...“The Catcher in the Rye” is written by J.D Salinger which focuses on the reality of life through the eyes of a teenager who sees the world as a painful existence. The novel is written from the perspective of Holden who has been expelled from his fourth school. After a fight with his roommate, Holden leaves early to explore New York City alone. Holden battles with the reality of adulthood that has turn a different turn on his life. We get to this stage where we fear to grow up and see what will be coming for us next in the future. Salinger’s novel clearly displays the experience of being isolated from multiple activities which can lead to the theme of alienation, the creation of the character (Holden) and also the symbolism which can be unnoticed. Salinger tries to convey a message with his writing to also displaying human connection is a must. The theme of “The Catcher in the Rye” is alienation which connects to Holden (the protagonist)...
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...‘THE CATCHER IN THE RYE’ AND ‘IGBY GOES DOWN’ – NON-CONFORMITY Both J.D Salinger’s 1951 Bildungsroman novel The Catcher in the Rye and Burr Steer’s film Igby Goes Down, demonstrate that regardless of context, the youth will choose not to conform to socially held values. We can see that this is the manifestation of the vulnerability and hesitation experienced as adolescents like us grow up. Ultimately both these texts explore the search for identity and individualism as a cause for non-conformity. The Catcher in the Rye was written during a post war era and a time of drastic social change. However, many of its conservative values remained and most importantly, the notion of youth conformity was held in high regard. On the other hand, Igby Goes Down is set in the 1980s -1990’s American era, a time of expanding multi national corporations, materialism and commercialism. Salinger and Steers utilise the characterisation of their young, sardonic and rebellious protagonists, Holden and Igby to epitomise non-conformity. The composers allude to the recurring theme of isolation and alienation in both texts. As a result of their non-conformity, the protagonists experience rejection and depression as they search for their selfhood. Similarly, the national ethos of the American Dream is explored as a mere fallacy, and both composers portray this through their protagonist’s wealthy backgrounds and opulent upbringings and yet money doesn’t bring them happiness. Salinger, through literary...
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...Asian Social Science May, 2009 An Analysis of the Adolescent Problems in The Catcher in the Rye Lingdi Chen Dept. of Foreign Languages, Dezhou University Daxue xi Road, Dezhou 253023, China E-mail: chld1973@126.com Abstract The Catcher in the Rye was written by famous American writer J.D.Salinger. This paper mainly analyzes the adolescent problems Holden Caulfield confronts on the journey from childhood to adulthood. These adolescent problems include Holden’s protection of innocence, his disgust for the phoniness of the adult world, and his alienation from society. This paper concludes that these adolescent problems produce great impact on him. Holden behaves almost erratically and impulsively and has negative attitudes towards almost everything and everyone he meets. Keywords: Adolescent problems, Innocence, Phoniness, Alienation 1. Introduction The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger’s masterpiece, tells the painful story of a high-school boy growing up in the world of decadent New York. Young Holden Caulfield is expelled from school because of his poor academic performance. He is afraid to meet his parents earlier than they should expect him, so he decides to stay in a New York City hotel. There he meets pimps, prostitutes and “queers.” Soon he becomes aware that the world of adults is a “phony” one. After his meeting with a friend, Holden sneaks back home to see his kid sister Phoebe. She is a loving kid, but her talk about their father “killing” him sickens...
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... Donnie Darko and The Catcher in the Rye Comparative Essay: The Transition into the Adult World When one’s views contrast with those of society’s, a societal phenomenon of alienation occurs. Both, J.D Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, and director Richard Kelly’s film, Donnie Darko, emphasise this estrangement by contextually presenting protagonists who suggest that teen discordance is universal due to their opposing collective perspectives. The book, The Catcher in the Rye, is about a young-adult’s three-day experience living in New York city after being kicked out of his school. The narrator, Holden Caulfield, recounts his experiences and interactions within those three days through thorough analyzation. The film, Donnie Darko, is about a teen, Donnie Darko, who is supernaturally transported to a tangent universe, guided by a ghost, Frank, in which his actions determine the future of the normal universe. In both the book and the novel, the ironic nature of societal seclusion being self-inflicted shown through the rejection of society by the protagonists themselves, both works are able to reinforce the universality of teen discord. Although there is trust to be found in adults, superficiality is present in the mass majority of the adult society. This phoniness amongst adults is present in both the book and the movie ultimately which contributes to the prevalence of distrust amongst the adolescent protagonists. Their self-instigated alienation and hypocritical fallacies...
