Writing from a rest home where he's recuperating some illness or break down, Holden Caulfield says he'll tell the story of what happened to him just before the previous Christmas. Holden's story begins at Pencey Prep on the day of the big football game, Holden, who has just been expelled for failing 4 of his 5 classes, visits Mr. Spencer, his history teacher. Mr. Spencer lectures Holden about playing by the rules and thinking about his future. Holden pretends to agree with what he hears but actually thinks Mr. Spencer is a “phony.” Back in his dorm room, Robert Ackley, Holden's irritating neighbor, interrupts Holden as he tries to read, and Ward Stradlater, Holden's conceited and good-looking roommate heads out for a date with Jane Gallagher,…
The ending of the Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, has finally given the reader some much-needed information about Holden, as well as his family. As the book winds to an end, we see Holden completely hammered at a bar; at the bar, he decides to give Sally Hayes a ring. After being shut out and told to go to bed by Sally, the pianist at the bar, and finally coat check girl, Holden decides to visit the ducks he has been talking so much about throughout the novel. At the pond, in a fit of anxiety, Holden remembers Allie and his funeral, he then decides to go home to have a little chat with his little sister Phoebe. After lying to the doorman, Holden finally sneaks home without anyone realizing.…
The Painful Journey Into the Wild by John Krakauer and The Catcher in the Rye by D.J. Salinger are stories of opinionated, stubborn young men on introspective journeys provoked by feelings that they are unable to comprehend. The protagonists, Chris McCandless and Holden Caulfield, both travel nearly identical paths, though they have very unique idiosyncrasies. Both Chris McCandless and Holden Caulfield are linked by the unhealable wound archetype, and fueled by oppressed feelings of discontent and confusion towards their family members respectively. They channel their feelings inward, which pushes them towards searching for an escape, “in the wild”.…
As many people from the teenage years to late adulthood realize, relationships are incredibly complicated. Sometimes you see one side of someone and then they turn out to be the total opposite. Everyone has a different view of people and treat them differently. Back in the 1950’s especially women were treated with not much respect. Holden Caufield is a very complicated boy.…
Holden Caulfield is an interesting character; he gives off the persona of being a tough guy who is sarcastic and witty. In chapters 21-23 though it highlights his complete obsession with innocence and maybe that he is a more compassionate, caring, and loving person than he leads on to be. You can say that one of Holden’s biggest weaknesses is his little sister, Phoebe. In chapter 21 Holden makes an attempt of returning home in which he tricks an elevator operator in getting his up to his family's apartment. When arriving home his parents and brother are both not home, but he does find Phoebe sleeping in his brothers room.…
Holden doesn’t want to accept his “kid-sister’s” growth, stating that “she’s just a child and all.” However, like many elements of Holden’s narrative, the truth is more complex than Holden depicts. Phoebe proves herself to not only be very intelligent, as shown through her knowledge of Robert Burns poetry, but to be able to infer that Holden was kicked out of Pencey from his dialogue. Even when Holden decides to go “way out West”, she follows him not for her own selfish motives, but to look after her brother.…
Holden flips out and interprets this as a sexual advance so he leaves immediately and spends the night at Grand Central Station…
As Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman philosopher, once said, "A room without books is like a body without a soul.” Books have the capability to be any person's escape from reality and no book should ever be subjected to the term "banned". Every book has at least one good thing to offer, no matter how great or small. All the reader has to do is give the book a chance and find that one thing. The novel The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, is one such book that should be taught in high school.…
Holden gets so nervous and does not want to take advantage of her that he just pays her to go away, “She was very nervous, for a prostitute. She really was. I think it was because she was young as hell. She was around my age… She had a tiny little wheeny-whiny voice.…
The fear of change is very common among people all over the world. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden is subject to an abundance of changes that he fears, which eventually causes him to realize that change is needed in some parts of his life in order to become more mature and to adapt to his surroundings. Holden´s fear of adulthood is one of his biggest fears throughout the course of the novel. When Holden first takes a taxi cab when he gets off the train station in New York, he becomes very curious and wonders ¨where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over,¨ (Salinger 16). When Holden asks the cab driver about where the ducks go in the winter, he is relating the question to his own life.…
After being on his own for a couple days,Holden visits goes back home to visit Phoebe. During their conversation at home, Holden tells Phoebe, ”I told you. They let us out early. They let the whole--" (Salinger 88). Holden obviously has no reason for lying to Phoebe since he supposed to be at school around the time he comes home and Phoebe is smart enough to see through his lie.…
Holden envies the idea of childhood and holds onto his immaturity and childlike fantasies in order to escape the reality of growing up into a world full of “phonies.” This is proven by how much Holden brings up the duck pond he visited as a child, wondering where the ducks go in the winter. He says, “I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over. I wondered if some guy came in a truck and took them away to the zoo or something. Or if they just flew away” (18).…
Even with all of his talk about his father's job, most of Holden's nervous ticks and character traits seem to come from his mother. For instance, Holden mentions "phonies" forty-four separate times throughout the novel (Corbett 68-73). This can be connected to his mother by the way he speaks about her. Her speech always seems to very insincere, and Holden displays that she has very little compassion for her own children. If his mother's actions were powerful enough to influence his obsession with liars, she could also have very easily made him extremely cautious and considerate of women.…
He is still learning ways to the “grown up” world. Next, is when he has his little attempt at dating. Dating is different from when grown ups and teenagers do it. Holden goes on a date to the movies with Sally Hayes. He said he loves her just so he can raise his stock to get some nookie, “We horsed around a little… I told her I loved her and all.…
Holden and his sister Phoebe have an unusual relationship for being siblings. Phoebe is the only one Holden can go to and she is his best friend. Holden goes to his family’s house in the middle of the night to see Phoebe, he tells her that he was expelled. Phoebe doesn’t take the news very well and is made at Holden. Phoebe turns on the radio and they begin to dance.…