...Holden's obsession with innocence: In J.D.Salinger's the catcher in the rye Thinking childish in its simplicity can lead anyone to the path of innocence. The protection of innocence is something that holden searches for in J.D. Salinger's novel the catcher in the rye which shows that he believes that the innocence of childhood is very valuable and should be protected from the adult world. Holden is wanting to protect the innocence of those people who he thinks are really innocent. In addition, holden himself is innocent. As, he does many things that show that he is still not mature enough and should protect himself. Finally, he is willing to save his younger sister phoebe’s innocence from the world of phonies. Holden’s desire to save...
Words: 1168 - Pages: 5
...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 of miss everybody I told about”, through the use of colloquial language shows us Holden’s realization of his isolation as...
Words: 769 - Pages: 4
...A creative work that has influenced myself and my ways of thinking has to be given to a novel by J.D. Salinger titled Catcher In The Rye. This book is a classic American novel that tells that tale of a boy named Holden Caulfield who through the period of 3 days experiences the epitome of teenage rebellion, confusion, and isolation. The reason this book has influenced my life so greatly is mainly the simplicity of the book and how it speaks so true to the realities of life. I first discovered this novel when I was in the 7th grade. I was currently going through a phase where I wanted to read all the classics and The Catcher In The Rye was on that list. There was many classics that I was reading that almost put me to sleep or that just didn’t...
Words: 624 - Pages: 3
...The Catcher in the Rye, is a novel, about a young boy named Holden Caufield. Holden is a very splenetic and choleric character, who lost his brother at a young age. Which led Holden to really focus on gaining back his innocence. Although he was also very interested in protecting the children and saving their innocence. It seems as if Holden doesn't want these young innocent kids to go through what he has in his life at a young age. He doesn't want them to lose their innocence like he did. The main focus of Holden throughout the novel, is innocence and how he can get it back and save other children. Holden lost his innocence at a young age. Holden had a brother named Allie and he really looked up to Allie. Holden had a hard time when Allie...
Words: 1363 - Pages: 6
...Both Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye are bildungsroman novels about a young character’s growth into adulthood. Written 67 years apart, both novels feature unusual protagonists who are somewhat innocent, naïve and desperate to reject the process of maturity and being ‘sivilized’. Twain focuses on a key moment in American history to ask readers to reassess the definition of “civilisation”, freedom, justice and social responsibility. Published in 1884, the novel relates to the pre-civil war years when the controversy over slavery corrupted America. Twain set his novel in 1860 prior to the abolition of slavery in order to criticise racist attitudes and uses the Mississippi River as the centre point of his novel. It symbolises the route toward freedom and escape for Huck and Jim providing the setting for the growth of both a young boy and a country struggling to understand definitions of freedom, individualism and civilisation. Salinger, however, uses his protagonist Holden to explore the materialistic, conformist society he saw developing after WW2. The first extract I chose is from chapter 22 of Catcher in the Rye where Phoebe accuses Holden of hating everything and everyone. Holden reveals here his fantasy of becoming ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ protecting children from falling into the adult world. This links with chapter 31 of Huckleberry Finn where Huck decides to write a letter to Tom Sawyer to tell Miss Watson where Jim...
Words: 1956 - Pages: 8
...Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in The Catcher in the Rye, is a 16-year-old boy who is troubled, has been expelled from four schools, and is dealing with rejection. Rejection is one of the main causes of depression and social anxiety. Humans need companionship, love, and acceptance. “He sees that the world belongs to adults and it seems to him that they have filled it with phoniness, pretense, social compromise” (Seng 105). The plot is Holden’s quest for sympathy for his physical condition and for a place of peaceful refuge. Holden is denied this sympathy and refuge, therefore he breaks down (Alsen 7). In The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, Holden’s three important rejections lead to his breakdown. The blonde girl, Sally Hayes, and Carl Luce are three of the many important rejections in the novel. The blonde girl rejects Holden, and this is the beginning of his breakdown. The blonde girl is sitting next to Holden in the Lavender Room at the hotel he is staying at in New York. Holden buys her a drink because he thinks that she is good looking. Holden also asks her to dance. While they were dancing she exclaims, “I and my girl friends saw Peter Lorre last night. The movie actor. In person. He was buyin’ newspaper. He’s cute” (Salinger 71). The blonde girl is obviously looking for movie stars, not conversation. Holden calls her a moron and calls it a dumb remark. He is obviously annoyed and upset. Therefore, he feels as if he has been rejected. The fact that she isn’t...
