...The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move. . . . Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you. This passage, in which Holden explains why he loves the Museum of Natural History, is located in Chapter 16. Killing time before his date with Sally, Holden decides to walk from Central Park to the Museum of Natural History. Along the way, he remembers in detail his school trips to the museum. Holden has already demonstrated that he fears and does not know how to deal with conflict, confusion, and change. The museum presents him with a vision of life he can understand: it is frozen, silent, and always the same. Holden can think about and judge the Eskimo in the display case, but the Eskimo will never judge him back. It troubles him that he has changed each time he returns, while the museum’s displays remain completely the same. They represent the simple, idealistic, manageable vision of life that Holden wishes he could live. It is significant that in the final sentence Holden uses the second-person pronoun “you” instead of the first-person “me.” It seems to be an attempt to distance himself from the inevitable process of change. But the impossibility of such a fantasy is the tragedy of Holden’s situation: rather than face the challenges around him, he retreats to a fantasy world of his own making. When he actually gets to the museum, he decides not to go in; that would require disturbing...
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...• We know Holden’s in California and that he’s using a flashback to talk about something significant in his life before he gets “run-down”, which might be interpreted as a mental or emotional breakdown. • Holden hates artificiality. But does he like Selma only because she rejects her father’s power? Or does he like her because she’s kind of plain but still pretty? We know Holden was invited to leave school due to his awful academic performance. To add on, because he was the manager we can infer that he doesn’t actually have the talent to be on the team. He says “goddam” in a way that makes it sound more important and yet his importance is jeopardized when he leaves the equipment on the subway. He changes the topic so fast that as a reader we are able to see how he is hurting. Although Dr. Thurmer explains that life is a game, Holden disagrees with him and believes differently. Holden believes that life is never a game and he is very serious about life. He disagrees with the rules set by others. By definition we know an exhibitionist is a person who behaves in ways intended to obtain attention. Holden tells this to the reader alone but it serves to shoe how much attention he craves. He wants to amuse and interest people, sort of like his hunting hat that he wears proudly. He is thirst-quenching audience, may or may not be because he has no real friends. Holden’s first instinct is to throw the snowball however he doesn’t want to disrupt the purity and beauty of the scenery...
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...Sudesh Amyan Mr.Taylor ENG 3U1 05/14/12 Dealing with Change Everybody has a hard time dealing with change. It’s no joke. Some go to the extreme to try and not make things change; others just cannot accept that it happened, while some people choose not to move on from it. In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye the main character Holden Caulfield, a troubled young man, is going through a tough time in life where everything is moving so quickly. He cannot accept the fact that he is becoming an adult and needs to start behaving as well as act like one. He constantly wants to be treated like an adult, but never acts like one. The reason for this is because he does not want to let go of his childhood. Dealing with change has been the issue he cannot seem to conquer. There are various images, symbols, and motifs that Salinger used in the novel that helps the reader realize that Holden is going through a tough time in life and cannot handle the fast paced. Overall the main problem with Holden is his trouble with dealing with change. There are many images in the book that Salinger used to make the reader come to a conclusion that Holden is having a hard time dealing with change. The movie theater, the museum, and the carrousel are just a few that were used in the novel. The movie theater is a strong image because basically that is the place where Holden goes to get away from everything. The movie theater is a place where he can escape reality and just relax from the fast paced...
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...Jermaine Lamarr Cole, American hip-hop artist and record producer, better known as J. Cole, once said, “Love isn’t complicated, people are.” Love is often unexpected, and many times catches people off guard. Love itself does not complicate situations, but rather the human reaction to the idea of love provokes chaotic circumstances. For Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, he finds himself struggling to understand the concept of love. As various women figures appear in his life, Caulfield, unknowingly and immaturely, acts upon his feelings of love. As a 16 year-old kicked out of yet another prestigious private school, Holden roams the streets of New York City to avoid the lectures awaiting at home. He...
