https://www.echeat.com/ 2011-11-09T06:20:58.34-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/qweqw-34326.aspx Chapters 1-3 Catcher in The Rye After discussing the book catcher in the rye I have already began to like and I have started reading it and being open to the character. After reading through chapters One and three I have not seen any signs yet of Holden’s mind not being right or something being wrong with his head so far to me he seems ok although I have realized that so far most of the problems in his life are around him his surroundings not him like the people around him and the things he had to deal with although it does seem like sometimes he thinks to much into things well actually u can never think to much into things he just thinks more than you would think that others would the way he tells the story seems like he is smarter than what his grades show and he is failing all his classes but 1 but is now kicked out of his school it doesn’t seem like he likes it that much though anyway because he believes that everyone there is phony well not everyone but just speaking in general like I am pretty sure that he mentioned the principal in there or is it the counselor. And there is something about thins teacher that he likes he is a real old guy and he always calls him boy i am not sure why though but I think it gets on his nerves and he seems really sick because he is on a lot of medicine. And even though he is friends with the teacher he kinda seems to dislike him at the same time. For example he hates when he calls him boy and he notices everything that is wrong with them anything that he does wrong Holden points out to himself and he seems annoyed by him he also lies to him later when he says that he has to go to the gym to pick up the teams things but he was actually just wanting to get out he could have just said he had to go but instead he made up something maybe he did it to try and not be rude. Before all that in the beginning of the book when he is up on that hill he's waiting for some sort of goodbye 2008-09-10T22:34:10-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Catcher-In-The-Rye-33709.aspx Comparing Holden and Homer In life, we always have dreams that we desire and wish to become reality and we have goals that we plan on accomplishing. However, most of the time succeeding is harder said than done. Holden and Homer represent the people who seem to be categorized under those who have the trouble succeeding. Although they are two different people who live in two different types of society, they both share the same goal. Living in two different types of societies and being so different from each other many would find it hard to believe that Holden an odd young man that doubts himself of a bright future who lives in a modern society, and Homer a young man who seems to have a bright future who lives in a rural town, both set out to conquer the same goal. This goal is to break free from where they are and explore the world seeing what it has to offer and how they can be a part of it while at the same time be successful. Although very different from each other, to achieve their goal they end up doing similar things. Holden only has a few days left at his school because he was expelled due to his grades so he decides to leave early, due to some other problems as well and heads to New York where he is in search of what the world has to offer. Homer on the other hand is a Doctor at the orphanage he was raised up as. Him being an orphan decides to leave by hitching a ride when he got the opportunity, to fill his curiosity of what the outside world is like since he knows nothing of it, also in search of what the outside world has to offer him. Another minor similarity is Holden leaves school to stay in “The Big Apple” and Homer leaves to stay in “The Cider House”. Another similarity Holden and Homer have in common is their beliefs. Whatever they believe in, they seem to feel strongly about, and tends to always have arguments to back it up. As a doctor Homer strongly disagrees against abortions especially since he was an orphan and him knowing that if they had abortions around when his mother was pregnant with him he probally wouldn’t of been born. Although he performs the procedure after 2007-04-18T03:26:37-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Comparing-Holden-and-Homer--32987.aspx Character Analysis of Holden in "Catcher in the Rye" In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, Holden, the main character wants to be a “catcher.” Holden hears a young boy on the street singing “If a body catch a body coming through the rye” and it made Holden feel better (115). He wants to be the only big person around in a rye field, near a cliff, to catch all the kids playing from running off the cliff. It is obvious from this statement that Holden wants to help children, but how can Holden when he cannot even take care of himself? A competent catcher would be somewhat like a counselor or social worker in the sense that they would help children from following a destructive path. A counselor or “catcher” must be honest, mature, responsible, motivated, and caring. Although Holden is caring, which is a quality that makes a good catcher, he still lacks many of the other necessary qualities to be a competent “catcher in the rye.” One quality that Holden lacks to be a competent “catcher” is honesty and Holden even says, “I’m the most terrific liar you ever say in your life” (16). He lies quite often, even when it comes to simple things like going to the store to buy a magazine, but instead says he is going to the opera. To leave an annoying conversation faster, he lies to Mr. Spencer, one of his teachers, and tells him he has to leave for the gym to get the fencing equipment, when in fact Holden left the equipment on the subway (15). Holden also lies when he is on the train and tells Mrs. Marrow nothing but falsehoods about her son, who attends Pencey with Holden, by stating that he “adapts himself very well to things” (55). It would not be right for Holden to be a dishonest catcher. It is important to teach a child to tell the truth, so how could he be a competent catcher when he constantly lies? Another quality that Holden lacks to be a competent “catcher” is maturity. He even justifies his immaturity by stating that he is just going through a phase. A mature person would be able to handle difficult, tough situations reasonably and Holden cannot. Unable to 2007-03-19T14:07:39-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Character-Analysis-of-Holden-in-the-Catcher-in-the-Rye-32830.aspx The Catcher In The Rye Critical Analysis Essay In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger used symbolism throughout the novel. Three major symbols were the ducks, the Museum of Natural History, and Jane Gallagher. They all represent Holden in a way, and Salinger uses these symbols very well. While Holden is wandering around New York City, he asks many people about what happens to the ducks in the pond when it freezes. I think this really symbolizes Holden. He isn’t really wondering about the ducks, he is wondering about himself. He wants to know what will happen to him when the weather gets really cold. He wants to know if he will have to go home, because he is really afraid to. This relates to the theme of going home, which is a recurring theme during the novel. The novel is basically his slow return to his home, and he is wondering whether he should go home or stay outside and freeze. The other two symbols, Jane Gallagher and the Museum of Natural History, both represent the theme of the past. Jane Gallagher was an old friend of Holden’s, and he mentions her many times during the story. He mentions that he will call her, but he never gets the nerve to. She is an important part of his past that he misses a lot, and he wants to go back and be with her again. The Museum of Natural History represents a different aspect of his past. While Jane Gallagher makes Holden want to return to his past, the Museum of Natural History sort of changes his mind. He remembers how he used to go there all the time, and how he was different, but the wax figures were always the same. He realizes that he can’t go back in time, because he is not the same as he used to be. He also realizes that he will never be the same as he used to be. J.D. Salinger’s use of symbolism in The Catcher in the Rye is very helpful in conveying hidden messages. He uses different symbols to use these messages, such as Jane, the Museum and the ducks. They all represent Holden, showing the way he thinks and acts. I chose this piece of writing because I felt that it was well written, and it was about a book that 2007-03-08T01:13:45-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Catcher-In-The-Rye-Critical-Analysis-Essay-32784.aspx Controversy in "Catcher in the Rye" In this novel, the author creates Holden Caulfield, a boy that is the world’s ‘punching bag’, and illustrates his difficult life through presenting his failures clearly to the reader. Salinger shows that Holden has had a ‘deprived’ childhood by explaining to the reader that Holden’s beloved brother Allie died at a young age. Holden still has not gotten over this unfathomable loss. Another way the author shows Holden’s depravity is by making the parents look as if they are not part of his life. Holden does not have a good relationship with his parents and this is presented very clearly in the novel. This novel is predominantly about showing Holden’s attempts at achieving his goals in life only to fall flat on his face to fail. A first time reader of The Catcher in the Rye might not know what to think after reading the novel. It is not the typical novel. The Catcher in the Rye, a controversial novel by J.D. Salinger, is a work of fiction that proves itself commendable through its strong use of symbolism, its modernist themes, and significant use of characterization. This novel, considered to be a well-constructed piece of fiction, is known to have a very complex structure; it has three parts of the plot that make up this structure. Showing Holden Caulfield’s life at school makes up the first part of this structure; his escape to New York in search for sexual escapade is the second. The third and final part of the structure is his collapse, backward