...J.D. Salinger's repeated use of the word "phony" to describe characters illustrates the protagonist's internal conflict toward accepting adulthood. Holden Caulfield perceives reality with a cynical point of view. For example, he deems Mr. Spencer's remark, "Life is a game that one plays according to the rules," as shallow and superficial (Salinger 11). Through indirect characterization, readers ascertain that Caulfield is repulsed by hypocrisy and disingenuous appearances. In addition, Caulfield is critical of the banal social formalities that adults partake in. For instance, Caulfield delineates headmaster Mr. Haas' behavior of shaking hands with parents and giving them a "phony smile" (17). Caulfield's condemnatory tone is manifested when...
Words: 660 - Pages: 3
...Diagnosis The patient, Holden Caulfield is experiencing what I presume to be Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. Holden is going through a lot of difficult situations in his life that he got him a little mislead, such as failing almost all his classes, trouble with his roommate, and leaving his school altogether. The situations Holden is being put through aren’t easy for him and cause him a lot of stress that changes the way that he acts, and feels. Caulfield is experiencing flashbacks, poor relationships, self-destructive behavior, and hopelessness about the future, trouble sleeping, memory problems, trouble concentrating, and efforts to avoid thinking or talking about his trauma. He is emotionally unstable, irritable, angry, shameful, guilty, easily startled or frightened, and dissatisfied with activities he once enjoyed. A thorough analysis has taken place that has proven that Holden Caulfield could perhaps have the predicted diagnosis. The treatment I am going to plan out for Holden is helpful for mainly his psychological problems. First and most important I am planning to have individual therapy with Holden to establish how he is to learn to overcome his problems. If I am not able to accomplish and reinforce this family help will be needed. The second thing to help Holden get back in normality would be to reenroll him in school. It doesn’t matter if he goes back to Pency as long as he is fully recovered. Reenrollment in school could help with his relationships...
Words: 723 - Pages: 3
...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...
Words: 3375 - Pages: 14
...in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Mr. Antolini (an English teacher) tells the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, "I have a feeling that you're riding for some kind of terrible, terrible fall" (pg. 168). This quote is terribly reflective of and true to Holden's experiences that he accounts in the novel. The entire novel is essentially Holden's account of the time between leaving Pencey Preparatory School and his institutionalization (which is revealed at the end of the novel). We can only assume that Holden has been sent to see "this one psychoanalyst guy" (pg. 192) because of his gradual mental breakdown or "fall" that is apparent throughout his narrative. This essay will recognize and trace the multiple signs, explanations and testaments of Holden's declining mental state. It is important to include Holden's past in this account and analysis of Holden's mental decline because Holden's past affects everything he does and contributes to his feelings of loneliness, depression and confusion. A supporting argument for this can be found by looking at causes for "mental breakdowns." Some common causes* of mental breakdowns that apply to Holden's particular case are: unresolved grief (as far as we know, Holden never received closure about his brother Allie's death or the suicide of a fellow student, James Castle.), academic problems (Holden failed out of three separate private schools), social stress (Holden tries and fails to connect to several characters such as Carl Luce, Sunny the prostitute...
Words: 1064 - Pages: 5
...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...
Words: 2134 - Pages: 9
...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...
Words: 12326 - Pages: 50
...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 ------------------------------------------------- ...
Words: 43588 - Pages: 175
...CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS ETHICS?* Stories about “unethical” behavior in business abound. The recent scandals permeating the financial services, savings and loan, and other industries have caused a growing concern about ethics in the workplace. Success often appears to be measured in only dollars. The claim that “greed is good” seems to reflect the behavior of many people in our society. Indeed, the desire to possess more and more seems pervasive—and business, like other institutions, reflects the values, beliefs, and personal goals of our society. Time, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, and countless other magazines and newspapers have called attention to unethical practices, bemoaning the “sleaze, scandals, and hypocrisy”1 undermining our moral bearings. In short, there is a great deal of concern about ethics in general, and business ethics in particular. This reading will examine what ethics is and how people decide what is “right” and “wrong.” The word ethics has a number of meanings. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary gives several definitions of ethics, including: ● the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation ● a set of moral principles or values ● a theory or system of moral values 2 ● the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group. Ethics, in all of these definitions, is concerned with right or wrong behavior. This reading focuses on the discipline or study of ethics. 1. THE DISCIPLINE OF ETHICS This discipline...
Words: 20786 - Pages: 84
...This text was adapted by The Saylor Foundation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License without attribution as requested by the work’s original creator or licensee. Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books Saylor.org 1 Preface Writing is often a challenge. If you were ever challenged to express yourself via the written word, this book is for you. Writing for Success is a text that provides instruction in steps, builds writing, reading, and critical thinking, and combines comprehensive grammar review with an introduction to paragraph writing and composition. Beginning with the sentence and its essential elements, this book addresses each concept with clear, concise, and effective examples that are immediately reinforced with exercises and opportunities to demonstrate learning. Each chapter allows students to demonstrate mastery of the principles of quality writing. With its incremental approach, this book can address a range of writing levels and abilities, helping each student prepare for the next writing or university course. Constant reinforcement is provided through examples and exercises, and the text involves students in the learning process through reading, problem solving, practicing, listening, and experiencing the writing process. Each chapter also has integrated examples that unify the discussion and form a common, easy-tounderstand basis for discussion and exploration. This will put students at ease and allow for greater...
Words: 171477 - Pages: 686