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...Women/ Sex “She wouldn't move any of her kings. What she’d do, when she’d get a king, she wouldn’t move it. She’d just leave it in the back row. She’d get them all lined up in the back row. Then she’d never use them. She just liked the way they looked when they were all in the back row (Salinger, 36).” “I was getting sort of nervous all of a sudden. I’m quite a nervous guy (Salinger, 39).” Jane represents innocence, purity, and Holden’s idealistic and unrealistic view of her. His perspective of her femininity is shattered when Stradlater reveals they are going out together which would explain why he is suddenly nervous. Holden is not just nervous because he’s “a nervous guy” but because Jane is not the same innocent child she used to be. He wants to keep her protected from corruption which would explain why he later attacks Stradlater. This relates to the theme of women/ sex because it reveals how sex play a part in the novel. To some, such as Stradlater, women and sex are trivial matters. However, to Holden, he seems to cherish women more. Childhood/ Growing Up “We all started horsing around all over the place. It was very childish, but everyone was really enjoying themselves (Salinger, 40).” “I felt like getting off the washbowl and getting old Stradlater in a half nelson. That’s a wrestling hold, in case you didn’t know, where you get the other guy around the neck and choke him to death, if you feel like it. So I did it. I landed him like a goddam panther (Salinger...
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...Within Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, evidenced by Holden’s happiness, Holden begins his path to maturity when he accepts the Phoebe is “reaching for maturity” on the carousel, realizing that he needs to mentally heal and mature. Not being able to see everything good happening around us is common in our everyday life. We get used to the privileges, and we tunnel-vision in on the negatives of the world and yearn for escape. Holden, depressed and fantastical, grasps at the hopes for escape in the first three quarters of The Catcher in the Rye. The lack of the carousel symbol within the book before Holden’s change represent how he shied away from his journey to maturity. There are some major reasons as to why he shies away from maturity:...
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...“I act quite young for my age sometimes. I was sixteen then, and I'm seventeen now, and sometimes I act like I'm about thirteen.” (Salinger 9). In the novel “The Catcher in the Rye” the main character Holden Caulfield struggles between acting like an adult and acting like a child. Whether he’s out avoiding all of his problems or he’s trying to get a waiter to bring him an alcoholic drink even though he is under age, Holden acted like a child. Holden is seventeen during the time he is telling us about the things he did when he was sixteen and throughout the whole novel he is continuously doing childish things. In chapter six when his roommate, Stradlater, had come home from his date with Jane, Holden was purposely trying to annoy Stradlater by calling him a moron. He knew Stradlater did not like being called a moron so he said it as a sort of defense, not only did he start calling names but he also tried to bunch Stradlater. Holden resorted to calling names and physical contact when he could have just as easily told Stradlater that he did not like the idea of him going out with Jane....
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...Early carousels of 19th century America were advertised as highly recommended by physicians as an aid in circulating the blood. This made the ride fun and beneficial for all ages. Carousels became extremely popular around this time, and although there were many around America, one of the most well known machines was in Holden Caulfield's, the protagonist in Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, hometown, New York. During the carousel scene, Holden ventures away from childhood to adulthood, and comes to many realizations about himself and others, especially acknowledging that becoming an adult is not a bad thing, but a new experience. Prior to the carousel scene Holden is lost, confused, and feels alone. Holden is walking down...
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...Memory (noun) -- the capability to preserve and think about events or information that occurred in the past. A memory can be a two way street, it can either be favorable or atrocious depending on the impact that the event had. Elie Wiesel -- now a Nobel-Prize winning author, humanities professor, and Judaic studies professor at schools such as NYU, Boston University, and City University. Wiesel resided in Romania during the Holocaust and was sent to Auschwitz in Poland. Luckily, he and two of his sisters survived this traumatic experience, but, they will forever have the malicious, knavish, and despicable memories forever. Holden Caulfield, the main character of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, does not reveal much information about...
