Catcher In The Rye Quest Essay

Catcher in the Rye resembles a quest for Holden Caulfield. We, as readers, are able to experience his every thought and emotion when it comes to the five aspects of his quest. Furthermore, we are able to understand why he does what he did and how he was feeling within these moments.
The quester: Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old teenager who struggles in school, is sexually frustrated, and comes off very depressing from being effected from death of his brother, Allie.
A place to go: in order for Holden to go home, he must leave Pennsylvania, where Pencey Prep is located and stay around New York city for a few days living on his own. Holden cannot go home until the following Wednesday after he has been expelled from Pencey Prep on Saturday, unless he wants his parents to know. Therefore, Holden decides to stay around New York City in hotels, bars, and his old teacher's couch until Wednesday arrives. A stated reason to go there: he has been expelled from Pencey Prep, so only being sixteen he has to go back home and live with his parents because he cannot live too long on his own with his left over money. Challenges and trials: he cannot go home before the following Wednesday because his parents must not know that he once again has been expelled from school. …show more content…
Along his way home he is affected by an internal conflict within his own mind. He has a very depressing spirit and judgemental mentality that seems to be caused by the death of his brother, Allie. Throughout the couple of days living by himself, he endures a life of what seems like adulthood where he realizes he no longer is a kid and has lost all innocence. He visits bars underaged, he offers to pay a prostitute that came to his hotel room, but he couldn’t go through with his plan. Holden realizes his trouble to create relationships with others as he encounters many different people throughout New York City. He also struggles to find places to stay throughout his journey and eventually goes to an old english teacher to stay the night, but eventually is freaked out by his teacher stroking his forehead in his sleep and leaves during the night. After a long couple of days, he decides he must leave the city on his own , but wants to see his little sister, Phoebe, before he leaves, who is very upset he wouldn’t let her leave with him. After seeing her extremely happy on a carousel, Holden has a mini-breakdown and begins to cry. He comes around to another realization that everyone has to grow up at some point and he is starting to reach a point in life where he is noticing his maturity evolving. The real reason to go: he decides it is almost his duty to protect Phoebe and her innocence since he has already lost his. He realizes his own inevitable maturity and furthermore notices Phoebe maturing also, even though she is a young girl. The death of his brother Allie affected him greatly and decided he wanted to be there for Phoebe, unlike his brother was able to do for him anymore. After going home with Phoebe, he does not speak so much of their day, but how he is now older and in a hospital and tells his future to go back to school in the future, with motivation from the story with his sister. After all, Holden faced rough life situations at an early age, which