into childhood, and unknowingly into insanity. Holden’s life at school is shown as him being a ‘loner’. First of all, when everyone from the school is at the football game, Holden is in his room. He says that everyone is supposed to be there, and if they lost you were supposed to commit suicide or something. Holden not taking any part in the ‘important’ things of school shows his rejection of society. He is aggravated by the beliefs of the people who are his leaders. They believe life is a game. Holden can’t understand the concept that life is nothing more than a game. “Game my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hotshots are, then it’s a game, all right – I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there 2007-01-12T03:46:16-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Controversy-in-Catcher-in-the-Rye-32400.aspx Coming Of Age In The Catcher In The Rye Maturation is the journey from childhood to adulthood, where time represents everyone’s unavoidable passageway to adulthood. An awakening in life can help one become aware of the world around him. In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the author J.D. Salinger, traces the process of maturation through the protagonist Holden Caulfield. Firstly, Holden commits many wrong doings and hurts others through his actions. Secondly, he encounters pain and anguish and thirdly, he is healed. The three stages of Holden’s process of maturation are: sin, suffering, and redemption. The first stage of Holden’s process of maturation is sin. This is primarily seen when Holden insults the Bible. Holden gets in bed and feels like praying. Yet, he cannot pray because he is “sort of an atheist” (Salinger 99). Holden admires Jesus, but the Disciples annoy him (Salinger 99). Holden admires Jesus because of his leadership, yet dislikes the Disciples because they were followers. His parents disagree when it comes to religion, therefore none of his siblings attended church. Holden did not have a belief system when he was younger which stems to his cynical view of religion now. Another sin Holden commits is he takes pleasure in the suffering of others. This is evident when Holden imagines taking the life of another human being: As soon as old Maurice opened the doors, he’d see me with the automatic in my hand and he’d start screaming at me, in this very high-pitched, yellow-belly voice, to leave him alone. But I’d plug him anyway. Six shots right through his fair hairy belly. Then I’d throw my automatic down the elevator shaft—after I’d wiped off all the fingerprints and all. (Salinger 104) Holden’s behaviour and actions are self-destructive. He continues to argue with Sunny, the prostitute, and Maurice when they threat him. They quarrel about the five-dollar bill that Holden is supposed to owe; their quarrel leads to Maurice attacking Holden. After, Sunny and Maurice’s depart, Holden imagines himself as a movie gangster and kills Maurice. In short, the first stage of Holden’s process of maturation, sin, is seen through his insulting of the Bible and taking pleasure in the suffering of others. The second stage of Holden’s process of maturation is suffering. 2006-12-20T03:12:11-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Coming-Of-Age-In-The-Catcher-In-The-Rye-32120.aspx Sexuality in "Catcher in the Rye" J.D. Salinger’s most great masterpiece of his writing career, The Catcher in the Rye, explores the hypocrisy and the ugliness of the adult world. As written in the 1950s, the story relates to the post-World War II time and to Salinger’s mentally complicated life when he was growing up. The main character, Holden Caulfield, also the narrator of the novel, goes through a psychological meltdown as his child-like innocence is shattered by the adult world. Disturbed and trapped by his own conflicting mind, he struggles vainly to escape only to sink deeper and deeper into the evilness of the adult world. In the midst of confusion, desperation, and loneliness, Holden sets out to find the true happiness of life. The damage of Holden’s child-like innocence leaves him in the brink of a nervous breakdown. Brought on by the hypocrisy and the ugliness of the adult world, Holden give in to his increasing feelings of loneliness and desperation. His cynicism is his attempt to protect himself from the pain and the disappointment of the adult world. In failing to find refuge in neither friends nor teachers, Holden sinks deeper in his confused mind. The death of his brother Allie further torments little Holden and leads him to the desire of sexuality. Almost given up to the adult world, he finds the true, inexplicable happiness: his little sister Phoebe. The view of his childish sister riding on the merry-go-round brings him back to life, agreeing to protect her from the adult world. Standing on the threshold between childhood and adulthood, vulnerable little Holden is consistently hurt and humiliated by the hypocrisy and ugliness of the adult world. His admiration of children seems to indicate his longing to go back to his childhood. “Sexuality” is the force that makes the return to his childhood impossible. Many of Holden’s most traumatic encounters with the adult world- the blowup with the prostitute-is cause by his desire of sexuality. Sexual desires consistently forces him, against his will, to move more and more deeply into the adult world. Holden is standing at the edge of a cliff next to a rye field about to jump into adulthood. Repelled by the hypocrisy and the ugliness of the adult world, ironically, Holden is 2006-12-18T17:49:48-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Sexuality-in-Catcher-in-the-Rye-32007.aspx Catcher in the Rye- Essay Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D Salinger interacts with different kinds of females throughout his travels. He has normal adolescent thoughts of having sexual relations, like calling for a hooker or calling a women who is a stripper. He is also quite shallow which is apparent on his date with Sally or the blonde in the Lavender Room. He also has little respect for some women who have different ideals than him. He has no respect for Sally which is discernible when he ridicules her and makes her cry. Though he disrespects Sally, Holden greatly respects his sister Phoebe and Jane Gallagher. Holden Caulfield’s views and attitudes concerning women differ according to the type of women he is interacting with at that particular time. Holden’s shallowness is evident in a few accounts throughout the novel. When Holden goes to the club in the hotel where he is staying, he starts flirting with three women. They are older than Holden but he dances with all three of them and feels he is “half in love” with the blonde because of her looks and great dancing ability. Another instance that portrays his shallowness is when he makes a date with Sally Hayes. He thinks she is phony and somewhat annoying; the only way he can stand her is because she has great looks. The quote that most greatly emphasizes Holden’s shallowness is when he says he feels sorry for ugly girls they have to be kinder and have a better attitude than pretty girls. Holden is also normal in one sense because he ponders about having sexual relations. He views some girls as objects he can use to have sex with. In New York he calls a women named Faith, who is a hooker. He got her number from a friend who told him to call if he wanted a good time. He thinks he can persuade her into having sex with him. He also talks about almost having sex, but something is always going wrong. He says he wants to know as much as he can because he is always messing up. This is why he gets a prostitute. After leaving Pencey, he goes to New York and gets a hooker at the hotel where he is staying . At first, Holden likes the idea of having sex with a hooker so 2006-09-20T22:38:24-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Holden-Caufields-Negativity-Towards-Women-31459.aspx Teenagers and Adolescence in Catcher in the Rye Teenagers throughout the century have always had trouble going through their adolescent years of their lives. The book Catcher in the Rye, is a realistic fiction and it is by J.D. Salinger. The novel was basically about a teenage male high school student who has been in and out of school for his unacceptable grades. Most of this story takes place around New York. The Catcher in the Rye is set in the 1950s. The setting is important to the book because the only reason he is in New York was because he was expected home in a few days for Christmas break three days prior of getting kicked out of his school. Also, all of his family and friends live in New York. The main character in this novel is Holden Caulfield. Holden is a very depressed teen. He got that way because of the horrible things that have gone on in his life and now he looks at everything negatively. The supporting Characters in this novel are Stradlater (roommate), Ackley (friend), and Phoebe (his sister). The miner characters were Jane Gallagher, Spencer, Luce, and Mr. Antolini. The character of Holden never changed but he ended up in a sanitarium. I feel that no other characters have changed. I liked all the characters cause basically they all had very different personalities. Holden Caulfield narrated a past tense story about the few days between the end of the fall school term and Christmas when he was sixteen years old to a medical doctor. His long story begins on a Saturday when he gets kicked out of Pencey Prep High School in Angerstown, Pennsylvania. He is not scheduled to be home to Manhattan till Wednesday. Holden decides that he has had enough of Pencey after him and his roommate Stradlater gets in a fight. He then decides that he is going to back to Manhattan three days early, stay in a hotel, and not tell him parents that he is back. Holden goes to New York by train and then takes a cab to Edmond Hotel where he checks himself in. He goes to the bar Lavender Room at his hotel. Holden leaves Edmond and takes a cab to Ernie’s Jazz club in Greenwich Village then leaves and walks back to Edmond. He talks to the elevator guy back 2006-08-01T09:41:53-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Teenagers-and-Adolescence-in-Catcher-in-the-Rye-30920.aspx Innocence in Catcher in the Rye If there were one word to tell what the theme of