Free Essays on The Catcher in the Rye

Isolated And Victimized In J.D. Salinger’s, â€Å"The Catcher In The Rye† Holden Caulfield’s exclusion from the people around him greatly affects him throughout the narrative. From the first few pages of the book we learn that Holden isn’t attending the big football game between Pencey Prep and Saxon Hall. Despite being an event of great school importance and tradition, Holden isn’t in the bleachers and socializing with his fellow classmates but instead he is sitting atop a hill looking down on everyone criticizing their every move. Holden tries to justify why he isn’t there calling everyone below â€Å"phonies† or â€Å"crooks† saying how he doesn’t want to be bothered by them. Holden is extremely judgmental and overly analytical of his fellow human beings throughout the novel. In his excessive whining he often tries to find humor in his â€Å"obviously† inferior peers. At first Holden keeps his distance from others because he beli eves he is better than them but as the book progresses there are many cases where we learn that this is nothing more than a faà §ade and Holden is truly lonely inside. The three reasons Holden is alienated and lonely was best stated by Whissen, â€Å"He is alienated from others, sometimes because he cannot stand the company of others, sometimes because he becomes disappointed with their company, and sometimes because his actions seem calculated to drive others away.† Holden is also affected by his current family situation in which everyone is separated. Holden uses his alienation as protection because he doesn’t want to get hurt again. He lost his younger brother Allie, who he was very close to, which greatly saddened him. One of Holden’s biggest contributions to his loneliness and eventual mental breakdown is his immaturity. He drives many away with his childish actions and idea’s. Bednarczyk 2 His behavior around his old student advisor Luce is a perfect example of his ... Free Essays on The Catcher in the Rye Free Essays on The Catcher in the Rye A Moment of Revelation In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield’s innocence is taken away through a twisted chain of events. The novel opens up with Holden depresses after fluking out of Penecy, the suicide of a classmate, and the death of his brother, Allie. Because if these tragic events, Holden tries to preserve his innocence and the purity of the children around him. Holden wants to â€Å"catch† all of the naà ¯ve children who are falling off the cliff into adulthood. As a result of Holden coming across his sister Phoebe and the â€Å"fuck you† on the wall of the school, Holden’s dreams of becoming the catcher in the rye disappear. He finally realizes that all children must fall into adulthood, just as he has. While walking through the bust streets of New York, Holden notices a lighthearted little boy who is walking and humming â€Å"if a body catch a body coming through the rye† (43). Holden finds it humorous that the child can hum so nonchalantly as the cars on the bust street honk at him. Despite the fast-moving cars, which represent the average â€Å"phonies† in the world, the child pays no attention to them. When Holden sees that the little boy will not allow himself to be pulled into the average crowd of people, he realizes that not everyone wishes to fall from their simple childhood into adulthood. From Holden’s encounter with this little boy, he wants to become the â€Å"catcher in the rye.† He says to Phoebe: I kept picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody around-nobody big, I mean-except me. And I am standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff. I mean if they’re running and they don’t look they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. (173) By saying that he wants to catch all the children that are runn... Free Essays on The Catcher in the Rye The Catcher in the Rye is a book by J. D. Salinger and the story of a boy named Holden Caufield. He is no longer innocent, but exposed to the world. Phoebe, Holden's sister, is the opposite she is quite the innocent, never really being exposed to the world outside her protective bubble. Holden wants to protect such precious innocence only found in the children as a guardian of the innocent a catcher in the rye. The Catcher in the Rye is fundamentally a book about innocence. This book shows people of two different parties, the innocent (not tainted by the world) and the experienced (both good and evil), in their daily life and work. These innocents include Sally Hayes and Phoebe. Sally belies the world is a big party (or a social occasion), everyone likes her, and that the fun will never end. Phoebe, Holden's younger sister, is innocent just not quite as naive as Sally. It is clear that she is young and innocent, because of the odd things she does like constantly changing her middle name