How Does Holden Create Tension

Despite his longing for acceptance, “His efforts to connect with any stereotypical kid his age result in abject failure“(Privitera 204). Salinger thoroughly emphasizes this through Holden’s relationships with Stradlater and Ackley, with both of whom he has a strenuous and artificial relationship, demonstrated by his internal, flippant commentaries on his peers as he discusses them in the book (Salinger 31-40). Holden’s peers ostracize him due to his more introspective and introverted nature, as seen in Stradlater’s angry response to Holden’s reflective response to this writing assignment, saying that he doesn’t “do one damn thing the way [he’s] supposed to”(Salinger 47). These difficulties stem not from deficiencies of his peers, but rather a problem of Holden’s refusal to accept anything different from what he expects, making excuses about his reasons throughout the book to cover his actions. His rationalization of his internal wants and desires impedes any proper connection he could possibly make with his peers. He, “Subconsciously longs to be accepted yet feels he cannot make the connection”(Privitera 205).

Holden is afraid to take responsibilities so, Holden chooses not to grow up and refuses to acknowledge it. Holden’s immaturity displays through inability to take advice or decisions. To illustrate,”Oh..well, about life being a game and all And how you should play it according to the rules. He was pretty nice about it. I mean he didn’t

Although he is reasonably cynical towards people who are conspicuously phony, such as Marty who overtly lies about catching a glimpse of a movie star, his negativity and scathing criticism of others often extends beyond the realm of reason. When discussing fighting, he says, “I can’t stand looking at the other guy’s face, is my trouble. It wouldn’t be so bad if you could be blindfolded or something” (117). Holden’s negativity is so extensive that it even drives him to irrationally resent the face of another man who is challenging him. This testifies to Holden’s struggle with an unusually cynical outlook. Moreover, he resists the formation of intimate relationships with others, finding flaws too great to ignore in every acquaintance. His history teacher at Pencey, Mr. Spencer, wants to understand Holden’s refusal to do schoolwork. He is sorry that he has to fail Holden and reaches out to him, trying to connect with him on a personal level and influence him for the better. However, Holden dismisses him as senile, phony and pathetic and refuses to engage Mr. Spencer. When he wakes up to Mr. Antolini creepily patting him on the forehead, Holden reveals that similar “perverty” stuff happened to him as a child several times. Thus, he clearly struggles with a natural trust deficit with everyone he meets, which explains his insecurity and the brash cynicism he utilizes to justify his alienation from others. Another example of this is Holden’s relationship with D.B. Although he suggests that they were once close, he now considers D.B. a phony because of his work in the film industry. Thus, he sabotages a potential genial relationship and justifies doing so with his prejudices against his brother’s field of work. Holden’s cynicism and alienation from others reveals emotional damage and psychological problems relating to

Holden knows that he acts immature for his age. He admits it many times, and he knows he is a liar, also. “I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It’s awful” (22, Salinger). I

These instances made Holden have to grow up sooner than he should’ve. To start, when Phoebe, Holden’s little sister, asks what Holden enjoys and would want to do in his future Holden exclaims, “I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be” (Salinger 175). Holden explains the “catcher in the rye,” as catching children that are falling out of their childhood purity, proving his motive to protect children from what he believes is corruption. In addition, when Holden wants to deliver his goodbye note to Phoebe he spots a vulgar statement on her school wall and claims, “I’d smash his head on the stone steps till he was good and goddamn dead and bloody” (201). Without a doubt, Holden has a strong distaste about the children at the school reading it, proving his desire to protect the innocent. Lastly, as Holden waits to meet up with his old friend Sally his thoughts drift to an old museum that he used to go to as a kid, “The best thing, though, in that museum was that

In result of this behavior by his parents, he was never able to learn to trust an adult. He didn’t even find one teacher at the multiple schools he attended that he could trust. One teacher he had some respect, but still no trust, for was Mr.Antolini, one of his old english teachers. Holden went to Mr. Antolini’s house, after visiting his sister, for a place to sleep since he could not stay at his house. While s at Mr. Antolini’s house, Holden fell asleep on the couch and he woke up to Mr. Antolini petting his hair from the ground. Not only did this incident freak Holden out, but it also reassured his negative view of adults.

He was happy to be there and comfortable and he used calm word choices with them until he got uncomfortable and thought Mr. Antolini was a pedophile then his tone changed to serious and scared and he used lots of cuss words. This shows a strong change in tone because it was a drastic switch. This elaborates more on Holden's character as well because it shows that he has big mood swings. Throughout the book, Holden is mostly in a negative state of mind. There are some times where he cheers up, but those are not common.