the book was it would be innocence. How we are all innocent at some point, how to try to keep our innocence, and how no one can keep their innocence forever. We all fall from our innocence. Adam and Eve fell from grace and innocence and set the tone for all of our lives. Throughout the whole book Holden is trying to make people keep their innocence and he wants to hold onto it himself. What he needs to learn and does learn through the course of the book is that no one can keep his or her innocence. We all fall at some point, but what we have control over is how hard we fall. In the book there is a plethora of falling images. The very title is about Holden wanting to “catch” little kids from falling off a cliff. “What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them.” (Pg. 173) Holden wants to save everyone and be a hero, when he needs to focus a lot more attention on his self. To him falling is when you loose your innocence, and when you loose your innocence you are a phony. He sees people that conform as phony, but to stay sane and prosper a person usually has to conform and be “phony.” Mr. Antolini brings to our attentions another image of falling when he talks with Holden about his behavior. He tells Holden that Holden is due to fall. “This fall I think you’re riding for—it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom.” (Pg. 187) Mr. Antolini brings to our attention the fact that Holden is going to “fall” or loose his innocence soon if he already hasn’t. During the book when Holden is going mad it sure seems like he keeps falling and falling but he can’t feel himself fall or hit bottom. He drinks constantly to escape the problems he has with his life. He tries 2006-07-30T20:35:52-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Innocence-in-Catcher-in-the-Rye-30827.aspx Summary of Catcher in the Rye The story start's at the last night from Holden at Pencey, a Boarding School he is at. He has been kicked out of school because he didn't have good marks. It's almost Christmas and he supposed to go home in the vacation on Wednesday. He decides to go a few days earlier to New York, where his parents live, but he doesn't go home, because he doesn't want his parents to know he has been kicked out of school again. He checks in a hotel and goes to the Ernie's, a night-club. He has been there before with his brother D.B. He dances the whole evening with a blond girl, but she's only interested in celebrities so he goes back to the hotel. At the hotel, the elevator-boy says that he's a pimp and that he can arrange him a five-dollar whore. He takes the deal and a few minutes later the whore, named Sunny, arrives at his room. He was excited because he thought that he could loose his virginity that night, but when she takes her sweater off, he realizes that he doesn't feel sexy or something so he sends her away after he paid her. She wants ten dollar instead of the five dollar he had arranged with the elevator-boy. He doesn't give her the ten-dollar and a few minutes later, she comes back with Maurice. He still doesn't pay and Maurice smacks him to punches in his face. Holden starts to cry. He pays now and they go away. The next morning he gives Sally, his formal girlfriend, a call and they go see a theatre-show at two 'o clock. They spend the whole afternoon together and after that they go ice-skating. Later, in a bar, he tells her he wants to go to the woods with her ant get a job so that they can merry each other. He was really serious. Sally didn't want to go and he called her a 'serious pain in the ass'. She ran away and he felt lonely. He phoned an old friend of him to get a drink together that night. They meet in some bar downtown. It isn't going well between them and after a while, and some drinks, Holden's friend, Carl Luce, leaves. Holden stays and he drinks a lot that night and he gets really drunk. When he's drunk, 2006-07-29T16:16:11-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Summary-of-Catcher-in-the-Rye-30790.aspx Symbolism of Salinger's Cover of "Cather in the Rye" I received word that the editors of the Little Brown and Company are considering changing the cover of JD Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye. I strongly recommend that the cover be left alone. The book has been commended on its exemplary literary meaning for the past fifty years; the present cover is a visual representation of this meaning. The blank cover expresses the overriding theme of controlling one’s own fate, similar to John Locke’s idea of the tabula rasa (blank slate). Indirectly, the blank cover also expresses the fundamental conflict in the novel that is Holden Caufield’s inability to “come of age.” Salinger’s development of Holden’s character extensively indicates his childish behavior. Like a little kid, the monologues he gives to his audience are simply rambling thoughts that flow through his mind. In the beginning of the book for example, Holden starts introduces his story and keeps skipping around to numerous topics: If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me… but I don’t want to go into it…I’m not going to tell you the whole autobiography or anything. I’ll just tell you about the madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas…and had to come out here and take it easy. I mean that’s all I told D.B about, and he’s my brother…now he’s out in Hollywood, D.B, being a prostitute. (1-2) Holden starts by touching on his childhood, continues on about his parents, and culminates by calling his brother a Hollywood prostitute. Like a child, Holden’s attention span is minute and he cannot extensively talk about a particular subject. The childish qualities that Holden possesses do not only stop with his rambling but also includes his interesting interpretations. When he’s sitting in Central Park waiting to see his sister Pheobe, he expresses what he feels will happen to him because of sitting out in the cold, “I thought I’d probably get pneumonia and die. I started to picture millions of jerks coming to my funeral and all…I thought about the whole bunch on them sticking me in a goddamn 2006-07-24T08:14:18-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Symbolism-of-Salinger-s-Cover-of-Catcher-in-the-Rye-30569.aspx Characters, Summary and Analysis of Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield - The protagonist and narrator of the novel. When the novel opens, Holden is a sixteen year-old junior at a school called Pencey Prep; he has just been expelled for academic failure. Holden is intelligent and sensitive, but he narrates his story in a cynical, jaded voice. Though he never says so outright, he longs to live in a beautiful and innocent world, and finds the hypocrisy and ugliness of the world around him almost unbearably painful; his cynicism is his attempt to protect himself from the pain and disappointment of the adult world. As the novel opens, Holden stands poised on the cliff separating childhood from adulthood; his damaged innocence also leaves him poised on the brink of a nervous breakdown. Ackley - Holden's next-door neighbor in the dorm at Pencey Prep, a pimply, insecure boy with terrible dental hygiene. Ackley often barges into Holden's room and acts completely oblivious to Holden's hints that he should leave; he also makes up elaborate lies about his sexual experience. Stradlater - Holden's roommate. Stradlater is handsome, self- satisfied, and popular, but Holden calls him a "secret slob"--his razor, for instance, is disgustingly unclean. Stradlater is sexually mature and experienced for a Pencey boy, and utterly preoccupied with himself; he tends to assume everyone else is preoccupied with him, too. Jane Gallagher - Holden's former girlfriend, now dating Stradlater. Jane's summer house in Maine is next door to the Caulfields'. Jane never actually appears in The Catcher in the Rye, but she is extremely important to Holden--she is one of the few people who seem to understand and care about him, and is the only person with whom Holden feels comfortable discussing Allie's death. Jane's stepfather is an alcoholic, and their relationship is painful and strained. Phoebe - Holden's ten year-old sister. Holden loves Phoebe very dearly; even though she is six years younger, she tends to understand what he means, and he feels comfortable talking to her. Phoebe is intelligent, neat, and a wonderful dancer. Her childish innocence is one of Holden's only consistent sources of happiness throughout the novel. Allie - Holden's younger brother, who died of leukemia three years before the start of the novel. Allie was a brilliant, friendly, redheaded boy; Holden says he was the smartest of the 2006-07-18T12:49:35-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Characters-Summary-and-Analysis-of-Catcher-in-the-Rye-30345.aspx Main Characters in Cather in the Rye The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is an intriguing story. It contains marvelous character portraits, a psychological analysis of the process of growing up, and many more qualities. This book has many interesting characters and plot lines, which you will discover as you read along. The three main settings are Pencey Prep, D.B’s room, and the zoo. Pencey Prep is the high school that Holden has just been kicked out of. A few of the chapters take place here. D.B’s room is Holdens brother’s room, where after sneaking into his own house, Holden spends the night. At the zoo, Holden takes his sister Phoebe to the carousel and feels the happiest he has felt in a long time. The four main characters are Holden Caulfield, Phoebe Caulfield, Stradlater, and Robert Ackley. Holden Caulfield is a young teenager who is kicked out of Pencey High School because of his lack of motivation and he has failed several times. He avoids telling his parents that he failed and wanders the streets of New York. Phoebe Caulfield is Holden’s younger sister. Holden and her have a good relationship, and she does not want him to leave her. She is a symbol of happiness and joy for Holden. Stradlater is a good-looking athlete and the roommate of Holden at Pencey High School. Holden thinks that he is very annoying. Ackley is annoyed by everything, especially Stradlater, and does not like to be bothered. The plot consists of different settings, unique characters, and interesting ideas. The book