Words: 1081 - Pages: 5
...resemble this beautiful real life portrayal could be like J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in The Rye. Every emotion that Salinger delineates through his characterization of Holden Caulfield is so potent that those details resonate even more for someone dealing with a similar internal struggle. When I read the book at 15, every sensory detail that Salinger described helped better illuminate part of my own internal struggle. The over exaggeration of the resentment of society as being in genuine really captured my own internal resentment for molds that people contrive themselves to fit. The one scene with Caulfield sitting in the bathtub depressed after refusing sex from a hooker will always be infused into my constant sub consciousness. When I just feel worn out and pushed to my emotional limit, I see that image burned bright into my memory because that scene is the ultimate depiction of frustration and stress. Although, this style of writing may be beautiful, sometimes it is nice to escape the hyperrealism captured in a book like Catcher in The Rye, and instead read something that expands the mind’s imagination. The contrary to the book that affirms one’s emotions and ideas is the book that challenges one’s conception of reality. A book such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula has the unique ability to really push the envelope on one’s conception of reality. Stoker undergoes writing a novel, which completely strays from what was believed to be the reality of that time. Late Victorian England was...
Words: 1553 - Pages: 7
...THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. SALINGER I. Content of the Book Holden Caulfield is a very weird and interesting young man who likes to do things on impulse or because as he said 'he got such a bang out of it'. He has a brother, D.B. who is a writer in Hollywood, a little sister named Phoebe and another brother Allie, who has already died before the story even began. In the beginning of the story Holden narrates that he'll be leaving his school, Pencey Prep (a school full of Phonies from Holden’s point of view), because he flunked out in the four out of five subjects he was taking, the only subject he didn't fail was English. Holden tells the readers that he had come back to Agerstown, Pennsylvania though he was traveling with his team for a fencing contest, he lost all of the foils in a New York Subway, and so the match was cancelled instead. Holden even mentioned that on the way home his mates treated him to silence and he found this very amusing. Though there was a football game going on, Holden didn't go down and watch it, instead he went to visit his old history teacher, Mr. Spencer. Mr. Spencer is a very old man who wants to help Caulfield in his studies (since Holden has also been expelled in a few other schools as well) and at some point Mr. Spencer even read out Holden's examination paper and the little note that Holden had written in the end saying that if Mr. Spencer would like to flunk him then he'd be all right with it, Holden explained to the readers that the...
Words: 4662 - Pages: 19
...insight into the minds of the authors. This was proven at the time that slave narratives were written, when the authors used their work to share the saddening realities they faced. In many instances, readers have used this literature as a guide to assist in experiences similar to what they are going through. JD Salinger’s, “Catcher in The Rye,” is a good example of how American Literature, past and present, can teach readers empathy and understanding. Furthermore, it aids in the display of the evolved culture in our country. American Literature allows both parties to find an emotional outlet from life experiences, it supplies readers with compassion, and it showcases the changes in our society in a distinct way. There is a common belief that people write what they know, meaning that most writing comes...
Words: 1018 - Pages: 5
...In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden experiences difficult challenges in his daily life. He has no friends and thinks that the exhibits are humans. Holden enjoys seeing the exhibits and it would be the one place for Holden to go if he wanted everything the same during his childhood. That is what makes it so strange. The museum never changes and helps Holden escape from his reality life. “You could go there a hundred thousand times, and the Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish” (121). Holden liked knowing that the glass cases in the museum would never judge him from his mistakes in the real world. He visits the museum to escape from all the chaos in his life. He likes the glass cases that the museum places all their exhibits in. He desires to place parts of his life in glass cases because they won’t change. He decides not to go in the museum. He is afraid that the museum and Jane Gallagher has changed. Holden knows that if the museum has change, then it would hurt him, so he doesn’t enter. He remembers happiness and laughter when he was with his friends and family. Holden wishes to live a simple and uncomplicated life. “Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you. Not that you’d be so much older or anything. It wouldn’t be that, exactly” (121). The Museum of Natural History symbolizes the world Holden would love to live in. For example, he says,“ The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything...