or paying for belching lessons, this she states towards the end of their conversation. One who is harden by and to the world would not take lessons in belching. A catcher in the rye is a defender or a guardian of the innocent. The idea and the name are purely symbolic. The meaning is as the children are running thorough the rye they do not see the cliffs ahead and the plummet they will make. When they make this "fall" they lose their child-like innocence. This fall could be related to a moral dilemma like maybe the city in the raw. Where he/she would be exposed to prostitution, drunkenness, and maybe drugs. Holden Caufield sees himself ruined and tainted by the world. He has failed out of school, drinks, and smokes. His attitude is it is too late for me. But, there is a ray of hope in his life; he feels it is his duty to save other children from the world as a catcher in the rye. He talks to people about his ideas, people like ... Free Essays on The Catcher In The Rye The Catcher in the Rye Some may say that the main character of J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, is merely the average teenager, although he seems to think about sex and women quite a lot for his age of sixteen. This point can be easily argued in many ways, one example being the time Holden called a perfect stranger, Faith Cavendish, to get together at an unruly time of night. Another example of the main character’s perversion is when he hired a prostitute named Sunny, and never actually accomplished anything. One last example could be Caulfield’s overall impression and cockiness when it comes to sex and women. In conclusion Holden Caulfield is engrossed in sexual thought. The protagonist’s fixation with members of the opposite sex can first be argued when he phone’s a girl who’s number he received from a guy he meet once at a party; he said that the girl was â€Å"not exactly a whore or anything but didn’t mind doing it once in a while†. After Holden had spent a good amount of time trying to persuade her to meet him, because he was â€Å"feeling pretty horny†, the girl, Faith Cavendish, finally got him to register the answer of no into his brain. At this point Faith asked the main character if he would like to meet for drinks the next day, but he declined, because the next day he may not be feeling horny anymore. Obviously, the main character was so determined to do something sexy that night he turned down a friendly invitation, which proves that Holden Caulfield is fascinated by sex and women. Over all because the protagonist called an unknown woman for sex, then refused her proposal for a get together the ne xt day; Holden is obviously fixated with both sex and women. Second, another example of Holden’s perversion is when he hires a prostitute named Sunny from the elevator man at his hotel. Although some may say that calling a stranger in the middle of the night, like Holden did wit... Free Essays on The Catcher In The Rye Isolated And Victimized In J.D. Salinger’s, â€Å"The Catcher In The Rye† Holden Caulfield’s exclusion from the people around him greatly affects him throughout the narrative. From the first few pages of the book we learn that Holden isn’t attending the big football game between Pencey Prep and Saxon Hall. Despite being an event of great school importance and tradition, Holden isn’t in the bleachers and socializing with his fellow classmates but instead he is sitting atop a hill looking down on everyone criticizing their every move. Holden tries to justify why he isn’t there calling everyone below â€Å"phonies† or â€Å"crooks† saying how he doesn’t want to be bothered by them. Holden is extremely judgmental and overly analytical of his fellow human beings throughout the novel. In his excessive whining he often tries to find humor in his â€Å"obviously† inferior peers. At first Holden keeps his distance from others because he beli eves he is better than them but as the book progresses there are many cases where we learn that this is nothing more than a faà §ade and Holden is truly lonely inside. The three reasons Holden is alienated and lonely was best stated by Whissen, â€Å"He is alienated from others, sometimes because he cannot stand the company of others, sometimes because he becomes disappointed with their company, and sometimes because his actions seem calculated to drive others away.† Holden is also affected by his current family situation in which everyone is separated. Holden uses his alienation as protection because he doesn’t want to get hurt again. He lost his younger brother Allie, who he was very close to, which greatly saddened him. One of Holden’s biggest contributions to his loneliness and eventual mental breakdown is his immaturity. He drives many away with his childish actions and idea’s. Bednarczyk 2 His behavior around his old student advisor Luce is a perfect example of his ...