starts out with Holden Caulfield just having been kicked out of Pencey Prep School because he fails his classes. To avoid telling his parents, he leaves Pencey without telling them and wanders the streets of New York, encountering new experiences. He meets Stradlater’s mother, a prostitute, and other women. Holden becomes very lonely and wishes to talk with his loving little sister, Phoebe. Holden leaves the streets of New York to sneak into his home and spend the night in his unused brother’s room. After he gives the news to Phoebe that he would like to move to the west, Phoebe is upset and gives Holden the silent treatment. Later, Holden takes Phoebe to visit the zoo. She is 2006-07-07T13:24:36-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Main-Characters-in-Cather-in-the-Rye-30090.aspx Analysis of Crucial Elements in Catcher in the Rye The Catcher in the Rye is an in depth allegory where characters and objects stand for larger and more profound things. In the novel, many human ideals are themed and represented. The protagonist, Holden Caulfield, encounters many different thoughts and principles that vary from person to person. The themes, motifs, and symbols here, play out to be like real life: nothing is perfect, and nothing is what it seems. One of the major themes in The Catcher in the Rye is alienation. Holden is excluded and victimized by the world that he lives in. He says he feels trapped on “the other side” of life. He strives to find means to protect himself. He makes himself unique and distinct from the rest of the world. Holden’s alienation causes most of his pain and problems. He never gets to the “root” of his problems and never addresses his emotions thoroughly. One quote that can be attributed to his feelings of alienation and loneliness is found in Chapter 6: “For Chrissake, Holden. This is about a goddam baseball glove.” (Stradlater) After Stradlater says this, we come to realize that he ridicules more than Holden’s paper, he unknowingly ridicules Holden’s deceased brother, Allie, the owner of the glove. This hurts Holden greatly, and adds the need for Holden to alienate himself from people. Isolation is also played out in The Catcher in the Rye. Holden often finds himself alone and without people to associate with. When he does associate with people, he seems to find that they are “phonies” and tries to find any means of ridding himself of these individuals. His loneliness compels him to go on a date with Salley Hayes, yet, his need to be alone, “to isolate himself,” leads him to be rude to her. Yet again, he gets what he wants: to be alone. “Childhood vs. Adulthood” is another major theme that is played out in The Catcher in the Rye. This novel is a bildungsroman; it is a novel about a young protagonist’s growth into maturity. Holden wants everything to be understandable and to last forever. He is frightened because he commits the same “sins” as others and he cannot get a better grasp of what to do to be different. 2006-07-02T17:33:15-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Analysis-of-Crucial-Elements-in-Catcher-in-the-Rye-29895.aspx Character Analysis of the Real Holden Caufield Who is Holden really??? A lousy, uninteresting phony? Or is he the most intelligent and cleverest person you ever met? Well… This question isn’t really easy to answer. Personally I think that he is a very intellectual human who unfortunately doesn’t know how to use his intellect and who is suffering from major mental problems. On the one side, he is this guy who tries to be cool and accepted by other people. However, on the other hand, he is this little lonely child who is seeking for someone who will comfort him and play with him. This essay will try to answer the question of who Holden really is and will try to explain the reasons for his abnormal behavior: Does he reveal his real face? The tough guy who is constantly using vulgar language or is he the weak fragile guy who cares about where the ducks go in winter? You have to try to see the truth behind all of the lies and contradictions to find out who Holden really is and who he wants to be. The next few paragraphs will explain all of this to you and make it clear to you that Holden actually is an intelligent young man who is very vulnerable and constantly on the search for recognition and love. Holden describes himself as a 16 year old boy who is obviously very unhappy and sees himself as the worst and useless member of his family. He talks about himself as having had a lousy childhood; however, he doesn’t want to discuss it because he is bored of everybody asking him such questions. What he actually means is that he is tired of life and practically hates almost everything about it. He doesn’t see much sense in life since everything seems to turn against him. It is quite unusual for a young person of his age to reflect on death so frequently. There are several passages in the book where he ponders about his own death. His only worry is “how he would look” once he was dead or who would come to his funeral. He compares these thoughts with his memories of the cemetery where his favorite brother is berried. One time he keeps discussing a situation of how is would be if somebody had shot him in his 2006-06-27T03:02:10-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Character-Analysis-of-the-Real-Holden-Caufield-29878.aspx The Importance of Family in Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield, interacts with many people throughout J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye, but probably none have as much impact on him as certain members of his immediate family. The ways Holden acts around or reacts to the various members of his family give the reader a direct view of Holden’s philosophy surrounding each member. How do Holden’s different opinions of his family compare and do his views constitute enough merit to be deemed truth? Holden makes reference to the word "phony" forty-four separate times throughout the novel (Corbett 68-73). Each time he seems to be referring to the subject of this metaphor as -- someone who discriminates against others, is a hypocrite about something, or has manifestations of conformity (Corbett 71). Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden describes and interacts with various members of his family. The way he talks about or to each gives you some idea of whether he thinks they are "phony" or normal. A few of his accounts make it more obvious than others to discover how he classifies each family member. From the very first page of the novel, Holden begins to refer to his parents as distant and generalizes both his father and mother frequently throughout his chronicle. One example is: "…my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything personal about them. They’re quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They’re nice and all – I’m not saying that – but they’re also touchy as hell" (Salinger 1). Holden’s father is a lawyer and therefore he considers him "phony" because he views his father’s occupation unswervingly as a parallel of his father’s personality. For example, when Holden is talking to Phoebe about what he wants to be when he grows up, he cannot answer her question and proceeds to give her his opinion about their father’s occupation.. ‘Lawyers are all right, I guess – but it doesn’t appeal to me,’ I said. ‘I mean they’re all right if they go around saving innocent guys’ lives all the time, and like that, but you don’t do that kind of stuff if you’re a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot-shot. How would you know you weren’t being 2006-06-26T18:04:04-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Importance-of-Family-in-Catcher-in-the-Rye-29859.aspx Entering Adulthood in "Catcher in the Rye" J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is the story of a sixteen-year-old boy named Holden Caulfield. He comes from quite a wealthy family, has attended several private preparatory schools, but has been expelled from all of them. In the beginning of the book, Christmas is drawing near, and Holden has been kicked out of Pencey Prep because he has failed most of his subjects. He does not want to tell his parents yet, so he decides not to go home until the beginning of the Christmas vacation. Instead, he spends three days in New York at a hotel. The whole story is about Holden's three days in New York where he desperately seeks contact. He wants to talk to someone about how he feels, so he tries to buy drinks for a taxi driver, talks to people on the train, calls his former girlfriend, and even pays for a prostitute, so she will talk to him. Nobody seems to understand him or why he feels the way he does. He has been having mental problems, particularly after his brother's death, and after his three days in New York, he has a nervous breakdown and has to go to a mental hospital. Actually, the whole story is a flashback because Holden is telling his story in the hospital. In The Catcher in the Rye, the writer uses first person narration so that it is Holden himself who is talking. Holden actually addresses the reader by saying things like “If you really want to hear about it...” and “I forgot to tell you about that” (Salinger 1). On his introduction page of The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger writes “To My Mother” as a dedication of the novel to his mother. His novel was first published on July 16, 1951. This novel originally sold for $3.00 a copy and was selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club (Whitfield 567). Two weeks after it was first printed, it had to be reprinted five times. In the next three months, it was reprinted three more times. According to Whitfield, His book stayed on the best-seller list for thirty weeks, though never above fourth place. Costing $0.75, the Bantam paperback edition appeared in 1964. By 1981, when the same 2006-06-26T15:22:33-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Entering-Adulthood-in-Catcher-in-the-Rye-29821.aspx Theme of Love Illustrated in Cather in the Rye The novel The Catcher in the Rye is about a young man named Holden Caulfield who is on a subconscious quest to find love. Holden attends a private school named Pency where he feels he does not fit in once again. Holden Caulfield is reliant on physical