Literary Analysis Of Catcher In The Rye

Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child. “All of a sudden I

Throughout the novel, Holden attempts to find the true from of himself as he struggles with the social interactions around him. Due to the struggle and confusion that arouses from it,

Teenage years are difficult. Time tells this story of struggle again and again. The Catcher in the Rye is a classic novel showing the struggles a teenager goes through while transitioning into adulthood. The main character, Holden Caulfield, is a judgmental and temperamental boy who struggles to see the positivity in life. Throughout the story, Holden searches to find himself, as he feels forced to grow up. He holds onto aspects of his childhood and isolates himself so much that it is even harder for him to transition. J.D. Salinger uses the red hunting hat, the museum and cigarettes as important symbols in the story to convey the themes of transitioning from childhood to adulthood, loneliness, and isolation.

He hides under a visage of a cool ‘bad boy’ trope, seeing the world through a heavy filter- to him, anyone who's anyone is a phony, a liar, or just plain bad, despite him judging many things he later goes on to do himself. Over the course of the book we come to see Holden has built an opinion of the world that shields him from the pains and complexities of life. The author displays Holden’s traits quite prominently, especially through his use of language; he writes as Holden speaks- vulgar, rambling, and easily derailed, jumping from idea to idea infinitely

He even mentioned himself as “the most terrific liar” (ch3, pg19). It makes reader feel like not only he didn't felt bad for lying, but he also thinks that it's fun to lie. Moreover, there are several times that Holden ‘judges’ every person that he saw; whether it's his roommate, his date, or any person that he walks by. He called everyone ‘phony’ and he think that he wanted to get away from all the ‘phonies’ around him. However, Holden himself is actually a ‘phony’ because he always lied and fake in front of other, but he seems like he never notice that at all. Like when he met Ms. Morrow on the train, he lied about his name by telling her that his name is “Rudolf Schmidt” instead of Holden (pg 61). He did also tell Ms. Morrow that her son is doing very well in school, getting along so well with others, and is “one of the most popular boys at Pencey” (pg 63); however in his thought he known that reality isn’t like that. In his mind when Ms. Morrow said that her son, Ernest, is “a very sensitive boy” (pg 62); Holden thought was describing Ernest that he is “as sensitive as a goddam toilet seat.”(pg 62). At the scene when Holden went to a date with Sally, Holden also showed his negative judgement by describing girls that were around there that some of them had “terrific legs...lousy legs”(pg 137). Also he pre-judged that “most of them would probably marry dopey guys…. Guys that are very boring” (pg 137); however he didn’t seems to realize that he can’t even be that charming, nice, and wonderful date for

The tone or attitude in which Holden speaks is based on sarcasm and rudeness which shapes him as a character. He uses sarcasm throughout the book such as on page 71. He says, “I told her, ‘you’re really lucky. You know that?’ She was a real moron. But what a dancer” (71). Here, Holden is being very sarcastic and rude with this girl which forms Holden into his character. His tone towards the world and to the people in it is just careless because he doesn’t care about being nice to anyone. He continues to act this way, even to people that matter, such as on page 13, he says, “You mean about my flunking out of Pencey and all? ‘ I said. I sort of wished he’d cover up his bumpy chest. It wasn’t such a beautiful view” (13). Mr. Spencer is one of Holden’s teachers at Pencey and he doesn’t appreciate that at all. When Mr. Spencer is being sincere towards him, all Holden can think about is the fact that Mr. Spencer’s chest is “bumpy”. This truly defines Holden as a character and what kind of person he is; a sarcastic and cynical individual, all shown through his tone of voice.

