Holden's Journey From Pennsylvania To New York: From Adolescence To Adulthood

Improved Essays
D. Holden’s Journey from Pennsylvania to New York: From Adolescence to Adulthood
Holden stays three days in the New York City and meets different people and as an urban picaro he is challenged by a forcible environment of a metropolitan. This metropolitan has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial center of the world and stays for competition, capitalism, commerce and everything else that Holden hates. At the time he arrives to the city Holden is neither a child anymore nor an adult. This complex inner world of Holden shows the raging atmosphere of the modern world and it’s human. For example, Holden’s first concern when he comes and takes a taxi to the hotel becomes the ducks in the Central Park. He
…show more content…
Throughout the book Holden tries to find out important parts of life in society however he understands that nobody wants to pull people out of this chaos. And this is why when Phoebe asks Holden what he wants to do with his life, Holden tells Phoebe that he would like to be a “catcher in the rye”. Holden thinks himself on a field of rye where a lot of children playing around the edge of a cliff. He envisions that he would catch them if they go over the cliff. The children who are playing around the edge of a cliff represent innocence and what lies below the cliff represents the impurity of life that many people have fallen. Holden’s dream of becoming a “catcher in the rye” shows that he wishes to preserve the children from the phony adult world in which people have been turned to senseless and blind creatures by the social norms. Even if he realizes that he would grow up anyway, Holden does not want to grow up. When he walks in the Museum of Natural History Holden states that he likes museum’s displays because they are frozen and unchanging. The museum represents the world Holden wishes he could live in, it is like a world of his “catcher in the rye” fantasy, a world

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    J.D Salinger uses color within the book Catcher in the Rye to help him establish and bring out themes appropriately. Color is a good symbolic element in books because characters often go through many physical and emotional changes that color helps represent. In the entirety of the book, Holden is symbolized by many different colors because of his actions and emotions. J.D Salinger used the colors red, green, blue and yellow throughout the book to symbolize different events that took place. For example, Holden’s red hunting hat, shortly after getting out of the subway early in chapter 2, Holden sees a very strange looking hat in a sports store window.…

    • 1068 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Mesmerized by the internal need to preserve the innocence in the world around him, Holden ventures off on a life-changing journey to grasp the unattainable, the need to prevent children from maturing. With the unfortunate past events in his life guiding the way, Holden embarks on a mission to prove to the world that he can make his inflated dream a reality by protecting the youth from the impurities of adulthood. Being the catcher in the rye is more than just a job that Holden wants; it is the occupation he needs in his life to play his part. The heroic deeds Holden implicates into his voyage throughout the novel proves his valor, but he is stricken by an incognizant mentality, steering him away from his objective, and down the treacherous…

    • 2253 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When Holden talks to Phoebe, he reminds himself of his childhood when he told Phoebe, ¨Thatś all I´d do all day. I'd just be the catcher and the rye and all,¨”(Salinger 191). When Holden talks about the catcher and the rye, he is talking about when he used to play the game in the fields with other kids when he was younger. As he has flashbacks of these moments, his realization of him not wanting to grow up becomes even greater than it was before. They make him want to stay in that stage of innocence, in which he has fallen so deeply in, and in which he has revolved his personality around.…

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Holden, the protagonist in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, is well known for his vast array of psychological problems which plague him throughout the narrative of the book. From the beginning of the story, a clear trend of Holden protecting his or someone else’s innocence is established, and this need appears to influence many of the events which unfold during the novel. He tries his hardest to avoid and obscure obscenities, perverted behavior, and phoniness. These qualities, which he associates with adulthood, are things which he wishes to escape from by preserving his and other people’s childhoods.…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Holden attends Pencey Prep, a private school in Pennsylvania. Holden isn’t doing well at Pencey and is supposed to be heading home to New York, but he has a few days to kill. In these unscheduled days before he has to head home, Holden travels throughout Pennsylvania and New York getting himself into all sorts of trouble. Holden takes a train to New York where he runs into an old friend 's mom and lies to her about how bad of a kid he is. Later, Holden finds himself in deep trouble with a prostitute and her gang whom he owes money.…

