Catcher In The Rye Essay

Submitted By kitcattom
Words: 1074
Pages: 5
Open Document
Tom, Caitlin
Freeland – Block 8
10/23/14
Understanding and Uncertainty
Knowledge is best obtained through experience. This is shown in J.D. Salinger’s
Catcher
in the Rye
, a young adult novel about a boy named Holden Caulfield in New York, who is surrounded by social and academic pressures and wants to be different from everyone else.
Through analyzing Holden’s encounters and mindset, it is revealed that the book supports the argument that Holden or any other teenager has conflicts with society and struggle to grow up while maintaining innocence.
Throughout the novel, Holden continuously clashes with society. For example, when he is at Mr. Spencer’s house a little while after getting kicked out of Pencey Prep, Mr. Spencer explains that “Life is a game,” in which Holden responds by saying, “Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot­shots are, then it’s a game, all right – I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot­shots, then what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game” (8). It is clear that Holden groups himself with “the other side” and not being a “hot­shot.” From what Holden tells about his life, he has a lot of advantages coming from a wealthy family and having the opportunity for a good education. What brings him into conflict with society is his refusal to play by the rules of “the game,” as said by Mr. Spencer, which results in his alienation from society. In addition to his conversation with Mr. Spencer,
Holden describes certain adults as phonies. At Elkton Hills, “…they had this headmaster, Mr.
Haas, that was the phoniest bastard I ever met in my life” (13). He relays how Mr. Haas would

shake parents’ hands and be very charming, but would quickly dismiss the “funny­looking parents.” Holden views people like that as too typical, or too superficial. This actually reveals that his judgment of others is superficial, too. His perception of certain things causes him to come into conflict with society.
Holden holds onto innocence and notices it in other people. When he meets Sunny, the prostitute, she asks him his age, and he responds by saying he is twenty­two. Sunny says, “Like fun you are.” Holden thinks, “It was a funny thing to say. It sounded like a real kid. You’d think a prostitute and all would say ‘Like hell you are’ or ‘Cut the crap’ instead of ‘Like fun you are’” (94). This is ironic because Sunny is obviously not innocent at all, given she is a prostitute.
Holden recognizes the remaining innocence in Sunny due to the fact that she avoids vulgarities.
It is the reason why he avoids having sex with her and chooses to have a conversation instead – he cannot bring himself to do something like that to a seemingly innocent girl. He even feels uncomfortable in her very presence since he still cannot shake off the fact that she is still a kid.
Later in the novel, he sneaks into his own home at night to speak with Phoebe, his little sister.
He talks about what he would like to be. “…I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around – nobody big,
I mean – except me…if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all” (173). He wants to protect their innocence and to also save them from the difficulties of adulthood. It also adds to his idea of adults being phonies. Holden is afraid of the children becoming phonies, which is basically a representation of everything wrong with the world. The fall of the cliff represents adulthood. Holden is trying to stop the children in his dream from

losing their innocence and becoming what he is most afraid of, which is why he wants to be the catcher in the rye. It is to stop them from growing up. There are no adults in the field
Show More

Related Documents: Catcher In The Rye Essay

Catcher in the Rye Essay

The Catcher in the Rye “Is The Catcher in the Rye, as a work of literature still relevant for today’s youth?” Name: Sara Sigurdson Course: English A1 Supervisor: Mr. Peter Steadman Word count: 3851 Candidate number: 00136022 Table of Contents Content Page Number Abstract 3 Introduction 4 The Actual Catcher in the Rye 4 The Sexual Matter 5 The Caulfield Family 6 Narrator and Protagonist 8 Role Model 9 Mr. Antolini 10 Targeted Audience 10 Guidance 12…

Words 4410 - Pages 18

catcher and the rye Essay

Emma Lange 9/16/14 Peruggia C Essay: Catcher and the Rye Profane, sexual, and vulgar content are often cited as reasons for banning a book. J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most controversial books of all time. It is heralded as a classic yet, according to the American Library Association, the Catcher in the Rye was the third most banned book from libraries and schools as recently as 2005. It earned the ranking of nineteenth most challenged books between the years…