love, family love as well as friendship in order for him to feel accepted in society. Holden has a subconscious desire for physical love to make him feel a part of society. Holden hired a prostitute to help him get over his feelings of being alone and secluded from the rest of society. He had just left his school and was all alone so he needed a physical love to make him feel with it. Holden felt he had true love with Jane because they connected on such a compassionate level. When Stradlater took out Jane, Holden got very upset because Stradlater was known for ‘giving girls the time’ and Stradlater does not love Jane as much, if at all, like Holden does. Because Holden did not have a physical relationship with Jane, he feels like he cannot connect with Stradlater on a personal level since Stradlater got something Holden wanted. Jane used to hold Holden’s hand and put her hand on his neck, which made Holden feel very loved by her. So when Stradlater took Jane out Holden felt very secluded because Stradlater was taking Jane away from him. Holden took Sally out for the afternoon to go see a play. When the two of them got into the taxi to go to the theater Holden decided to do what Stradlater does. He decided to seduce sally into messing around with him by giving her no alternative just as Stradlater does. . This made Holden feel equal to Stradlater because he was also doing physical things with girls in the back of a car, just like what Holden presumes Stradlater and Jane did in the back of the coaches’ car. “We horsed around a little bit in the cab on the way over to the theater. At first she didn’t want to, because she had her lipstick on, and all, but I was being seductive as hell and she didn’t have any alternative.” (page 125) Holden shows that on a subconscious level he thinks receiving physical love will make him feel more accepted by 2006-06-16T14:29:33-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Theme-of-Love-Illustrated-in-Cather-in-the-Rye-29592.aspx The Value of Perspective in Catcher in the Rye The Catcher in the Rye is a first person narrative told through the eyes of the protagonist, Holden Caulfield. He begins his story in the style of a psychoanalytic project in which Caulfield will tell on his own terms. This limits the scope of the story to only what Holden wants to talk about. This, coupled with his mercurial changes of mood, his stubborn refusal to admit his own sensitive-ness and emotions, his cheerful disregard of what is sometimes known as reality—which is expected of an adolescent—lend him to be a suspect and unreliable. Further more, there is the issue of his mental instability revealed in his experiences. For example, after waking up in Grand Central, Holden wanders around sweaty and delusional. He explains, “Every time I’d get to the end of a block I’d make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I’d say to him, ‘Allie, don’t let me disappear. Allie, don’t let me disappear. Allie, don’t let me disappear. Please, Allie.’ And then when I’d reach the other side of the street without disappearing, I’d thank him” (p.257). This is a clear example of a psychotic episode because he is compulsively repeated the same phrase to someone who has been dead for four years in the book on a topic that doesn’t make any sense. This is what Holden refers to as “madman stuff,” so even he realizes that. Basically, Holden is a far more unreliable narrator than even Huck Finn, the compulsive liar. At the same time, the novel focuses on the narrator’s inner perceptions, solipsistic attitude, and alienation from the community; therefore, the work offers detailed insight into the protagonists’ deepest characteristics as oppose to reliable events of the plot. The point of view of the work shows the reader that the focal point of the story is Holden himself—a modern style. He engages the reader directly by address him or her. The second word in the novel is “you” for a reason. The structure of the text allows the reader to be intimate with the protagonist as if the two were having a conversation. In turn, the text can be seen as being a creation of the narrator itself. On this topic, critics often argue 2006-06-13T17:51:43-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Value-of-Perspective-in-Catcher-in-the-Rye-29420.aspx Adolescent Psychology of Holden Caufield from JD Salinger Adolescence is a complicated time in a person's life. Often, an adolescent does not know where they fit in. As an adolescent Holden Caufield is faced with the harshness and pressures of reality in growing up. A feeling of loneliness and alienation is what typical teenager’s face on their passage towards maturity. Holden Caufield’s psychological battle leads to his destruction amongst his relationships with other people but is really just typical teenage behavior which many feel is a “rite of passage” to maturity. Holden begins his struggle when he drops out of school for his low grades. When Holden decides he will move on with life and move out on his own, he encounters many problems with his relationships. When he decides to stay with his teacher, Mr. Spencer, for the night he comes across his unconcern for what he plans to do with his life. Mr. Spencer says to Holden, “Do you feel absolutely no concern for you future, boy?”(Salinger 14). Holden quickly responds with, “Sure I do”(Salinger 14), but when he thinks about it, he realizes he really does not have much concern. Holden seems like he does not care about where he is going or what he is doing. Holden ends up getting himself from Pencey to New York where he and his sister meet. While with his sister, he sees the little girl in her, so innocent to the world around her, that he thinks it is so depressing. Holden shows his love for Phoebe when he says, “You never saw a kid so pretty and smart in your whole life”(Stalinger 67). Holden feels deep compassion for his sister and tells her to do things he can not do, but later turns around and tells her not to do them. He can not keep strait thoughts and has trouble focussing and accepting true reality. Holden’s dirty and bad habits are typical of teenage behavior in that many teens don not care to be neat and clean. Holden drinks, smokes, swears, and has other nasty habits that don not seem to bother him. Holden drinks to escape the pressure he faces as an adolescent. When he try’s to meet new people at clubs, he always fails because of his behavior and rude remarks. Holden says to some blonde he 2006-06-01T02:16:21-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Adolescent-Psychology-of-Holden-Caufield-from-JD-Salinger-28966.aspx J.D. Salinger was, and still is, one of the most dynamical and effective writers of the 20th century. With his book, The Catcher in the Rye, he practices the essence of freedom of speech, and yet, also creating a lot of controversy in the Literature world. Our reactions to his book with censoring and harsh eschew reaction leads to only one question, why and what? Why did Salinger choose this style of expression and what was he trying to express. Both of these topics will be discussed in depth in this essay. The fact that, through the character Holden Caulfield, Salinger is portraying how people grow from youth to adults will also be discussed. Holden Caulfield, the seventeen-year-old narrator of this novel, addresses the reader directly from a mental hospital in California. He wants to tell the reader about the events that took place over a two-day period in New York. Holden, he first talks about his older brother, D.B., who was once a “terrific” short-story writer but now has sold out and writes scripts in Hollywood. The body of the novel follows. It is a long flashback, constructed through Holden’s memory. The entire story is basicly Holden looking back on his actions and reflecting on them. How he intereacted with everyone on his little rebelious adventure away from structure and adults and showing us how this played out. The Catcher in the Rye expressed through Caulfield, how young people grew to be adults in the author’s oppinion during its time of publication. One of Salinger’s ways of expression through his main character, Holden Caulfiled, is through Holden’s reflections on events. As Holden once said, "Certain things they 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. I know that's impossible, but it's too bad anyway" (Salinger 121). His reflections on change are very negative, showing through these, that he is at the state of imaturity in his life. He does not know yet, that change is going to happen, and you need to adapt in order to become an adult. Salinger’s method of using a different style than other popular, and more accepted more books for his time, is another way of expression. A critic, Phillip Roth details how “…the figure of the writer has lately come to be placed directly in the reader’s 2006-05-23T19:11:24-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Salinger’s-Method-of-Expression-28871.aspx Holden's Three Defining Characteristics In The Catcher in the Rye, main character Holden Caulfield displays three specific characteristics. In this paper I will be converse about how Holden very compassionate, needy and lonely. Holden shows many times in this book how he is needy, most of the time he tries to hide this trait but with some people Holden bares it all. Holden shows compassions while he watches his younger sister Phoebe go around on the Carousel, and he begins to cry. Lastly he is lonely, he never really seems to make many friends and he stays very attached to his dead brother throughout the whole book. Holden Caulfield try’s to show us during this book that he is very independent and strong, but if you really look at him as a true person you see that he is needy. The main thing that I see Holden as being needy towards is people. He loves to talk with people and is always trying to start up a conversation with some one. Even when the person he is talking to does not seem interested he goes on, and at great length. For example when he meets the three girls at the bar he continues to talk to them even thought they do not even look at him or answer any of the many questions he asks them. Holden being the sarcastic person he says, “You’re a very good conversationalist”(72) to one of the girls after he gets tired of her not answering any