Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all” clearly insights what the life of Holden Caulfield was like. Holden from The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is influenced by those around him like his family. Mostly, his little sister Phoebe and his dead younger brother Allie affect Holden’s point of view and how he acts or responds to others. Relationships have the most significant impact on a person’s identity, as shown through Holden’s relationships with his family. Holden’s identity is impacted by the relationships he formed as seen through his behavior. He wanted to do this because of his childhood. Childhood is where we learn what relationships are and how to create them. He lost his own innocence because …show more content…
This hindered Holden’s way to communicate and relate to others, this affected his relationships that he already has with his family. Holden’s relationship with Allie is one of his strongest relationships we see in the novel and one time we see it is when Phoebe asks him, “Name one thing you like?” and later Holden responds, “I like Allie” expressing his relationship with him and also how he doesn’t like anything except Allie and Phoebe (Salinger 169 and 171). It highlights that he likes innocent kids and also his relationships with others aren’t very good. Holden's good relationships are only with his younger siblings which isn't good in the adult world. Throughout the novel, Holden tries to find a relationship of his to talk to but couldn’t find anyone but Phoebe and during the end of the
Emily Muzi 10/29/15 G How Holden Treats Women Holden Caulfield has trouble connecting with everyone but when it comes to women, he views them as objects to admire or protect. He doesn’t feel that they’re smart, nor hold any depth of character. Although, he holds a very intense love for some such as his younger sister Phoebe or his childhood friend, Jane Gallagher. Holden seems to be attached to them and they’re the only people that Holden is psychologically connected to.
This moment of recalling the moments he has with Allie, and looking back at what Allie was like was a heartfelt moment for Holden, and him choosing to write the essay about Allie’s mitt shows Holden’s connection and love for Allie and the relationship he had with him. Later on towards the end of the novel, we can see Holden frantically walking down the streets yet again, as he finds himself slowly losing touch of reality, and starting to do strange things. When this happens, Holden recognizes that his first instinct was to call for his brother to help him. Holden explains, “Then I started doing something else… I'd make believe I was
Although he doesn’t feed into any more than just stating his feelings usually there still is deeper emotional meaning to it. In some spots in the book it is merely Holden saying he was feeling depressed, but in other spots you see him try to connect to anyone in order to just talk to someone or try to cover his feelings with alcohol and random conversations. At one point Holden is in a cab and he starts asking questions such as: “by any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over” and this might be an actual concern of his but I see it more as a way to reach out to somebody who’s older and might something more figured out than Holden does at seventeen (60)?. Sometimes as a teenager when you don’t have someone to talk to you lose sight of what is really happening because you can’t vent to sort it out and Holden finally starts to vent to his sister Phoebe and he says, “I kept talking about Pencey” and he probably couldn’t stop at this point (168).
Erick Costilla Mrs. Maggert 8th hour 3 November, 2016 [01 month 2016] The G grief of Holden Caulfield In J.D. Salinger's “The Catcher in the Rye” [book titles always get italicized, not underlined or quote marks] he discusses the lonely and confused life of holden caulfield. Capitalization errors. It was also the process in which Holden grieves about the death of his brother. Although not the whole book was about his brother's death, it plays a big role on Holden's part because of the effects of Holden's grief over the death of his brother, Allie, and how he needs to get some kind of closure or find a way to move on and live his life.
Holden perceives that he is alone in the world and is searching for someone with whom he can make a meaningful connection. He is in desperate need of a person to release him from his loneliness and feelings of despair. When Holden’s strong connection with Jane Gallagher ended, his life began a downward
Holden is a highly cynical person who finds phoniness and hypocrisy in everyone and everything around him. He has trouble seeing the world in complex concepts and seems to be stuck between childhood and adulthood. He views children as completely innocent and adults as dishonest and superficial. Phoebe Caulfield Phoebe is Holden's
An individual's identity is the expression of the unique circumstances that develop a person's morality, and how they interact with the world; The theme of identity in J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" is expressed through Holden Caulfield's confusion and naivety to the world around him as he struggles to reconcile his past with the changing world around him. The character Holden Caulfield is shown to have been faced with a troubled past filled with deaths at a young age. When Holden has to face an adult world filled with sexual expression the innocence of his youthful identity is challenged by the sexuality of adolescence. Furthermore his identity is explored through Holden's cynicism to the adults in his life as a result of his child
Due to his fear of growing up, he also wants to stop the young kids from going into the awful phony adult world. These are the two reasons he has found his purpose in
In order to understand how writing was a tool for personal growth in The Catcher in the Rye, it is necessary to examine Holden Caulfields narrative tendencies, his narration of his experiences, and how telling his story in this style helped him to overcome/face crisis. Holden has a very specific narrative style. Holden tends to write in a depressive, self-conscious manner, while also
For Holden, Allie’s death effect to Holden was truly devastating. However, his death gave Holden a chance to develop a closer bond with his younger sister, Phoebe. Losing a connection, like Holden and Allie’s can takes a toll over your life. But by learning from the past, he takes advantage of the time they get to spend with each other. Holden tries to recreate a connection as strong as he would have had with Allie through Phoebe.
ssay English 3A In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden starts to talk about his brother Allie. Allie was only two years younger than Holden. Holden would often admire Allie for his intelligence, kindness, and how he never got angry towards anything.
After talking about his childhood memories with his brother he states, ¨He is dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You´d have like him.¨ Then after talking about Allie’s old baseball mitt he said, ¨I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it¨(43-44). Allie’s death is used to show the unexpected change that Holden had experienced during his life. Allie was only eleven when he died, and Holden was thirteen.
Throughout the book Holden is isolated from people that would look after him and as a result Holden sees himself as his own adviser and
Holden Caulfield internally rebels against society, choosing to value his own defiant, unorthodox judgment over the authority figures and institutions in his life. He describes nearly everyone in society as hypocritical and “phony,” and constantly points out people’s flaws. In the environment of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is a social outcast, since he detests the phonies and refuses to engage in their pretentious behavior. Salinger demonstrates these people do not act according to their true personalities, and instead try to change their behavior to conform to social expectations. Furthermore, Holden observes that many continually focus on money and celebrities, leaving no room for any positive emotions or genuine connections.
Holden was very close to Allie so it 's understandable that his death had a resonant effect on him; however, trying to hold onto Allie has caused him to go into a downward spiral. He constantly smokes and drinks to try and fill the hole that his brother left. His drinking mixed with his failure to cope with Allies death had led him to have very intense emotions such as sadness and anger. “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it.