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...The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. Originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage angst and alienation. It has been translated into almost all of the world's major languages. Around 250,000 copies are sold each year with total sales of more than 65 million books. The novel's protagonist Holden Caulfield has become an icon for teenage rebellion. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923, and it was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2003, it was listed at number 15 on the BBC's survey The Big Read. The novel also deals with complex issues of identity, belonging, connection, and alienation. Plot summary Holden begins his story at Pencey Prep, an exclusive private school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania, on the Saturday afternoon of the traditional football game with rival school Saxon Hall. Holden misses the game. As manager of the fencing team, he loses their equipment on a New York City subway train that morning, resulting in the cancellation of a match. He goes to the home of his History teacher named Mr. Spencer. Holden has been expelled and is not to return after Christmas break, which begins the following Wednesday. Spencer is a well-meaning but long-winded middle-aged man. To Holden's annoyance, Spencer reads aloud Holden's History paper, in which Holden...
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...Caulfield's “Catcher in the Rye” Fantasy Growing up, we have all experienced a particular desire to achieve something; an ambitious state of mind that gives us meaning to life. Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, has a primary ambition - to become the Catcher in the Rye – the protector of the young and innocent, as stated in his conversation with Phoebe (Salinger, 191). Completely imaginary and a hopeless fantasy, this passage underscores what is prevalent throughout the novel - the issue of Holden's black and white perspective on the dark, phony world of adulthood juxtaposed with the light, innocent, world of childhood. The important passage contributes to Holden's clinical depression as a result of his beloved brother's death, therefore his cynical view of adulthood, and his anxiety about growing up, resulting in the overall angst and alienation palpable throughout the novel, leading to his eventual catharsis. Holden's imagery of “catching” children playing in a field of rye before they fall off a cliff is unrealistic, misheard from a little boy, and it serves merely as an escape route from what he fears most about adulthood – the change and overwhelming complexity. Holden wants everything to be easily understandable and eternally fixed, similar to the Eskimos and Indians in the museum. Opposed to acknowledging that adulthood scares and mystifies him, Holden instead invents a fantasy – that childhood is an idyllic field of rye, while adulthood...
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...Tyler Ryan Professor Wheeler English 101 April 22, 2015 Catcher in the Rye Jerome David (J.D.) Salinger was born on New Year’s Day in the year 1919, in New York City, “the second and last child of Sol and Marie (Miriam) Jillich Salinger” (Alexander 1). As a young boy, Salinger was interested in theatre and dramatics. Growing up, he attended a public school on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. He was always a very quiet and polite young man. His parents, Sol and Marie, thought he would fit in perfectly in a private school – seeing how well-mannered that young Salinger was – they “enrolled him in McBurney School in Manhattan in 1932” (Alexander 2), but, just as one of his most famous characters, Holden Caufield, he did not fit in very well in the private school, struggling to keep his grades satisfactory. Concerned, Salinger’s parents sent him to Valley Forge Military Academy when he was just 15 years old. “There he was active in drama and singing clubs. He sometimes wrote fiction by flashlight under his blankets at night and contributed to the school’s magazine” (Alexander 3). Salinger graduated in June of 1936 from Valley Forge, and then went on to pursue a brief, but significant college career. He began his education at New York University, but quickly dropped out “to try performing as an entertainer on a Caribbean cruise ship” (Alexander 4). When he was 20 years old, he worked toward his college career once again. He enrolled in a class at Columbia University to learn...