of his questions. There is one other thing that makes Holden needy and that is his brother Ally. Ally died when Holden was younger and he has never seemed to get over it. He often refers back to his brother talking about how he had his best times while in the company of Ally. Also when Phoebe asks Holden what he enjoys he replies “I like Ally”(171). This shows that he still relies on his brother even though he is dead. Continuing on to what I was saying in the previous chapter Holden’s attachment to Ally makes him lonely. Holden does not give people a chance. He is very critical and is always looking at the lesser qualities in people. He also loves his younger sister Phoebe and being that he attends boarding school he does not get to see her. An example of Holden being lonely is 2005-07-27T05:32:52-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Holden-s-Three-Defining-Characteristics-27408.aspx Fall From Innocence in The Catcher in the Rye In J.D. Salinger's , Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield goes through a fall from his innocence throughout his journey to his safe haven, home. One example of when Holden fell from his own innocence is when he is in the room with Phoebe and he can't name anything he likes. Holden reacts to this question by saying, "Boy, she was depressing me"(Salinger 169). The only three things he can name that he liked were Allie, James Castle, and sitting there chewing the fat with Phoebe. The reason this is a time when Holden falls is because he gets really depressed when he can barely think of anything he liked. The reason I think Holden gets so depressed is because two of the people he names are dead. That's why he is so lonely all the time. Holden finds things in common with Allie and James Castle and since they're both dead he feels, in the back of his mind, that he should also be dead which makes him depressed. Another example of a fall for Holden is when he realizes he can't erase even half the "fuck you's" in the world. This doesn't sound very important, but it is symbolic because he realizes that he can not be the catcher in the rye. His dream of shielding all the innocent children from society's harsh elements has been ruined by this one statement. Now because of this realization he comes to the conclusion that he can not shield everybody, not even half of everybody. An example of Holden trying to be the catcher in the rye is when Holden first sees the "fuck you" on the wall. Holden said, It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them- all cockeyed, naturally what it meant, and how they'd think about it even worry about it for a couple of days. I kept wanting to kill whoever'd written it.(Salinger 201) Holden's final fall comes when he is in the Egyptian Tomb in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When Holden is deep within the Egyptian Tomb he feels he is in a 2005-07-19T05:51:58-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Fall-From-Innocence-in-The-Catcher-in-the-Rye-27340.aspx Holden Critiques the Weaknesses of Society Holden attackes various weaknesses in our society. Many incidents in the novel portrayed Holden as a person with full of hate in society. He critiques everything that had happened to him, many of the situations that he has experienced come across in today’s society. His point of view on phonies; loosing a loved one; not remembering the true meaning of Christmas, are all the weaknesses in society. As we read further, we start to understand Holden’s reason for hating phoneys. The many people that Holden mentioned were phonies, one being Ackley. In chapter 3, Ackley told Holden, differently every time that he was suppose to have sex one summer. This is an example of the many people in society, lying and bragging about all kinds of things. More phonies were mentioned in this novel than pure and sincere people. Ones classified by Holden as pure and sincere are Jane, Phoebe, Mrs. Morrow and the nuns. Holden thinks that there are more phonies in society than people who are pure. This opinion is true to some and not to others and will remain controversial. Many people have lost a loved one, the way Holden is reacted is understandable. Loosing a loved one is the hardest to face for many families and friends. Leaving sadness and regret. Families, like Holden’s go through great changes, in which they must adapt to. It is hard to understand the meaning of life and death, this to Holden is impossible to accept. Keeping Allie’s baseball glove, mades him feel that Allie was still there with him, like many families who keep the belongings of their loved ones. The death of Allie resulted in Holden’s change, so to many others. People may feel bad for a long time but they have to except the fact and try to move on. Christmas is the favourite time of year. However, Christmas to Holden it’s nothing but depression because he knows what others think, people have forgot the real meaning of Christmas. Holden’s point of view is agreeable, people worry more about what to give to others and what to receive from others, that they tend to forget the real meaning of Christmas. Even though Holden critiques everything in life, however, he is still partially right about society. He revealed all the weaknesses in society. As a 16-year-old boy, he seems to understand the 2005-07-19T05:51:02-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Critique-of-Society-in-the-Catcher-in-the-Rye,-by-Holden-27339.aspx Moral Beliefs in the Catcher in the Rye Moral Beliefs are lessons about the right or wrong behaviour that is shown in a fable or event. Everyone has moral beliefs; it is hard to name them all or to even name any at all. However, situations in society help reveal and confront ones’ moral beliefs. Like Holden Caufield, in The Catcher in the Rye, conflicts and situations in society, forced him to confront his moral beliefs. The fight with Stratlater and Maurice, the confrontation of Mr. Antonlini and the many visits to the museum all were associated with Holden’s moral beliefs. Holden is a critic in society; he believes that the major weakness in society is the phoniness. He thinks everyone he knows or meets are phonies with the exception of Jane, Allie and Phoebe. When Holden heard that his phoney roommate, Stratlater was dating Jane, he thought of her all the time. She was one or the few people Holden thought was pure and innocent. Stratlater disliked the composition Holden wrote for him about his dead brother, Allie. Holden loved his brother he believed that he was pure, innocent and lucky that he would always be carefree and in his childhood state. Holden became furious when Stratlater disrespected what he thought were valuable and innocent. When the boys fought, Holden was fighting for his morals. Holden fears change in maturity. He believed that being an adult is hard, however he tries to be an adult by going to the lavender room and wanting to loose his virginity. However, he doesn’t succeed and doesn’t fit in. When Holden and Maurice fought, Holden just broke down and cried. He couldn’t handle the situation. That meant he wasn’t ready for adulthood after all. After the fight, Holden felt lonely and depressed, he started talking to Allie believing that he was near. At that point he wanted to escape adulthood by committing suicide. He thought that once one dies, they would never have to grow up, they’ll be carefree and maintain in their own state. Mr. Antonlini confronted Holden’s belief in death when he said that, “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is he wants to live humbly for one.” It wasn’t proven that Mr. Antonlini was a homosexual. However, Mr. Antonlini also revealed that Holden don’t 2005-07-19T05:50:23-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Moral-Beliefs-in-the-Catcher-in-the-Rye-27338.aspx J.D. Salinger's 1945 book, Catcher in the Rye, told to us by the main character Holden Caulfield, begins the night before he leaves Pencey Prep after being kicked out for not applying himself to any subject except composition. It's at least the second school that has kicked him out and he hopes to delay facing his parents' wrath by bumming around New York City for a few days until his family expects him for Christmas vacation. He's a tall, fairly handsome, very cynical, smoking teenager who is still a virgin and has no direction in life. His apathy probably has to do with his post-WW II world as much as the death of his much-beloved, younger brother, Allie. Holden's introduction sets the pace for the next 276 pages with 26 untitled chapters. Soon you realize that Catcher in the Rye is told with many flashbacks that relate in some way to his present situation, with events leading up to his termination at Pencey and memories of his interactions with his roommate, neighbor, his kid sister, a teacher and girls. He horses around and tries to engage the first two in conversation when they ignore him or try to sleep. It isn't until he learns who Stradlater is dating that he shows some real concern. Unable to stop worrying about this girl he knows well, Jane, Holden starts an ill-conceived, physical fight with Stradlater when he returns. All bloodied, Holden doesn't even clean up or stuff his nose, but forces an invitation from his neighbor to sleep in the bed of his gone-for-the-weekend roommate. It's not until Holden waits for the train to the city that he uses snow on his face. Throughout the book he keeps thinking fondly of this girl, wanting to call her only to fall out of the mood to do so. He also criticizes all movies now as stupid and forces himself to go to one alone while waiting to meet a snobbish friend in the city. He gets very little sleep, tries to get laid by a hooker, chickens out, tries to get drunk, tries to find out what happened to the ducks in Central Park now the water's frozen over. He provides a graphic picture of the eccentricities of people in the city as well as his own. The title, Catcher in the Rye, comes from his dream of being on the edge of 2005-05-28T07:29:08-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Catcher-in-the-Rye-Timeless-Masterpiece-26792.aspx The whole story is based around Holden Caufield. Holden is your typical rebellious teenager: naive, defiant, pessimistic and indifferent to what goes on around him. He does not care about doing well