The moment Holden has his mental breakdown isn’t explicitly stated, but right before he goes to Antolini he said he feels, “more depressed than [he] ever was in [his] whole life” (Salinger 104). Chen argues that Holden’s environment exerts a great influence over him, resulting in erratic behavior. Holden has a very high regard for his former English teacher, though this starts to waver when he’s actually in his presence. He notices that Antolini is an alcoholic with a mature wife and has feet of clay. Then comes the “petting” incident. Unfortunately, we’re just as confused as Holden is since he’s our unreliable narrator. If we’re under the assumption that Antolini actually tried to make a pass at Holden, then Holden’s perception of Antolini has been shattered. Antolini, the only adult that Holden trusted wholeheartedly, is just as perverted and crumby as the rest of the adults Holen hates. This is the final straw for Holden, who realizes that adults can only be tainted and

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a novel built on contradictory statements. This is partly because Holden, the angsty, teenage narrator, is still finding himself through the course of the book meaning that these contradictions show both positive and negative change in himself. The biggest contradictions shown thus far are both contradictory of Holden’s actions which is showing a lack of awareness of his true self. The first example of the Holden’s contradictions is in the beginning paragraph of the novel when he states that he is not going to recount his “whole goddam autobiography or anything” (3) and then proceeds to do that very thing by telling the “madmen stuff” (3) that happened to him a year ago. A second example of Holden’s

For example, while Holden is out on a date with a girl named Sally Hayes, he becomes frustrated when Sally does not share his opinions about certain topics. Salinger shows an example of Holden’s interactions with Sally when Holden says to her, “You give me a royal pain in the ass, if you want to know the truth” (Salinger 133). When Salinger utilizes the literary device of dialogue, he reveals that Holden does not have the maturity to respect the perspectives of others, even the perspectives of a possible love interest. In addition, by using dialogue, Salinger shows that not only is this the opinion that Holden has of Sally, but also that he does not have the self control to keep such an insulting statement to himself. An additional way the reader can see Holden’s juvenility through his interactions with others is through his relationship with his younger sister Phoebe. For instance, Holden explains his unrealistic fantasy to her when he says, “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all… [w]hat I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff… [t]hat’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all” (Salinger 173). In this instance, Salinger uses the literary device of a metaphor to show Holden is in denial about growing up; his wish in life is to protect children from life’s

Salinger’s narrative strategy of making Holden being quick to judge makes his point come across, but at the same time makes the audience feel that Holden is not a credible source because he does the same things that he calls people out for doing. Holden does the same things he calls people “phony” for doing, making the audience consider if they can trust him. Holden himself is guilty of being phony because he feels the adults in his life have forced him to be. Holden has no one that he is able to vent to because he pushes them away by being hard headed and not listening to anyone thus causing him to lie to himself which keeps the truth even further away from him. Seng makes it a point in, “The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield”, to show that, “While holden is quick to pass judgement on others he is not so quick to see the faults in himself.”(Seng 205) Seng makes it a point that in order for the audience to understand the novel as a whole it is crucial for the audience to realize that Holden is also

It is displayed throughout the novel of how emotionally distant he is from his parents. Salinger uses Holden to convey the immature curiosity and the harsh, painful process of growing up as a typical teenager, depicting how adolescents view the adult world. Salinger portrays the mentality of typical teenagers on Holden's journey. Holden has a sterling significance

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.

The fact that Phoebe cares for him enough to give all her money to him really touches Holden. After being unable to see Phoebe, Holden goes to an old teacher of his, Mr. Antolini, with whom he had a strong relationship. In the beginning, Mr. Antolini seems to really care about Holden. Holden tells the reader that even after he left his old school “Mr. Antolini came up to our house for dinner quite frequently to find out how I was getting along”(Salinger 235). Mr. Antolini is the one adult character in the book who understands Holden and the issues he faces.

Antolini was trying to hinder him from going down the wrong path. Holden focuses on the little details like the gasoline rainbows in the puddles on the street and which suitcase is nicer. He overlooks the obvious, “big picture” which could better help him adjust and focuses instead on little, often-insignificant things he can handle. Moreover, Holden only pays attention to the things he’s interested in and doesn’t pay attention to the teachers or work given at school. This lack of interest has caused him to drop out of four schools and, therefore missing out on knowledge necessary for his well-being and self-discipline. Holden does not like change. Holden needs change, he needs to grow up. He needs to change his thoughts and behavior. Holden says “Certain things should stay the way they are, you ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone (122).”