reason it’s a classic, as its character development went deeper than any book I’d read before, and I loved it. Furthermore, after thorough analyzation of this book, tabbing pages, asking myself questions, and looking for meaning behind each word,
J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye has captured the spirit of adolescence, dramatizing Holden Caulfield's vulgar language and melodramatic reactions. Written as the autobiographical account of a fictional teenage prep school student named Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye deals with material that is socially scandalous for the time (Gwynn, 1958). As an emotional, intelligent, and sensitive young man, Holden puts his inner world to the test through the sexual mores of his peers and elders, the teachings of his education, and his own emerging sense of self. Throughout the years, the language of the story has startled readers. Salinger's control of Holden's easy,
This essay is a detailed analysis about The Catcher in the Rye investigating whether it is relevant for youth and