Holden Caulfield Attitude

“I like to be somewhere at least where you can see a few girls around once in a while, even if they’re only scratching their arms or blowing their noses or even just giggling or something” (3). The narrator, Holden Caulfield, describes an aspect of his character through this confession. Obviously, he is interested in girls and desires them at all times. During the 1950s when this novel was published, having such desires would not have been approved of by the parents of the time due to the increasing social pressures of society. A majority of these adults would have considered Caulfield a terrible role model and would not have wanted the youth to read about him wanting to look at girls.

Keeping these things in mind, Holden Caulfield is presented much like the author. Caulfield has a very immature attitude that fall under the category of Ego-Defensive. The Ego-Defensive category has four subcategories within itself called; denial, repression, projective, and rationalization, that are labeled as defense mechanisms through psychological lenses. According to McGraw-Hill’s Dictionary of Modern Medicine, denial is the “primitive–ego defense–mechanism by which a person unconsciously negates the existence of a disease or other stress-producing reality in his environment, by disavowing thoughts, feelings, wishes, needs, or external reality factors that are consciously intolerable.” Holden presents his state of denial in the way he tries to maintain his relationship with his deceased brother, Allie.

Holden Caulfield’s Inability to Heal Holden Caulfield, by the end of the novel, hesitates when it comes to accepting his imperfections and refuses to accept the idea of maturity which inevitably hinders his growth. Due to Holden’s fixation on the purity of childhood innocence, he is unable to accept the responsibilities of adulthood. Ultimately, he remains stalled due to his reluctance to accept change and confront uncomfortable emotions, preventing him from moving forward by the end of the novel, "The Catcher in the Rye." Holden is incapable of healing due to his hesitation to confront his own imperfection. Holden is quick to criticize others, but at the same time reluctant to accept responsibility for his own actions.

In the novel The Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield attempts to sustain himself in the child world, but when faced with evidence that adulthood is inescapable, he starts to give in to what he views as the corruptive adult atmosphere, since he is no longer welcome in the childhood.

In the novel by J.D Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield tries to battle through the burdens of becoming an adult and growing up in a bone chilling world. Through his journey he comes across five central themes that are psychological paths to cross. Predominantly, alienation is an accent that Holden can’t contradict. Next, Caulfield shows self-protection by isolating himself. Then, losses of innocence, his mental capacity to understand the nature of acts start to become incomprehensible.

Final words to Mr. Caulfield is he will have a rough life when he finishes school, socially and mentally. In addition, he will be deprived of his goals in life due to his mental illness called depression and symptoms accompanying like loss of interests, hiding depression by using comfort items, and personality disorder within

Holden Caulfield in the novel “The Catcher In The Rye” is a scrawny teen who loves his red hunting hat and can’t relate with anyone. His personality is reason he can’t relate, his personality sucks, it’s depressing, judgy, and sensitive. My first impression of him was that he sure complained a lot, and he says goddamn way to much, and he doesn’t care about himself. Holden is always talking about depression, every chapter he talks about being depressed, mostly when he remembers something that someone said. He gets depressed over the simplest things, he thinks to much about things, and he exaggerates situations.

The Catcher in the Rye Thematic Essay Imagine living a lonesome life, full of fear and little hope of better days to come. Imagine the toll this would take on a person’s life and how they develop as a person. For Holden Caulfield, the main character of J.D Salinger’s classic The Catcher in the Rye this, is his reality. Holden is a sixteen year old troubled boy suffering through major mental issues and living a rather a depressing life for a teenager. Throughout the novel he goes through many hardships that only worsen his depression making him feel hatred towards his seemingly hellish world.

Was Holden successful in his Journey This is an essay on whether or not Holden Caulfield is successful on his journey throughout the novel “The Catcher in the Rye” by Jerome David Salinger. This book shows how hard it can be for teenagers that are going from an adolescent to adulthood. Holden, who is sixteen years old, has been kicked out of several schools. Pencey Prep. was the latest.

Holden Caulfield is not a cliche teenager that keeps his feelings in; he makes sure everyone knows how he feels and expresses it. During the book he reveals himself a little more to us. ‘When I was all set to go... I stood for a while next to the stairs and took a last look down the goddamn corridor. I was sort or crying…

“Innocence is always unsuspicious”- Joseph Joubert The loss of innocence isn’t some big celebration when you hit a certain age, or have a certain experience, it is something that comes when you aren’t looking. J.D. Salinger was a man who kept to himself, didn’t offer many interviews, and wanted to make a difference. In this novel, he has woven the story of Holden Caulfield a sixteen year old, who has an adventure in New York City before going home and taking responsibility for his actions that fall. Throughout his time in the city, he matures and learns to look at the big picture.

From the outset, I have to say that “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger has been one of the most important and influential pieces of literature I have ever read. At its core, the book is a superb coming of age novel which discusses several extremely powerful themes such as the difficulties of growing up, teenage angst and alienation and the superficiality, hypocrisy and pretension of the adult world. These themes resonated deeply with me and were portrayed excellently through the use of powerful symbolism and the creation of highly relatable and likable characters. One such character is Holden Caulfield whom the story both revolves around and is narrated by.

Catcher in the Rye In the book Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, the narrator and protagonist Holden Caulfield a sixteen year old junior undergoes a series of changes. Holden learns multiple life changing lessons; one of them is you must grow up. In the beginning of the novel, Holden starts out as “that kid”; the one with the parents who expect him to get into an ivy league school, and end up with a kid with no intentions of doing so. At the beginning of the book it is very apparent that Holden lacks motivation; he also has hit rock bottom.

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel that was written by J. D. Salinger in 1951. It was first published by Little, Brown and Company and was originally written for adults, but became popular among teenagers for its teenage main character, who deals with problems a large number of adolescents face in their transition into adulthood. It is not a difficult book to read, especially considering it is only 234 pages. The story revolves around the protagonist, a 16 year old boy named Holden Caulfield, who recently flunked out of a prestigious preparatory school.

Jessica Casimiro October 30, 2015 English 3/PayLea Short Story Essay Patrick Rothfuss once claimed, “The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.” The novel Catcher in the Rye focuses on Holden Caulfield, an angst-ridden teen conflicted between remaining in a state of prolonged innocence or transitioning into the world of adulthood, thus facing the corruption and phoniness that it correlates with. Through Holden’s dynamic character, J.D Salinger depicts how innocence is slowly lost when exposed to adulthood. Reluctant to the idea of growing up, Holden strives to protect the innocence of himself and the ones’ around him. Holden reminisces about the Natural Museum of History, a place he enjoyed going