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...Question 3 Author J.D. Salinger’s novel ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, takes up a bildungsroman or coming-of-age genre throughout the story. It is known that novels that take up the bildungsroman genre mainly focus on the protagonist of the story developing from their youth to adulthood in a psychological and moral way. Displaying the character changes and development throughout the plot is essential in this sort of genre. A sensitive and emotional protagonist in search for answers based on their own identity, life, and also gaining knowledge about the world and overcoming obstacles at the same time are all related to the concept of the bildungsroman genre. Thus, the genre is also identified as “coming-of-age”. In the Catcher in the Rye, Holden is a character who mainly experiences all these situations and eventually matures by the end of the novel. In “The Catcher in the Rye”, the novel introduces three main themes that associate with the bildungsroman genre. These themes are alienation, growing up, and corruption of innocence. Holden Caulfield is a boy who feels isolated from society. He feels isolated because he is convinced that he is excluded and victimized by everyone else around him. This causes him to have no motivation in order to complete his assignments, such as Mr Spencer’s history exam. As he was discussing with Mr Spencer about the game he states “what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game”, it shows that...
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...Hello and good morning/evening, what do you believe makes a relationship, is it love, friendship or is it established when you are born between your parents and siblings? How could this everyday phenomenon, which drives our will to live and excel, be so simple? “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger and “The Dark Knight” directed by Christopher Noland are my chosen examples to explore themes such as hatred, mortality and deceit, which consist of various factors affecting relationships like self-isolation, our psychological health and propaganda. “The Cather in the Rye” explores these themes in a Dark, cynical but somewhat compassionate tone, accompanied with moments of humor. “The Dark Knight” is similar and explores the themes in a dark and disturbing tone, with the addition of action. “The Catcher in the Rye” demonstrates the theme of hatred with Holden’s hate towards the adult world around him, however as a consequence this causes personal, social and mental isolation from the world and an inability to create meaningful relationships. This is the main factor for Holden’s isolation from the world, and is symbolized throughout the novel with Holden’s red hunting hat. The majority of the people he encounters are deemed as ‘phonies’ for Holden as they do not follow with his view of the world, this generalization further prevent him from making relationships and reflects upon his immaturity. The last page of the novel and more importantly the quote, “All I know is I sort...
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...4141- 4141--- Cherished and Cursed:Towarda Social History of The Catcher in the Rye STEPHEN J. WHITFIELD THE plot is brief:in 1949 or perhaps 1950, over the course of three days during the Christmas season, a sixteen-yearold takes a picaresque journey to his New YorkCity home from the third private school to expel him. The narratorrecounts his experiences and opinions from a sanitarium in California. A heavy smoker, Holden Caulfield claims to be already six feet, two inches tall and to have wisps of grey hair; and he wonders what happens to the ducks when the ponds freeze in winter. The novel was published on 16 July 1951, sold for $3.00, and was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. Within two weeks, it had been reprinted five times, the next month three more times-though by the third edition the jacket photographof the author had quietly disappeared. His book stayed on the bestseller list for thirty weeks, though never above fourth place.' Costing 75?, the Bantam paperback edition appeared in 1964. By 1981, when the same edition went for $2.50, sales still held steady, between twenty and thirty thousand copies per month, about a quarter of a million copies annually. In paperback the novel sold over three million copies between 1953 and 1964, climbed even higher by the 1980s, and continues to attract about as many buyers as it did in 1951. The durabilityof The author appreciates the invitationof Professors Marc Lee Raphaeland Robert A. Gross to present an early version...
