Holden's Carelessness Of The Catcher In The Rye

Decent Essays
Holden is really careless of most things during the book. He really only thinks of himself during a lot of the book. I mean he not only gets kicked out of school for flunking a class he did not like, but he also ran away from his family until the end of the book. Instead of going home he slept at the train station. He is afraid of his parents since he tries to avoid them. He grasps on to the only thing that is most similar to Allie which is Phoebe.

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    Holden fears the possibility that he may spend the rest of his life as an outsider looking in. Although Holden attempts to change his social position, his mindset is out of place, preventing him from relating to how a normal individual would feel. Therefore, Holden struggles immensely in terms of making lasting connections with others, mainly because he cannot see eye to eye with them. “He focuses on the danger and potential death instead of love and a personal relationship” (Edwards).…

    • 1541 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Reading the book I kept going back and thinking how much of a pain it would be to actually know Holden. He is always complaining about how things aren’t up to his standards and is always getting into arguments and picking fights that most of the time he can’t finish. I find Holden 's personality particularly odd because it tends to change like a switch when he 's around his sister, Phoebe. Holden adores his sister. When debating whether to run away or not, he doesn’t because he knows how much it would devastate her.…

    • 1287 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    He begs Allie to not let him vanish from the face of the earth because he is frightened. Another example is when Holden receives…

    • 1412 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout this novel, Holden’s innocence is portrayed with the use of sexual experiences, use of language as well as adult desires. In this whole novel, Holden is suffering from the harsh reality of growing up. He is stuck in between being young enough to enjoy life as a child, but having…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Holden's characteristic is confusing, he acts irresponsible and impulsive but sometimes he takes responsibility. In the beginning he talks about how he was the manager of the fencing team but forgets the equipment’s on the subway. Then in Mr. Spencer’s house he takes responsibility for his failure and actions. These two behaviors of Holden is contradicting and shows his struggle of not knowing what is right and what is acceptable by the society. Mr. Spencer advices Holden to take life as a game and play by the rules, to which Holden comments that life is only a game to those of the winning side.…

    • 125 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This is why Holden wishes to see Phoebe more than anyone else in the book, he loves Phoebe because she’s genuine and she exemplifies qualities that Holden doesn’t, for example she’s…

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Catcher in The Rye The picture I decided to create us entitled “Loss” and it is all inside of Holden’s head. Holden believes that innocence is lost in growing up, that is why this image is called “Loss”. From left to right darkness slowly takes over the drawing. The light side is centered with the Museum of Natural History.…

    • 1211 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Savior from the Fall A fallen state of grace is ever-present. This missing innocence permanently taints the conscious, resulting in mistakes that continuously push away from the pinnacle of happiness that purity gives. In J.D. Salinger’s, The Catcher in the Rye, narrator Holden Caulfield feels he is called to change this omnipresent stain, and wants to prevent future generations from this fall, which is a core value Don Bosco Technical Institute’s Expected Schoolwide Learning Results (ESLRs).…

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Holden grows throughout the book from a somewhat immature kid to a mature, wise, grownup boy who realizes that taking care of his sister is more important than getting yelled at by his parents for getting kicked out of another school. We see lots of character traits expressed and they show up between different events that…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Catcher in the Rye is a story about a teenage boy named Holden Caulfield and has many themes. Some of them include insanity, phoniness, childhood, and sex. Throughout the story Holden criticizes people and labels them “phonies”. Ironically, in The Catcher in the Rye, Holden acts phony in many ways which one can see through his thoughts, words and actions. Because of this Holden cannot have functioning relationships with others, and it take a toll on him.…

    • 1067 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When kicked out of his boarding school, instead of maturely going home and explaining to his parents his expulsion, Holden roams New York City and avoids returning home. The entire novel is based on Holden’s regression. He was in complete denial of his expulsion and didn’t see why it was necessary to return home. Holden also reverts to younger behavior when he is upset. For example following Allie’s death, Holden went into his garage and destroyed it “I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it.…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Holden’s actions and thoughts through most of the novel are driven by his desperate need to protect his own innocence and the innocence of others which he believes is eroded by adulthood. One of the main causes of Holden’s commitment to preserving innocence is the trauma which he received during his own childhood. In beginning of the book Holden briefly informs the reader about his childhood; he describes his childhood as not being great: “you’ll probably want to know … what my lousy childhood is…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Maturing and adolescent stage are the hardest years for many teenagers. The pressure of maturing along with the conflict feelings can take its toll. It is protagonist Holden Caulfield who is being newly exposed to a lot in the world. Holden breakdown is due to his alienation from others, issues of belonging which causes loneliness, depression now hate towards everything. He has a mental breakdown due to his alienation from others, issues of belonging and found every person boring.…

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    From the perspective of many other authors, they too feel like Holden goes on the preposterous quest to save the innocence of the…

    • 2253 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One of the main reasons Holden behaves the way he does is because he lost his younger brother, Allie at the age of eleven. Holden coped with the situation alone, which led to his ruination. He never received the closure he needed or the opportunity to an efficient solution on how to deal with the loss of his brother. Holden longs to protect children, and when Allie died, he could no longer protect him. The day after Allie’s death, he spent the night in the garage smashing windows, which is an indication on how hard the incident was on him.…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays