Holden in the 1950’s
J.D. Salinger wrote the the book The Catcher in the Rye in 1951. Before the 1950s, teenagers were known to always be doing what their parents told them to do and to follow in the same footsteps as their parents. However, while writing this story Salinger challenged these conformities and showed a side of teenagers that would soon become a major change for the years to come. J.D. Salinger challenges how teenagers viewed themselves, as well as how they were viewed by society in the 1950s by creating characters that depict various adolescent roles during that time period. Before the term teenager was even used, young adults had very different roles then after the teenage rebellion. The daily life of a teen in the 1940’s …show more content…
He seems to want to wear it when there is a large crowd of people, most likely because he wants to be different than everyone else, especially all of the other teens who are falling in to conformity. An example of this is when he is describing when he put on the hat when it was cold outside one day, “I took my red hunting out of my pocket and put it on- I didn’t give a **** how I looked”(Salinger 88). When people would go out to town they would wear their nice clothes to show people their nice clothing also they would wear respectable clothing so that people would think that they were respectable, however this quote his showing that Holden, a teen in society really does not want to be apart of that kind of society and does not seem to care what other people think. Furthermore, Caulfield choses to put on this hat even though he knows people are going to look at him strangely, which shows his want to be distant from society and be his own person. J.D. Salinger describes Holden in this way because he wants teens to think of themselves as their own people who dress how they would like and sort of rebel against their parents such as Holden is doing. Teenagers during the 1950s adopted this ideology with changing the way that they dressed from very conservative to beginning to wear clothes that used to be considered inappropriate such as jeans for boys and poodle skirts or …show more content…
Holdens parents most likely had no idea of what their son was up to and would not allow that kind of behavior, however Holden thinks of himself as an adult so he wants to act like one, which means he should order drinks like one. An example of this is when Holden is at the Lavender Room and orders a drink, “Can’tcha stick a little rum in it or something?”(Salinger 69). This quote is showing that Holden is trying to act as though he is an adult to the waiter, however the waiter clearly sees through this and does not allow Holden to have alcohol Also as a teenager, Holden believes that he should have already had sex and talks about this topic a lot throughout the book. He even orders a prostitute in an elevator, however when Sunny, the prostitute, comes to his room, he gets afraid and does not want to do anything except for talk. This shows that even though Holden wants to be an adult and act like one he is still a child in the sense that he is too young to be doing these things, so he would like to keep the amount of innocence that he has left. Teenagers before the 1950s were not supposed to have sex, go out without parents, or even date. However after having many strict rules being
J.D. Salinger wrote the the book The Catcher in the Rye in 1951. Before the 1950s, teenagers were known to always be doing what their parents told them to do and to follow in the same footsteps as their parents. However, while writing this story Salinger challenged these conformities and showed a side of teenagers that would soon become a major change for the years to come. J.D. Salinger challenges how teenagers viewed themselves, as well as how they were viewed by society in the 1950s by creating characters that depict various adolescent roles during that time period. Before the term teenager was even used, young adults had very different roles then after the teenage rebellion. The daily life of a teen in the 1940’s …show more content…
He seems to want to wear it when there is a large crowd of people, most likely because he wants to be different than everyone else, especially all of the other teens who are falling in to conformity. An example of this is when he is describing when he put on the hat when it was cold outside one day, “I took my red hunting out of my pocket and put it on- I didn’t give a **** how I looked”(Salinger 88). When people would go out to town they would wear their nice clothes to show people their nice clothing also they would wear respectable clothing so that people would think that they were respectable, however this quote his showing that Holden, a teen in society really does not want to be apart of that kind of society and does not seem to care what other people think. Furthermore, Caulfield choses to put on this hat even though he knows people are going to look at him strangely, which shows his want to be distant from society and be his own person. J.D. Salinger describes Holden in this way because he wants teens to think of themselves as their own people who dress how they would like and sort of rebel against their parents such as Holden is doing. Teenagers during the 1950s adopted this ideology with changing the way that they dressed from very conservative to beginning to wear clothes that used to be considered inappropriate such as jeans for boys and poodle skirts or …show more content…
Holdens parents most likely had no idea of what their son was up to and would not allow that kind of behavior, however Holden thinks of himself as an adult so he wants to act like one, which means he should order drinks like one. An example of this is when Holden is at the Lavender Room and orders a drink, “Can’tcha stick a little rum in it or something?”(Salinger 69). This quote is showing that Holden is trying to act as though he is an adult to the waiter, however the waiter clearly sees through this and does not allow Holden to have alcohol Also as a teenager, Holden believes that he should have already had sex and talks about this topic a lot throughout the book. He even orders a prostitute in an elevator, however when Sunny, the prostitute, comes to his room, he gets afraid and does not want to do anything except for talk. This shows that even though Holden wants to be an adult and act like one he is still a child in the sense that he is too young to be doing these things, so he would like to keep the amount of innocence that he has left. Teenagers before the 1950s were not supposed to have sex, go out without parents, or even date. However after having many strict rules being