Another major factor behind Holden’s perplex personality is his depression. Holden’s makes his depression clear when he states, “New York 's terrible when somebody laughs on the street very late at night. You can hear it for miles. It makes you feel so lonesome and depressed. I kept wishing I could go home and shoot the bull for a while with old Phoebe” (Salinger 81) The joy of other brings misery to himself. However Holden wasn’t always depressed, much like any human being there were moments in his life where he experienced happiness. This is demonstrated when he talks about his younger brother as he states, “You 'd have liked him. He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent. He was terrifically intelligent. His teachers were always writing letters to my mother, telling her what a pleasure it was having a boy like Allie in their class. And they weren 't just shooting the crap. They really meant it.” (Salinger 38) Holden’s tone in his descriptions establish how much he idolized his brother. One can only

There is another lesson Holden had to learn. He needed to learn how to be satisfied with his company. He was always looking for someone to call or someone to talk to. When he finally did have some company, he did nothing but criticize them. For example, Sally Hayes went out with Holden, and throughout the entire time he complained and criticized her. He

When he’s talking, he manipulates and lies to people. He also doesn’t handle people well, Holden isn’t good at communication and making friends. He’s always thinking that he is a great liar, but lying to most people isn’t a good quality. Holden thinks about his family a lot, especially his brothers D.B and Allie. Holden’s brothers is a big part of his thoughts, with D.B’s writing and Allie’s death. Mainly Allie, because his death really affecting Holden’s life. Holden’s mental stability was forever changed when Allie died, and will probably never fully heal. While D.B getting drafted in the army also affected his views on life, with his brother leaving. Also D.B’s favorite books, Holden remembers fondly. While both his brothers’ favorite writings, he likes. When D.B came back from the army, he started a writing career. D.B then decided to become a screenwriter, Holden thinks he sold

He lies to others on the outside, and never attempts to make nice with the people around him, yet he claims that people don't recognize him when he's lonely. He leaves his boarding school and goes running around New York irresponsibly instead of fessing up to himself about his real problems. At least by the end of the story, Holden has somewhat matured and understand that this side of him as a hypocrite and a self pitier is present and a

In the novel, Holden focuses on how others feel, but he never self- reflects, or even acknowledges his emotions. For example, in the first sentence of the book, Holden says “... and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” (page 3) Holden says this in regards to talking about his personal life. Just by reading the first sentence of the book, we can already learn that Holden has a pretty poor attitude towards life in general. Moreover, when Holden was talking to his teacher, Mr. Spencer, about him getting kicked out of Pencey Prep, Holden continued to neglect his emotions. Mr. Spencer was telling Holden about how Holden’s parents will be irritated

Holden is deathly afraid of conforming, growing up, and having to assimilate into the phony adult world. As a result he comes off as hypocritical as he is the most prominent phony in the novel. He constantly lies, refuses to connect with others and overlooks his own pain, letting it deeply impact his life. Holden is a compulsive liar; he does not have one honest conversation with anyone except his sister and Jane for the duration of the novel. When he is on the train with Mrs. Morrow, for instance, he claims his name is Rudolf Schmidt and preaches about what an amazing guy her son is, even though he is “the biggest bastard that ever went to Pencey, in the whole crumby history of the school.” (61) This shows that Holden falls victim to the same social conventions as everyone else. He says exactly what Mrs. Morrow wants to hear, despite the fact that he

Are there moments when Holden is phony and full of hypocrisy? What does this reveal about his psychological issues?

In the first chapter, he described himself as a terrific liar, yet throughout the whole book, he constantly talked about how other people are phony. The reason that Holden would contradict himself so often, would be due to his own confusion. A recurring thought in Holden’s mind was how phony the movies are, but while he was in his hotel room, he would act like he got shot in the action movies that he'd seen. Holden was lost in his own mind. He didn’t know what to think about everything that was going on his his life. Holden saw himself as “The guy [that] I like best in the Bible, next to Jesus, was that lunatic and all, that lived in the tombs and kept cutting himself with stones." (Salinger, 99) Holden says this because he feels like an outsider, and someone that needs saving.

It is the last chapter in the book and Holden finishes his story by stating, “That’s all I’m going to tell about,” meaning there is more to his story and how he could go on and predict about his life later on, but at the moment he was not ready to talk about it. The reason he does not want to is that as he was telling the major events that had happened in his life, he realizes something. Holden becomes aware of the fact that, “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody” (Salinger 234).