How Does Holden Respond To The Catcher In The Rye

How would you know you weren 't being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn 't." This is displayed when he is talking to Phoebe and she is talking about a boy in her class who probably likes her but she doesn 't want him to, she tells Holden that she put ink on his jacket and Holden responds to that by saying, "That isn 't nice. What are you-a child, for God 's sake?" Holden likes getting reactions from people to reassure himself of his actions. This is a parallel to what all teenagers must go through at one point in their life, the line between should I do this to please my parents, or should I do what I want to do? Holden represents every teenagers struggle for independence.

Lies, failure, depression, and loneliness are only some of the aspects that Holden Caulfield goes through in the novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger. Salinger reflects Holden’s character through his own childhood experiences. Salinger admitted in a 1953 interview that "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book.… [I]t was a great relief telling people about it” (Wikipedia). Thus, the book is somewhat the life story of J.D. Salinger as a reckless seventeen-year-old who lives in New York City and goes through awful hardships after his expulsion and departure from an elite prep school. Holden, the protagonist in this novel, is created as a depressed, cynical, and isolated character and he

On page four when Holden is talking about his older brother, D.B. He says “Now he's out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute.” Before this Holden speaks highly of his

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.

Holden checks into the Edmont Hotel in Manhattan, where he hired a young prostitute named Sunny, but didn’t sleep with her. The scene depicts Holden’s struggle of coming to adulthood. Holden thought that by sleeping with a prostitute would make him a man. However, when he was confronted in the burgeoning sexual situation, he yielded. After all he is still just a kid. “The trouble was, I just didn’t want to do it. I felt more depressed than

As the novel progresses, we realize that ironically Holden's alienation becomes the source of most of his pain throughout the book. Although he never realizes the fact that his pain is being derived from his isolation and lack of human interaction, Salinger places clues in the book that tell us that it is so. With the introduction of Sally Hayes, Salinger is able to craft a relationship that effectively depicts the conflict in Holden. It is loneliness that initially propels Holden into a date with Sally. However, during the date Holden's need for isolation returns, he "didn't even know why" he "started all that stuff with her. The truth is" he "probably wouldn't have taken her even if she wanted to go." Because Sally is unable to recognize the feelings on the "phoniness" of school that he projects, he becomes frustrated and uses a rampaging monologue to upset her and drive her away. The only time in the

Holden Caulfield had finally decided to leave Pencey after being expelled for three days. When taking an interview with him, he said, “When I was all set to go, when I had my bags and all, I stood for a while next to the stairs and took a last look down the goddam corridor. I was sort of crying. I don’t know why” (52). Before Holden actually left, Holden yelled at the top of his lungs, “Sleep tight, ya morons” (52). Holden left Pencey sometime after curfew. Since it was too late to call for a cab, he walked all the way to the station. After he got off at Penn Station, he wanted to call someone, so he went to the phone booth to call up someone. At first, Holden couldn’t think of anyone to call. He thought of giving Jane Gallagher's’ mom a call,

Often, works of literature include characters that change as a result of a particular event. In the book “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield changes as a result of his younger brother, Allie Caulfield, dying. The way that Holden Caulfield changes is that he falls into depression, he can’t decide whether to grow up or not, and he makes bad impulsive decisions.

The point of interest is that in this scene, Holden tries to make his sister Phoebe happy because she is always by her side to understand his problems; so he wants to thank her. “Boy,

     One of the first relationships that is mentioned in the story, is Holden’s relationship with D.B., his brother. Throughout his childhood, it is obvious that Holden has idolized his older brother. Now that D.B. is a writer for Hollywood, Holden considers him a phony, and accuses him of prostituting himself by agreeing to work for the film industry.

The most noticeable of Holden's "peculiarities" is how extremely judgmental he is of almost everything and everybody, in other words he is very cynical. A cynic is routinely disappointed when others don’t live up to their constructed image and, as a result, often doubts people’s motives, and genuineness. Holden applies his often cynical and pessimistic reasoning to almost everything. He judges and criticizes people who are boring, people who are money-driven, and, above all, people who are “phony.”

Another female that takes part in Holden's life is Sally Hayes. She is a beautiful but shallow girl that Holden has dated in the past. To Holden's standards, Sally is another "phony" person but her beauty makes Holden put his standards aside for the moment. The unusual thing is that Holden made it clear that he disliked the girl, yet he said that the minute he saw her, he felt like marrying her. On their date together, he tells her that he loved her even though it was a lie, and yet he meant it when he said it. In return, Sally tells Holden that she loved him as well. After exchanging their false feelings for each other, Holden tries to explain what is happening in his life, but she is incapable of understanding his problems.

This shows that Holden may have been a victim of some sort of sexual abuse. The two quotes express growth in Holden because in the beginning he was not able to communicate why it makes him

He realizes that he is a big example to Phoebe, and that because of his actions, dropping out of school and his ability to run away from his problems, that he has taught Phoebe that she can do the same. He now knows that he must be a role model to her, and stay in New York City. Now that he knows where his future will bring him, he has hope. Holden senses himself in her, and worries that she will follow in his path, dropping out of school. He knows that it is imperative that she stays in school and study, and not be a little

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