in school, as proven by his lack of effort in school and his expulsions from other schools. Basically, Holden is about to be expelled from his current school, so he embarks on a bit of an "adventure" to New York. And that's basically the plot. The plot may be a bit superficial on the outside, but the story is lengthened by the many encounters Holden has with various people at both school and in different places in New York. This range from meeting two nuns to talking to an elevator man to a prostitute. The list is endless. These encounters are not of any significant importance, but are merely used to develop Holden's character. As time passes by, Holden becomes more depressed and more pessimistic. He also becomes more indifferent towards life, wasting money on hotels, a prostitute, a record, cabs, drinks. As a teenager, I could envisage myself in many of the encounters Holden was faced with. I am not saying that I am a rebellious kid, but I am just saying that I can imagine myself being in a one-on-one situation with a teacher telling me how bad a certain piece of homework was (Holden is faced with a situation with an old history teacher, who was saddened by Holden's 10 line history essay on the Egyptians). At one point in life, I also felt the similar negative, "I don't care" attitude I was faced with earlier in my life. However, I felt the realism of this part of teenage life is the humor of the whole story. The way Holden goes on about people, and adding the word "old" before every person's name always cracks me up. The way Holden picks up on all the negative aspects of the people he knows is something that I can only laugh at. The subtleties of Holden's life in the story is where all the humor is in this story. Throughout the story, Salinger grabs the teenage mentality perfectly. He really does capture the teenage depression mode experienced by most teenagers and the language he uses throughout the book is authentic. This is evident from some of the phrases Holden uses. Holden always uses the phrase "that killed 2005-05-28T07:27:47-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Plot-Summary-of-The-Catcher-in-the-Rye-26791.aspx In J.D. Salinger's brilliant coming-of-age novel, Holden Caulfield, a seventeen year old prep school adolescent relates his lonely, life-changing twenty-four hour stay in New York City as he experiences the phoniness of the adult world while attempting to deal with the death of his younger brother, an overwhelming compulsion to lie and troubling sexual experiences. Salinger, whose characters are among the best and most developed in all of literature has captured the eternal angst of growing into adulthood in the person of Holden Caulfield. Anyone who has reached the age of sixteen will be able to identify with this unique and yet universal character, for Holden contains bits and pieces of all of us. It is for this very reason that The Catcher in the Rye has become one of the most beloved and enduring works in world literature. As always, Salinger's writing is so brilliant, his characters so real, that he need not employ artifice of any kind. This is a study of the complex problems haunting all adolescents as they mature into adulthood and Salinger wisely chooses to keep his narrative and prose straightforward and simple. This is not to say that The Catcher in the Rye is a straightforward and simple book. It is anything but. In it we are privy to Salinger's genius and originality in portraying universal problems in a unique manner. The Catcher in the Rye is a book that can be loved and understood on many different levels of comprehension and each reader who experiences it will come away with a fresh view of the world in which they live. A work of true genius, images of a catcher in the rye are abundantly apparent throughout this book. While analyzing the city raging about him, Holden's attention is captured by a child walking in the street "singing and humming." Realizing that the child is singing the familiar refrain, "If a body meet a body, comin' through the rye," Holden, himself, says that he feels "not so depressed." The title's words, however, are more than just a pretty ditty that Holden happens to like. In the stroke of pure genius that is Salinger, himself, he wisely sums up the book's theme in its title. When Holden, whose past has been traumatic, to say the least, is questioned by his younger sister, Phoebe, regarding what he would like to do when he gets older, Holden replies, "Anyway, I keep picturing all these 2005-05-28T07:20:41-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Catcher-in-the-Rye-Look-at-a-Universal-Problem-26789.aspx The Catcher in the Rye: An Innocence Lost The Catcher in the Rye is a book by J. D. Salinger and the story of a boy named Holden Caufield. He is no longer innocent, but exposed to the world. Phoebe, Holden's sister, is the opposite she is quite the innocent, never really being exposed to the world outside her protective bubble. Holden wants to protect such precious innocence only found in the children as a guardian of the innocent a catcher in the rye. The Catcher in the Rye is fundamentally a book about innocence. This book shows people of two different parties, the innocent (not tainted by the world) and the experienced (both good and evil), in their daily life and work. These innocents include Sally Hayes and Phoebe. Sally belies the world is a big party (or a social occasion), everyone likes her, and that the fun will never end. Phoebe, Holden's younger sister, is innocent just not quite as naive as Sally. It is clear that she is young and innocent, because of the odd things she does like constantly changing her middle name or paying for belching lessons, this she states towards the end of their conversation. One who is harden by and to the world would not take lessons in belching. A catcher in the rye is a defender or a guardian of the innocent. The idea and the name are purely symbolic. The meaning is as the children are running thorough the rye they do not see the cliffs ahead and the plummet they will make. When they make this "fall" they lose their child-like innocence. This fall could be related to a moral dilemma like maybe the city in the raw. Where he/she would be exposed to prostitution, drunkenness, and maybe drugs. Holden Caufield sees himself ruined and tainted by the world. He has failed out of school, drinks, and smokes. His attitude is it is too late for me. But, there is a ray of hope in his life; he feels it is his duty to save other children from the world as a catcher in the rye. He talks to people about his ideas, people like Carl Luce. Carl just blows it off. Holden truly believes his calling in life is to 2005-05-27T06:01:48-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/The-Catcher-in-the-Rye-An-Innocence-Lost-26770.aspx Catcher In The Rye In the novel, The Catcher In The Rye, by J. D. Salinger, phonies play a grand role as one of the major themes of the novel. Webster's Dictionary defines a phony as, "a person who is not what he pretends to be." There are many examples of phonies in the novel, such as Sally Hayes, Stradlater, and even Holden Caulfield. Holden appears to be the biggest phonie of them all. Holden Caulfield is by far the king of all the phonies mentioned in the novel, The Catcher In The Rye, for he lies, is a hypocrite, and adjust his outside image. Being a liar is one form of deceiving the world of what you truly are, and this is one thing that Holden Caulfield isn't even shy about doing, nor admitting to. He uses lies to deceives his true intentions from those around him, this is shown while leaving Pencey Prep on the train and encountering the mother of Ernest Morrow. " It's me [Holden]. I have to have this operation... It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain." (Salinger, 58). In reality Holden was not going to New York to have a tumor taken out of his brain, but he was really going on a little vacation from everything. Although it was none of Mrs. Morrow's business to know where Holden was going, he chosee to deceive her of the truth, and received her pity because of the situation he described to her. He wanted her pity but he knew in order to receive it he would have to change his reality in order to earn it. Holden pretends to be sick, while he was in reality healthy. From that he ends up being a fake ill person. Holden also appears to use lying to protect his phoniness in another way. This is shown when Maurice asked him if he wants a girl sent up to his room. " I was already sort of sorry I'd let the thing start rolling, but it was too late now." (Salinger, 91). Before the final arrangements had been made for a girl to be sent up to Holden's hotel room, he wanted to back out. Instead he kept on going with the arrangements with Maurice. Yet again, Holden Caulfield deceived the world of what he truly 2005-02-20T05:32:56-05:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Holden-Caulfield-is-a-Liar-Catcher-In-The-Rye-Character-26273.aspx Holden Caulfield, portrayed in the J.D. Salinger novel Catcher in the Rye as an adolescent struggling to find his own identity, possesses many characteristics that easily link him to the typical teenager living today. The fact that they book was written more than forty years ago clearly exemplifies the saying "boys will be boys…" no matter what period of time is taking place. Holden's actions are those that any teenage can clearly relate with. The desire for independence, the sexually related encounters, the questioning of one's religion, the individual view of the world as a whole, the language, and dealing with teenage pressures such as drinking and smoking are issues that almost all teens have had or will have to deal with in their adolescent years. Thusly, this novel and its main character's experiences can easily be related to and will forever link Holden with every member of society, because everyone was or will be a teen. The first and most obvious characteristic found in most teens, including Holden, would be the desire for independence. Throughout the novel, Holden is not once wishing to have his parents help in any way. He has practically lived his entire life in dorms at prestigious schools, and has learned quite well how to be on his own. "This tendency of teenagers took place even in ancient