Words 1502 - Pages 7

Catcher in the Rye Essays

a. How does the context created in the first 20 pages of the novel create how the ending occurs for the reader? In the novel Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger published in the year 1951, the context created at the beginning of the novel is that the character Holden Caulfield occurs to believe that the world is full of stupid people – who cause his relationships to be unsatisfying and unfulfilling. At the end of the novel, Holden is seen to find the satisfying and fulfilling relationship he had…

Words 640 - Pages 3

Catcher in the Rye Essay

that adulthood is a world of superficiality and hypocrisy (“phoniness”), while childhood is a world of innocence, curiosity, and honesty. Nothing reveals his image of these two worlds better than his fantasy about the catcher in the rye: he imagines childhood as an idyllic field of rye in which children romp and play; adulthood, for the children of this world, is equivalent to death—a fatal fall over the edge of a cliff. His created understandings of childhood and adulthood allow Holden to cut himself…

Words 2239 - Pages 9

Essay on Catcher In The Rye- Ducks

Rita Acosta Advanced U.S. Literature B 26 January 2015 Krueger Catcher Essay In The Catcher In The Rye By J.D. Sallinger, a young Holden Caufield is refusing to grow up. There are many symbols of his youth throughout the book, such as his curiosity about ducks. "I was thinking about the lagoon in Central Park, down near Central Park South. I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and if it was, where did the ducks go. I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon got…

Words 588 - Pages 3

Catcher in the Rye Literary Essay

English ISP 3/23/14 Daniel A. Edery Catcher in the Rye/Swing Kids In life, while trying to overcome obstacles there are two options: either it is overcome, or not. But there are many reasons behind whether one fails or succeeds. Holden Caulfield was “troubled”, and had many obstacles to overcome, most of which were his fault in the first place. He was failing out of school and was therefore getting kicked out. Also, he had this idea that everybody was a “phony”. Because of this notion he got…

Words 1954 - Pages 8

Essay on Catcher in the Rye

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was and always will be one of the greatest novels of all time. It’s a fascinating story that allows us to explore a young boy’s thoughts (also Twain’s view) of society. At the beginning of the story, Huck doesn’t want to ever be civilized and at the end of the story, Huck still doesn’t want to be civilized. However, by the end of the story, Huck’s reasons behind not wanting to be civilized change from the beginning of the story. When the story begins, Huck talks…

Words 879 - Pages 4

The Catcher in the Rye Essay

The Catcher in the Rye In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger represents childhood as a stressful turn table of mixed emotions. The intense moments of Holden’s life (like in chapter one at the football game, where Holden feels excluded from his entire school as he glares down at everyone in the stadium) are amazing representations of childhood at a glance. Most teenagers go through hell during high school, and Holden Caulfield is a prime example of that. This book was interesting because of Salinger’s…

Words 1053 - Pages 5

Catcher in the Rye Essay

Holden’s greatest worry is that Stradlater will make sexual advances toward Jane. Stradlater and Ackley sound like appallingly unsympathetic characters, but this is completely the result of the tone in which Holden describes them. For instance, Holden indicates his awareness that Ackley behaves in annoying ways because he is insecure and unpopular, but instead of trying to imagine what Ackley wants or why he does things, he focuses on Ackley’s surface—literally, his skin. By describing in minute…

Words 371 - Pages 2

Catcher In The Rye Comparison Essay

Comparison essay of catcher in the Rye and Life of PI According to Helen Hayes “ Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy, and isn't original sin. He's born with the tragedy that he has to grow up… a lot of people don't have the courage to do it” , Holden decided to try to find a way to keep himself from aging to an adult and trying not to face the fact that when Ali died and he did not want to face that reality while Pi since he lost his whole family and was stranded on an island…

Words 1180 - Pages 5