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...However, Holden gives out a very paradoxical message, because his actions do not always reflect his thoughts. This paradox can be exemplified when Holden illustrates to Sally the perfectly conformed life that they could live stereotypically based on the gender roles in society at the time (Catcher 147-148). Holden explains that they can “[ride] to work in cabs and Madison Avenue buses, and [read] newspapers, and [play] bridge all the time, and [go] to moves and [see] a lot of stupid shorts and coming attractions and newsreels” (Catcher 148). As exemplified in the quote, Holden’s internal conflict is never truly resolved due to the lack of a solid resolution. He struggles maintain the unique exterior façade he has created to mask the truly normal problems he faces in his life. Holden does not fit the societal definition of the high-class teenager many assume him to be. Presumably, he is articling his story in a mental health home subsequent to his time in New York. Holden at many times embodies the opposite of his societal...
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...Maturity can be defined as the state of being mentally and emotionally well-developed, and therefore responsible. The Catcher in the Rye is a novel about a teenager named Holden Caulfield who is depressed and lonely, and wanders New York City in hopes of his problems going away. Holden starts off as an immature teenager who ignores his problems instead of facing them, he deals with having depression because of the events that had a huge impact on his life, and struggles to find himself, but by the end of the novel he matures. One of the examples of how Holden matures is how he let’s go of keeping children from adulthood. In addition, he no longer wants to save children from growing up. A quote that Holden says in a very sophisticated manner is one of a couple of supporting reasons to his dream of keeping children from adulthood. On page 211, “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything.”. Another quote that is said by Holden is also on...
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...In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, the setting changes as quickly as Holden’s indecisiveness and mood. The beginning of the novel takes place in a residence that the reader will later assume to be a type of psychiatric ward or mental institution. This is where the majority of the novel is told from Holden’s memories, a stream of consciousness that makes the story jump to different settings in the book. First introduced from Holden’s memories is when he is on top of a hill overlooking his school that he refers to as Pencey Prep, where he is viewing a football game. Holden then runs to his ill teacher’s home to discuss his flunking out of school. After an unpleasant farewell, Holden returns to his dormitory in the Ossenburger Memorial wing of the school back at Pencey. Two friends of...
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...Holden is drawn to the Museum of Natural History, because of the feelings he got from the people that worked there, the consistency from how nothing would change, and how it used his ideals, making it a place of comfort for him. On Holden’s way back home, he encounters a little kid and asks where his sister would be, and the kid replies that she is probably at the Museum of Natural History. This makes Holden nostalgic because the Museum of Natural History was one of the only places he genuinely appreciated, but couldn’t go anymore because he attends (attended) a boarding school. He recalls his time going to the museum, and is reminded of what he likes about the place. “The floor was all stone, and of you had some marbles in your hand and you dropped them, they bounced like madmen all over the floor and made a helluva racket… She never got sore though, Miss Aigletinger...if you touched one of the paddles or anything while you were passing, one of the guards would say to you, “Don’t touch anything, children,” but he always said it in a nice voice, not like a goddam cop or anything.” (156-157) About dropping the marbles and making a “helluva racket,” is just something that kids are going to do, and you are not going to be able to stop them. What Holden acknowledges about the guard, is that he is not trying to boss you around in a scruff voice and tell you what to do (which Holden despises), but says, “Don’t touch anything, children,” in a “nice voice” which Holden appreciates because...
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...What is family? According to the New York Times family are the people who are a part of your daily life or part of your household members have loving and caring toward you. Holden is part of the Caulfield family filled with Mom, Dad, Phoebe (sister), D.B (brother) and his dead brother Allie. Salinger leads us through a few days in Holden’s head, giving us insight on all of Holden’s thoughts and ideas. Salinger writes and describes Holden so that it is easy to get a good image of who he is. Throughout the novel, he talks about family and how it has affected him. Every part of his memory shows how much he cares, loves and supports them. J.D Salinger through the novel, The Cather in the Rye, was trying to teach his readers that family is an inextricable...
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...Adolescence is a time of development, often characterized by a desire to understand society while struggling to leave childhood. Holden Caulfield is a troubled character who regularly finds conflict with others and himself during adolescence. In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger argues that Holden struggles to complete the transition from childhood to adulthood, yet never fully completes that transition. This is displayed through his childish behavior, immature language, and enduring symbols. Salinger uses Holden’s childish character to display his attachment to childhood. Holden is expelled at every school that he goes to, which in turn creates a negative feeling towards education. Despite Penceys reputation for molding boys into men,...
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