history, where the freshly developed teen opts to leave the cave and hunt for his own food" (Kegel 54). Every teenager tries, in his or her own way, to be independent. Instead of admitting to one's parents of a wrongful deed, the teen tries covering up the mistake or avoiding it in hopes that they won't get in any Bailey 2 trouble. They feel that they have enough intelligence to think through a problem without going to their parents for assistance. When Holden hears the news that he has been expelled from Pency, he concludes that his parents would not know of this for a few days. Therefore, he would wait from Saturday until Wednesday, to let his parents "get it and thoroughly digest it" (25) and then face the consequences, which will more than likely be less severe after his parents calmed down. He states, "I didn't want to be around when they first got it. My mother gets very hysterical. She's not too bad after she gets something thoroughly digested, though" (51). In taking the 2004-07-05T09:18:28-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Catcher-in-the-Rye-Boys-Will-Be-Boys-25319.aspx The Catcher in the Rye has truly earned it's place among great classic works. J. D. Salinger created a literary piece that was completely unique. The entire novel was written in the first person view of the 17-year-old, Holden Caulfield. The majority of the story is compiled of Holden's rudimentary monologue of 'complexly simple' thoughts, the rest utilizing his relay of previous dialogue. That and the use of unique punctuation, digressing explanations, and complex characterization, transformed the simple plot into the complex literary classic. The novel's dialogue and monologue alike, manage to relay the feel of natural speaking such as: "I mean you'd be different in some way - I can't explain what I mean." The contractions; you'd and can't - since they are common in everyday language - establish a very common and simple tone. Stress on the first syllable of "different," reinforces the tone by demonstrating how typically they speak, just as in reality. He uses dashes for pauses and signaling associative digressions. Instead of signaling pauses, commas are used mostly where mechanically required, for instance: "So all of a sudden, I ran like a madman across the street - I damn near got myself killed doing it, if you want to know the truth - and went in this stationary store and bought a pad and pencil." Holden Caulfield creates a thought provoking point of view. On the surface many of his thought patterns seem unrelated and straying from the topic. His association of topic with digression is used almost constantly throughout the novel. However, realizing that these digressions are very relevant and even crucial to the topic allow the reader to gain true insight to the character. His statements about his sister's intelligence, followed by explanations of how well she listens, reveals Holden's associations of intelligence with being quiet and observant. Another example would be his tension around the nuns. Even though he enjoyed the conversation, he worried about being asked if he was Catholic. He stated they "...would have liked it better if he were Catholic." This gives insight to his discomfort with being judged morally, and to his association of people of morals looking down on those who don't share them. In Holden's descriptions and thoughts, Salinger accomplished the most unique aspect of the story's point-of-view. Instead of using the popular - however overrated - style of well refined thoughts and flowery descriptions, Salinger describes things as they are perceived 2004-07-05T09:17:47-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Catcher-in-the-Rye-Through-Holden-s-Eyes-25318.aspx Jerome David Salinger, born in New York City on January 1, 1919, may not have written many novels in which he is recognized for. Although, he did write one novel, which brought him fame. In many of Salinger's short stories and especially his most well-known novel he writes about how the main character falls from his or her own innocence then rises to face their challenges. In J.D. Salinger's , Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield goes through a fall from his innocence throughout his journey to his safe haven, home. One example of when Holden fell from his own innocence is when he is in the room with Phoebe and he can't name anything he likes. Holden reacts to this question by saying, "Boy, she was depressing me"(Salinger 169). The only three things he can name that he liked were Allie, James Castle, and sitting there chewing the fat with Phoebe. The reason this is a time when Holden falls is because he gets really depressed when he can barely think of anything he liked. The reason I think Holden gets so depressed is because two of the people he names are dead. That's why he is so lonely all the time. Holden finds things in common with Allie and James Castle and since they're both dead he feels, in the back of his mind, that he should also be dead which makes him depressed. Another example of a fall for Holden is when he realizes he can't erase even half the "fuck you's" in the world. This doesn't sound very important, but it is symbolic because he realizes that he can not be the catcher in the rye. His dream of shielding all the innocent children from society's harsh elements has been ruined by this one statement. Now because of this realization he comes to the conclusion that he can not shield everybody, not even half of everybody. An example of Holden trying to be the catcher in the rye is when Holden first sees the "fuck you" on the wall. Holden said, "It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them- all cockeyed, naturally what it meant, and how they'd think about it even worry about it for a couple of days. 2004-07-05T09:16:19-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Catcher-in-the-Rye-Fall-of-Innocence-25317.aspx Catcher In The Rye The Catcher in the Rye can be strongly considered as one of the greatest novels of all time and Holden Caufield distinguishes himself as one of the greatest and most diverse characters. His moral system and his sense of justice force him to detect horrifying flaws in the society in which he lives. However, this is not his principle difficulty. His principle difficulty is not that he is a rebel, or a coward, nor that he hates society, it is that he has had many experiences and he remembers everything. Salinger indicates this through Holden's confusion of time throughout the novel. Experiences at Whooten, Pency, and Elkton Hills combine and no levels of time separate them. This causes Holden to end the novel missing everyone and every experience. He remembers all the good and bad, until distinctions between the two disappear. Holden believes throughout the novel that certain things should stay the same. Holden becomes a character portrayed by Salinger that disagrees with things changing. He wants to retain everything, in short he wants everything to always remain the same, and when changes occur; Holden reacts. However the most important aspect of Holden Caufield's character can be attributed to his judgment of people. Holden Caufield, a character who always jumps to conclusions about people and their phoniness, can be labeled as a hypocrite because he exemplifies a phony himself. Holden Caufield the 16 year old protagonist and main character of The Catcher in the Rye narrates the story and explains all the events throughout three influential days of his life. A prep school student who has just been kicked out of his second school, Holden struggles to find the right path into adulthood. He does not know what road to follow and he uses others as the scapegoat for his puzzlement in life. Harold Bloom explains, His central dilemma is that he wants to retain a child's innocence., but because of biology he must move either into adulthood or madness. As a sort of compromise Holden imagines himself as "the catcher in the rye," a protector of childhood innocence exempt from movement into adulthood, which is neither possible nor sane." (Bloom's Notes 22) Even Gerald Rosen states that, "It is important to note here that Holden's rejection of an adult role is not a case of sour grapes. He believes he will succeed and it is the successful 2004-07-04T20:12:03-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Catcher-in-the-Rye-Character-Analysis-25255.aspx In JD Salingers' Catcher in the Rye, a troubled teenager named Holden Caufield struggles with the fact that everyone has to grow up. The book gets its title from Holden's constant concern with the loss of innocence. He did not want children to grow up because he felt that adults are corrupt. This is seen when Holden tries to erase naughty words from the walls of an elementary school where his younger sister Phoebe attended. "While I was sitting down, I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody'd written 'Fuck you' on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them- all cockeyed, naturally- what it meant, and how they'd all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days. I kept wanting to kill whoever'd written it. I figured it was some perverty bum that'd sneaked in the school late at night to take a leak or something and then wrote it on the wall. I kept picturing myself catching him at it, and how I'd smash his head on the stone steps till hew as good and goddam dead and bloody." (201) His deep concern with impeccability caused him to create stereotypes of a hooligan that would try to corrupt the children of an elementary school. Holden believed that children were innocent because they viewed the world and society without any bias. When Phoebe asked him to name something that he would like to be when he grew up, the only thing he would have liked to be was a "catcher in the rye." He invented an illusion for himself of a strange fantasy. He stated that he would like to follow a poem by Robert Burns: "If a body catch a body comin' through the rye." He kept "picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around- nobody big, I mean- except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff- I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out 2004-06-14T05:34:18-04:00 http://75.150.148.189/free-essay/Catcher-in-the-Rye-Loss-of-Innocence-25173.aspx