    • 1287 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The battle between moving on from his childhood but being caught in the middle of transitioning into adulthood, is what shapes the novel as Holden perseveres through every judgement and struggle that comes in his way. Holden then focuses on the important things in his life. For example, his sister Phoebe, and being the catcher in the rye for children so that they may be protected from the world. As Holden told his story, Salinger protrayed a troubled adolescent child in a way that everyone can learn from. In the end, Holden just wanted to protect other children from harm, from the world, and from a treacherous path in life.…

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The museum serves as the world Holden hopes he could live in: it's the world of his “catcher in the rye” fantasy, a world where nothing ever changes, where everything is straightforward, understandable, and boundless. Holden wishes he could be a catcher in the rye but in reality there is no such…

    • 848 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Holden Caulfield Catcher in the Rye, has shown to have a few eccentric tendencies, however Holden has shown to be a fairly normal teenager. Nevertheless, Holden seems to be seen as border lining on insanity due to his tendencies of mass amounts of anxiety and depression, which were strange for the time. Yet, Holden’s understanding of the world and how the world sees him is a factor that is often overlooked. Leads Holden is a normal teenager going through adolescence and is simply misunderstood by society because of his depression, lack of experience with grief, and warped view of the world. First of all, Holden’s depression, throughout the book Holden has shown to hold large amounts of depression that is caused by his detachment from society, pursuit of youth, and neglect from his parents.…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Anthony D’Angelo Holden’s Mental Journey How does Holden’s trip to New York city in The Catcher in the Rye disallow him from reaching mental stability? Everyone in his or her life will face adversity at one time or another. Although facing adversity can be tough both mentally and physically on someone, dealing with hardships is necessary for the growth of one´s character. Today's society, however, can pose many distractions that can deter one from reaching a goal and overcoming certain adversity in their life. Highlighting this occurring issue in one's life, J.D. Salinger describes in his novel The Catcher in the Rye a young protagonist under the name of Holden Caulfield, who gets kicked out of boarding school and lives a life in New…

    • 1312 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After, Holden talks to someone he usually decides that a person is a phony unless they are a child. Whatever he wants from people he’s not getting it and this makes him bitter and lonely. The main idea of “The Catcher in the Rye” is that growing up sucks, because you become a phony, and the world around you is not an easy place to live, also loneliness and oblivion are waiting for you. So you need to learn how to deal with them while trying to understand something or else you’ll go mad.…

    • 1580 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Holden’s journey leads him into the heart of New York City. Holden tries to escape from the painful reminder of his brothers death, but subconsciously he knows that New York is a strong reminder of Allie. This is comparable to the subtle reminder of the relationship between Chris McCandless and his father within the Alaskan wilderness. Holden experiences several changes in his point of view while nearing the end of his journey. After a particularly traumatic day in the city, Holden decides he would like to leave the city and begin a simpler life.…

    • 2317 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He declares his goal to be the catcher in the rye, one who prevents the young children from falling off a cliff when playing in the rye. Holden’s self-proclaimed deceitful nature, reckless behavior, and desire to save the young portray ineffective…

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Holden is in a cab talking to the driver and converses about ducks, he wonders if somebody "comes around in a truck or something and take(s) them away, or if they fly away by themselves?" (Salinger 91). Due to the experiences in his life Holden always wonders if people have a purpose. The ducks are a symbol of children and Holden wonders if they have someone taking care of them. His curiosity in the ducks reveals his caring nature to protect anything that comes his way.…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    But, the reason Holden isn’t like the children running around is because he is not completely innocent. He is also not off the cliff because he does not fully identify as an adult. So, he is on the edge because he has and can see both sides of the story and he wants to preserve the children. The Catcher in the Rye is Holden’s way of preserving innocence in children and showing to the reader’s clues of his mentality and innocence. This is like Holden’s view on the first child since the children make him understand his innocence in both passages and with this, it shows his…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In J.D Salinger’s, Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caufield is unwilling to resist change and is opposed of watching innocent children lose their innocence. This expresses the theme, the painfulness of growing up and phoniness of the adult world. Holden hates the phony adult world, so he wants to save every child from stepping into it. Therefore, Holden expresses his feelings to Phoebe that he wants to be the Catcher in the Rye. Holden says, “I keep picturing all these little kids….…

    • 295 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays