...In J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, adopts a cynical stance towards those people whom he views as phony. Two instances in which Holden becomes irritated by insincerity occur during his encounters with Ernie and the Lunts. A first example of a time when Holden becomes put-off by phony behavior occurs when he goes to a nightclub and listens to Ernie, a celebrated pianist, show off his virtuosity. Holden recalls, “Anyway, when he had finished and everyone was clapping their heads off, old Ernie turned on his tool and gave this very humble bow … it was very phony - I mean him being a big snob and all” (Salinger 84). Holden considers Ernie to be a phony because the famous pianist seems to be surprised by...
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...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...
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...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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...Holden Caulfield is a very different person in 2018 whereas to before. In the book, Catcher in the Rye, Holden experienced many events that led him to ´grow up´. Holden is going through a depressive state where he finds everything depressing. He also believes that after some point, everyone is phony, when they're not. This affects Holden´s social life, which then affects his mental state. Throughout the book, the only thing that seemed to keep him happy was children. Almost everybody has experienced a low point in their life. During these times we aren't in our best states (physically or mentally) and we tend to make a lot of mistakes. However, we pull ourselves back up and push through. Later on, we tend to learn from our mistakes and reflect...
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...Aidan Baldick 12/12/17 Holden’s Meaning In The Catcher and the Rye by ¬¬¬¬J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield tells the reader about his life. Holden’s best friend and brother died when he was younger, which left him scarred. He gets kicked out of four schools and consistently moves around dodging adults who care about him most. However, Holden does approach one man who cares about him. Mr. Antolini, Holden’s former teacher advises him to not be like “men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn’t supply them with. Or they thought their own environment couldn’t supply them with. So they gave up looking.” (Salinger, 243) The “something” that Mr. Antolini references is the need for companionship....
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...sixteen-year boy named Holden Caulfield. The story begins with Holden being expelled from Pencey Prep. He decides to not go home, and chooses to leave three days early. The entire novel follows these three days that Holden spends in New York. There are many clear and meaningful symbols in “The Catcher in the Rye”. Some of these symbols include the carousel in the park, and Holden’s hat. The most important symbols in the novel that are also relevant in a “real life” setting are Allie Caulfield, Phoebe Caulfield, and the museum that Holden visits. Allie Caulfield is Holden's younger brother that died many years earlier, and he was one of the major symbols in...
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...Catcher in the Rye in Class Essay In the novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D Salinger, Holden Caulfield the main character in is struggling with growing up. While living in Manhattan for a couple of days he goes through an emotional journey where the options are grow up or “disappear”. The key moments to Holden’s coming of age journey was his moments of separation, exploration, and his self-realization. As soon as the book starts we are given evidence that Holden constantly isolates himself from society. As soon as the book starts Holden tells us that he is watching the school football’s team game by himself “practically the whole school was there except me “(2). This shows how he chooses himself to not partake in society’s activities. Another experiencing in the novel that shows Holden separation from society is him leaving Pency Prep early instead of staying until the Christmas break. Holden constantly separates himself from the adult world because he is not mature enough to understand why adult’s act the way they do so instead he just calls everything they do “phony”. We see the word “phony” used often in the novel to show Holden’s hatred toward everything to do with adults. A large bulk of the novel was following Holden’s exploration of New York as a free man. He begins to have his first experience with the adult world. This stage of his journey was beneficial to his coming of age journey as he begins to realize the level of maturity you need to...
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...the Rye”, J.D. Salinger discusses certain terms and concepts that identify the difficulties the main character, Holden Caulfield, went through. Now in the beginning of the story, it shows or portrays Holden having a hard time fitting in with society because of the way they treat each other and in a way it's like giving up his innocence and being exposed to things such as phonies. However, the main reason it is difficult for him to fit in is because he wants kids to be safe from society and stay with their innocence, in a way this connects with how “ The Catcher in the Rye” is a story of Holden coming of age. This is also about how Holden wants kids to stay in the time period of innocence that they’re in now before...
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...Catcher in The Rye Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in The Catcher in The Rye is a sixteen year old boy who is distressed between the corruptness of growing up, and the beauty of staying innocent. Holden can not withstand the thought of adulthood, he constantly emphasizes and intends to protect innocence in children. He fears that once a child loses their innocence they will become a “phony” like everyone else (Salinger 84). Holden tries to protect Jane Gallagher an old crush, Phoebe Caulfield his virtuous little sister, and all children who still have their innocence. Jane Gallagher is a not so beautiful girl that also happens to be Holden Caulfield's former crush. Jane Gallagher is...