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...Change in The Catcher in the Rye: New Literary Criticism Approach Time and time again it has been proven that resisting change is impossible. The famous saying of “the only constant in life is change” is true in society and is shown in The Catcher in the Rye. For instance, in the novel the protagonist (Holden Caulfield) is clinging onto childhood, but despite his fears, change is inevitable . After reading the novel through a new literary criticism lens it is argued that author J.D. Salinger is informing his readers to avoid being overly attached to childhood because growing up is natural. Salinger engraves this message in his audience’s minds through the use of stylistic devices such as hyperbole, symbolism as well as indirect characterization. Salinger’s message of clinging onto childhood and resisting change is enforced on many occasions throughout the novel. Using hyperbole, in the first chapter of the novel, Holden emphasizes how tall he is and how he has gray hair, yet he admits that he still acts young for his age. “It’s really ironical, because I’m six foot two and half and have gray hair...The one side of my head...is full of millions of gray hairs...And yet I still act sometimes like I was only twelve.” (Salinger, 9) Salinger uses this hyperbole to really highlight to his readers that even though Holden might look like he is getting older on the outside, on the inside he still acts young and immature like a child. A second example of hyperbole that...
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...Analysis of The Catcher in The Rye Through a Psychoanalytic Lens Mental health is an important aspect of one’s wellbeing that may be significantly impacted by a traumatic experience. The author J.D. Salinger illustrates this idea in his novel The Catcher in the Rye, which focuses on the life of the depressed protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Holden experiences the death of his young brother Allie and struggles with transitioning from his innocent childhood to his materialistic adulthood. This transition eventually influences his mental state of mind, which is evident by his lack of motivation in school, and results in him suffering from loneliness, frustration and alienation. The psychoanalytic lens discusses an individual's actions based on their conscious and unconscious mind. The Catcher in the Rye can be better analyzed through the psychoanalytic lens rather the existential lens, and this is exemplified by Holden’s desire to avoid inevitable change, his resultant isolation and his battle between his conscious and unconscious mind. Holden has a fear of change and desire to avoid...
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...The story Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger is about a 16-year-old boy named Holden Caulfield. His story starts off in a mental institution where he is undergoing treatment for a severe nervous breakdown, after being kicked out of Pencey Prep. This is not the first time he got kicked out of school, he continuously fails academically regardless of the school. He develops deep depression over the death of his younger brother, Allie, who died from Leukemia about three years ago. He is not sociable with his peers, has no real friends, and creates conflicts with or criticizes everyone around him. Holden had feelings of apprehension over Stradlater's date with Jane, and leaves school just days before he is suppose to, without. He also is not...
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...Дневник читателя READER’S JOURNAL Ernest Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea (1952). Joseph Heller. Catch-22 (1961). Tennessee Williams. A Streetcar Named Desire (1959). Iris Murdoch. The Black Prince (1973). Jerome David Salinger. The Catcher in the Rye (1951). Michael Ondaatje. The English Patient (1992). Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Ken Kesey. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962). Edward Albee. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962). Arthur Miller. Death of a Salesman (1949). ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Ernest Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea (1952). ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- FULL TITLE · The Old Man and the Sea ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- AUTHOR · Ernest Hemingway ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- TYPE OF WORK · Novella ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- GENRE · Parable; tragedy ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- LANGUAGE · English ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN · 1951, Cuba ------------------------------------------------- ...
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...The year is 1959, a pivotal moment in American cultural history, when rock and roll was giving birth to the Sexual Revolution and everything in America culture was about to be turned upside down. Record companies were releasing more than a hundred singles every week and the country was about to explode. Grease, generally considered a trivial little musical about The Fabulous Fifties, is really the story of America’s tumultuous crossing over from the 50s to the 60s, throwing over repression and tradition for freedom and adventure (and a generous helping of cultural chaos), a time when the styles and culture of the disengaged and disenfranchised became overpowering symbols of teenage power and autonomy. Originally a rowdy, dangerous, over-sexed, and insightful piece of alternative theatre, Grease was inspired by the rule-busting success of Hair and shows like it, rejecting the trappings of other Broadway musicals for a more authentic, more visceral, more radical theatre experience that revealed great cultural truths about America. An experience largely forgotten by most productions of the show today. Like Hair before it and The Rocky Horror Show which would come a year later, Grease is a show about repression versus freedom in American sexuality, about the clumsy, tentative, but clearly emerging sexual freedom of the late 1950s, seen through the lens of the middle of the Sexual Revolution in the 1970s. It’s about the near carnal passion 1950s teenagers felt for their rock...
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