How Is Holden Selfish

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

In J. D Salinger 's novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist, Holden, goes through many hardships in his journey to self-knowledge. In the beginning, Holden has to deal with being kicked out of school and not having any place to call home. He is also struggling with the unfortunate tragedy of the death of his beloved younger brother Allie. At the same time, Holden is trying to deal with growing up and accepting the adult world. Throughout the novel Salinger addresses the conflicts faced by a young man struggling with the trials and tribulations of growing up while also confronting personal loss and loneliness along the way.

This directly correlates with Holden’s dubbing of many people, practices, or labeling things as “phony.” He refers to the school and each of the students individually as “phony,” and calling out, “Sleep tight, ya morons!”(59) when he leaves Pencey for the last time. This demonstrates Holden’s use of “phoniness” to describe anything that doesn’t meet his

In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger depicts a narration of Holden Caulfield’s encounters. Holden is portrayed as a high school student that is judgmental towards adults while kinder to the youth. Holden does not want to grow up and he thinks that if one is approaching adulthood, one will turn into a phony. Holden’s leniency towards younger people, such as his sister, is because of his dilemma of growing up or not, his distaste for adult phonies, and his own childhood.

Holden decides he wants to run away and pretend t be a deaf mute, because he can't handle life, and wants to run away from it. Before he does this, he wants to tell his sister and give her back the money. Holden doesn't want to deal with growing up and becoming an adult. He doesn't want to become a “phony” and is so depressed that he sees no reason to continue his life, which is why he flunked out of Pency Prep, and wants to run away.

During this time period of loneliness, Holden decides to reach out to another one of his old friends and lover, Sally Hayes. When Sally and Holden are hanging out he realizes how annoying and phony he thinks she is, but to save himself from the fight with her, he concedes and does phony activities that he knows she will like. One of the many things that holden loathes and considers very phony is the movies. He finds everything about them phony and fake, and especially the people that go to see them. Ironically, he finds himself in that exact place on his date with Sally.

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is portrayed as a young, troubled individual. He tells us his story from the mental institution where he is currently residing. Holden is a 16 year old going through many different adolescent changes. He is expelled from his prep school for flunking too many subjects. He drinks, smokes, sees a prostitute, is punched by her pimp, goes on dates, spends a great deal of time in the park, and really does not do a great deal else. Holden is a very hard person to figure out and analyze. Throughout the whole book, Holden constantly changes his mind about things and has various conflicting thoughts. The experiences that Holden goes through illustrate the divide between adults and

His moments with Jane were memorable. Holden is constantly criticizing people as phony. Holden hates movies and Hollywood because he thinks that actors are fake and phony. However, he went to watch a movie with his friends, which makes him a phony, too. He always criticizes Ackley due to his bad hygiene, but he still invites him to the movie.

Holden is deathly afraid of conforming, growing up, and having to assimilate into the phony adult world. As a result he comes off as hypocritical as he is the most prominent phony in the novel. He constantly lies, refuses to connect with others and overlooks his own pain, letting it deeply impact his life. Holden is a compulsive liar; he does not have one honest conversation with anyone except his sister and Jane for the duration of the novel. When he is on the train with Mrs. Morrow, for instance, he claims his name is Rudolf Schmidt and preaches about what an amazing guy her son is, even though he is “the biggest bastard that ever went to Pencey, in the whole crumby history of the school.” (61) This shows that Holden falls victim to the same social conventions as everyone else. He says exactly what Mrs. Morrow wants to hear, despite the fact that he

Holden often refers to adults as a “phony.” In the book The Catcher In The Rye, it wrote, “What I liked about her, she did not give you a lot of horse manure about what a great guy her father was. She probably knew what a phony slob he was” (Salinger 3). This is not the only time Holden refers to adults this way. This is just the first of many, many times he uses phony in the entire book.

Holden has an apparent dislike for society. He insists that "[he] is surrounded by phonies (Salinger 13)" and left Elkton Hills because of it.

Holden's phony addiction gets him into trouble at school. Holden looks for the flaws in everyone and tries to eliminate that person he sees as a threat, such as when Holden decides to face off against the phony Stradlater after Stradlater's date with Jane. Holden also thinks every teacher is a phony who pretends to be helpful to students. If Holden has trouble in school he does not seek help from his peers because he believes that they are phonies. Hence this point is tied into one of the reasons he is kicked out of Pencey, failing four out of five courses. Holden's avoidance of things phony is very strong and he has a one-track mind. It is either his way or the highway, this is another example of how Holden's phony problem hinders his chance at full maturity. Holden is so scared

In The Catcher in The Rye Mr. Antolini claims “the mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one”. The notion of maturity and growing up are some of the central themes of the book. Holden is just a young and lonely boy struggling to find his place in the world. He is fairly intelligent, but doesn’t apply himself at all. Holden is irritated by other people and has trouble connecting with them.

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, cannot accept that he must move out of childhood and into adulthood. One of Holden’s most important major problems is his lack of maturity. Holden also has a negative perspective of life that makes things seem worse than they really are. In addition to Holden’s problems he is unable to accept the death of his brother at a young age. Holden’s immaturity, negative mentality, and inability to face reality hold him back from moving into adulthood.

It takes many experiences in order for an immature child to become a responsible, well-rounded adult. In J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger’s main character Holden Caulfield matures throughout the course of the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Holden is a juvenile young man. However, through his experiences, Holden is able to learn, and is finally able to become somewhat mature by the end of the novel. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield’s story represents a coming of age for all young adults.