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...Time Magazine • Until 2006, Catcher was one of the most frequently banned books • Mark David Chapman (assassin of John Lennon) and John Hickley Jr. (attempted assassin of President Ronald Reagan) both had copies of the book in their pockets when they were arrested • Tells the story of a teenager expelled from his high school and his journey across NYC in the 1950s • Issues discussed in the book include: School, teacher, music, sex, alcohol, hypocrisy, family and being a teenager. • A story is about Holden Caulfield, the 16 year old protagonist of the novel and his experiences in school and new york city. • Holden Caufield- sketch of an American teenager • Nearly all readers identify with or see some of their friends reflected in different aspects of Holden’s characters • Young readers see in Holden Caulfield a little bit of what they are, while older readers see in Holden a bit of what they were once • First person limited we see this story only through Holdens eyes • You – the phychoanalyst and the reader • Stream of Consciousness, many digressions • Dialect- Slainger perfected the dialect of the teenage boy • The Language is the cause of much controversy over the book • This...
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...man named Holden Caulfield. Holden is not specific about his location while he’s telling the story, but he makes it clear that he is undergoing treatment in a mental hospital or sanatorium. The events he narrates take place in the few days between the end of the fall school term and Christmas, when Holden is sixteen years old.As Holden goes out to the lobby, he starts to think about Jane Gallagher and, in a flashback, recounts how he got to know her. They met while spending a summer vacation in Maine, played golf and checkers, and held hands at the movies. One afternoon, during a game of checkers, her stepfather came onto the porch where they were playing, and when he left Jane began to cry. Holden had moved to sit beside her and kissed her all over her face, but she wouldn’t let him kiss her on the mouth. That was the closest they came to “necking.” Holden leaves the Edmont and takes a cab to Ernie’s jazz club in Greenwich Village. Again, he asks the cab driver where the ducks in Central Park go in the winter, and this cabbie is even more irritable than the first one. Holden sits alone at a table in Ernie’s and observes the other patrons with distaste. He runs into Lillian Simmons, one of his older brother’s former girlfriends, who invites him to sit with her and her date. Holden says he has to meet someone, leaves, and walks back to the Edmont. Maurice, the elevator operator at the Edmont, offers to send a prostitute to Holden’s room for five dollars, and Holden agrees. A...
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...by J.D Salinger, the main character Holden is a seventeen year old boy who loathes the thought of adolescence and maturity. Holden believes that any prep school contains “phonies” or artificial people who are controlled by adults and society. Holden holds inside this anger that has been developing ever since he lost his brother Allie. The thoughts of his brother help Holden express to the readers how Allie’s death has led him to moments in his life where he feels completely hopeless. During the time that Holden was at his prep school, he kept a baseball mitt that belonged to his brother. The mitt helped him remember the times he spent with Allie and all the astounding memories they shared. In the book,...
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...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 him. Creeping out of home, he goes to see his former teacher, Mr. Antolini, only to find that his respectable teacher is a homosexual. And he escapes from Antolini’s house. Holden feels himself sinking. Then he decides to go west and spend the rest of his life there. When...
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...those around him or her. Some may have a positive view, while others may think oppositely and have a negative view. Holden Caulfield, the main character in J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1951) is a peculiar teen boy with a pessimistic view on life, who sees other people in the world as “phony”. He goes through his life judging others, putting himself above them by distancing himself and not connecting with them. Holden’s characterization as a peculiar, judgmental, insecure teen boy helps exemplify how one’s false perceptions of others may lead him to distance and alienate himself from those around him, in order to protect himself from becoming like those whom he finds different. Holden is a teen boy who is extremely judgmental of everything and everyone around him. He sees those around him as phony, acting like or trying to be something that they are not. Holden says of his roommate, “Stradlater was more of a secret slob. He always looked all right, but for instance, you should’ve seen the razor he shaved himself with. It was always rusty as hell and full of lathers and hair and crap. He never cleaned it or anything… he was a secret slob anyway, if you knew him the way I did,” (27). He is very judgmental and critical about something so simple as a man’s shaving razor. In a way, Holden sees Stradlater as phony because he appears well-groomed and handsome, but he knows that he uses a dirty razor to shave himself. Holden’s commentary...
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...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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