Words: 899 - Pages: 4
...concerning what people think of him is exemplified when he states, "I didn't want to look like a screwball or something," (68). Caulfield decided to remove his hunting hat before entering the hotel in fear of scrutiny. Progressively, he becomes more mature and indifferent toward others' opinions when he vents, "I didn't give a damn how I looked," (99). In the end, the author explicitly emphasizes Holden's attempt to transform with the quote, "My hunting really gave me quite a lot of protection, in a way, but I got soaked anyway," (233). Equally important, the author deploys the archetype of rain which represents...
Words: 660 - Pages: 3
...“People who ask our advice almost never take it. Yet we should never refuse to give it, upon request, for it often helps us to see our own way more clearly,” (Brendan Francais). Advice, no matter how times it is ignored, it is still useful as a guide for our self growth. An example of a person who does not take advice would be Holden Caulfield from the novel Catcher in the Rye. Holden Caulfield narrates the novel, Catcher in The Rye from a mental hospital in Southern California. He narrates his life after failing out of his school, Pencey Preparation. Along the way Holden took advice from many people, but never executes it. “If” is a poem from Rudyard Kipling to his “son” to teach him how to be a man. Much like how Holden ignores the advice...
Words: 1425 - Pages: 6
...The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a novel published in 1951. Holden Caulfield is the sixteen-year-old protagonist in the novel. He's a cynical character who has allowed grieving from his eleven-year-old brother’s death from leukemia to form the way he thinks about life, society, and himself. After getting kicked out of Pencey, a boarding school, he goes on a journey to New York City where he tries to connect with people he knows, like Sally Hayes, Carl Luce, and Mr. Antolini, and people he meets, including girls at the bar, the prostitute Sunny, Maurice, two nuns, taxi drivers and little kids. He protects himself a lot and prevents himself from connecting by using critical cynicism. He alienates himself from other characters through this misanthropic view on life, but he connects with readers through a conversational and informal style and his sense of humor. Though Holden has a...
Words: 1295 - Pages: 6
...For Beethoven, the sonata form is not a scheme that can be used in caprice one day and abandoned the next. This form dominates everything he imagines and composes; it is the very mark of his creation and the form of his thought – an inherent form, a natural one. (Edwin Fischer, Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas). Beethoven’s thirty-two piano sonatas constitute a great treasure that embodies a part of the human eternity. Numerous pianists and musicologists have researched or studied them, trying to impart to their students or readers the prodigality of these true musical riches. Beethoven holds a key role in the transformation and evolution of the sonata form. Even if he maintains the characteristics initially set by his predecessors, Haydn and Mozart, Beethoven imposes on the sonata his strong personality creating a new, impressive, form of art, in which his own life, with its joys and sorrows, is projected. With Beethoven the musical theme acquires remarkable proportions, of such strength, that it imposes itself over the listener’s attention and memory. As the French composer, Vincent d’ Indy once said, with Beethoven, the musical theme turns into an concept that spreads throughout the hole work making it easily recognizable even if harmonic, modal or tonal aspects change. The fundamental principle of organization of the Beethoven piano sonata is the tonality. We can say that Beethoven perceived tonality as the key to any composition, since it leads to the true...
Words: 2698 - Pages: 11
...Jon Krakauer, was a man who wanted to be independent of anything that society needed in order to find peace of mind and independence that comes from true solitude. You do not have to put your life at risk and go out to the godforsaken wild. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society”. I find that Emerson is trying to portray the message that one must ultimately focus on the thoughts inside their head, independence of thought. In my opinion, Emerson's chamber does not have to be leaving town or society for the wild of that matter, it can be finding an inner peace with oneself. The chamber is symbolic of one's thought of discovering peace of mind in our head, again referring to the thought of independent thoughts. One cannot go through life with the thought that they should abandon society. Solitude, as Emerson depicts it, is something to aspire, but one shouldn’t isolate oneself from other people. One does not have to leave society in...
Words: 1148 - Pages: 5
