Reality Catcher In The Rye

Superior Essays
Jim Morrison, an American singer-songwriter, once said,“People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all” (James). Reality is a scary concept. It is abrupt, shocking, overwhelming - completely and totally terrifying. Being confronted with reality forces people to stop daydreaming and begin their own lives. To a person so enmeshed within his own daydreams, this can make him angry, and make him feel as if he must resort to violence. The Catcher in the Rye, a novel by J.D. Salinger, explores the concept of reality through the character Holden Caulfield. Holden is a teenager who roams from place to place, choosing to ignore the parts of his life he does not want to deal with. Several times throughout the novel, Holden is forced to face his issues and in response he resorts to anger. Holden uses violence as a way to ignore the intense feelings of sadness and anger his …show more content…
Holden’s younger brother, Allie, has died of leukemia. There is no “right” way of coping with such a tragic reality within a family, but Holden takes an unhealthy approach, by breaking things and using his fists rather than his words. “I slept in the garage the night he died and I broke all the goddamn windows with my fists, just for the hell of it” (Salinger 38). Holden is terrified of accepting his brother has died. He does not know what to do or how to respond. He uses violence to help him avoid directly facing his brother’s death. Holden later admits that he was not at the funeral of his brother, due to the injury he sustained to his hand. “I wasn’t there. I was still in the hospital. I had to go to the hospital and all after I hurt my hand” (155). Holden does not want to face the reality of his brother’s death and see him lying there in the coffin, so he deliberately injures his hand and terrorizes his own home to allow him to run away from the tragic situation of Allie’s

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    The death of his brother Allie has had a deleterious effect on Holden’s life. For example, when Holden was walking down the street he would say, “Every time I’d get to the end of a block I’d make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I’d say to him, ‘Allie, don’t let me disappear. Allie, don’t let me disappear. Allie, don’t let me disappear.…

    • 1412 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Throughout our lives, all human beings are forced to navigate from the world of our carefree simplistic childhoods to the more terrifying complex world of adulthood. For most people, this journey is fearsome and full of struggles and obstacles that they must overcome in order to venture to the other side. No matter how difficult this journey is, growing up and becoming an adult is necessary for our life experience. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the main character Holden Caulfield struggles with the concept of becoming an adult and leaving his childhood behind. Like most people, Holden tries to find an outlet for releasing his fears about growing up.…

    • 1472 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    All around the world, adolescent children roam the earth confused and lost between the stages of being a child and becoming an adult. The confusion and problems that every child faces is what shapes them to be the person they will become. J.D Salinger took an adolescent child’s experience and made it come to life as readers experience what the narrator of the story struggles through and how the narrator faces all the confusion of an adolescent child. In the novel A Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger represents adolescence as a time of uncertainty and confusion as the narrator struggles to walk the line between childhood and adulthood. Holden expresses his uncertainty about the adult world through the use of the word “phony”.…

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Obviously, the loss of his brother, Allie, has scarred Holden to the point of overanalyzing each move he makes and the countless possibilities. By doing so, Holden prevents himself from enjoying the people and events taking place right in front of him. Holden’s…

    • 1541 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He did this in an effort to gain attention from his family and show them how upset he was about the death. With the secondary source, it supports the idea of Allie’s death being the price Holden had to pay to fulfill his dream job. The article stated, “To be the catcher in the rye in this world is only possible only at the price of leaving it.…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Within our humanistic culture, people tend to pursue many things, and in doing so believe that they will find meaning. These pursuits include business success, wealth, relationships and entertainment. People have testified that while they achieved their goals of wealth, relationships and pleasure, there was still a deep void inside, a feeling of emptiness that nothing seemed to fill. Shawn Sutherlands, Seeing Red, lays open an overeducated, underemployed character, Ethan Reid, who is struggling to reconcile expectations with reality. Similarly, J.D. Salinger’s, The Catcher in the Rye, illustrates a teenager, Holden Caulfield and his dramatic struggle against growing up and facing his own reality.…

    • 149 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Holden Caulfield, 17 years old, was scheduled for a psychiatric appointment by his mother. On the phone, Mrs. Caulfield explained that her son disappeared after being kicked out of his fourth boarding school and didn’t return home for 3 days around Christmas last year. Phoebe Caulfield, Holden’s little sister, was the one that noticed Holden’s peculiar behavior, that continued to worsen over a year, and told her mother of these peculiarities. Such as wanting to run away from home, not returning, and at disliking many things. When I asked for more family information, I was told Holden’s little brother died of leukemia at the age of 11 which was 3 years ago.…

    • 1230 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In New York Holden thinks about killing himself multiple times, but finds a reason no to go through with it, “ I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would’ve done it, too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn’t want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I’m all gory” (117). After Holden was beat up by Maurice, he tried to go to bed but wasn’t able too. He just felt so bad he wanted to die.…

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While New York City teems with life, it is also plagued with imitation. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a novel about protagonist, Holden Caulfield, and his inability to cope with the “phoniness” in the world around him. Throughout the book, Holden encounters numerous acts of inauthenticity, catalysing Holden’s unsatisfied peer connections while also additionally serving as the impetus for his increase in depression. Despite the outreach from supportive characters such as Mr. Spencer and Mr. Antolini, Holden continually favors acts of rashness over the transition to maturity and responsibility. When the last of Holden’s innocence is challenged by the adult world, Holden denounces all logic and desperately tries to preserve the ingenuousness of not only…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This was extremely hard on Holden because he was wearing the turtle neck shirt Holden lent him. Not a single person would even go anywhere near him because his teeth, face, and body were just completely bloody. This was also a part of his depression and mental state getting…

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    "Even in times of trauma, we try to maintain normality until we no longer can. That my friend's is called surviving. " Holden is surviving throughout the whole novel. Holden experienced the death of his younger brother at the age of thirteen. Holden lent his friend James Castle his sweater and the very same night his friend killed himself by jumping out of their dorm window.…

    • 167 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Holden Caulfield Madman

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages

    As Holden’s mental state diminishes as his story continues, readers can view and learn from his insufficient means of caring for himself and asking for help, as well as his tendency to mask his problems. Holden acknowledges his self-deprecating and destructive personality by saying, “I swear to God I’m a madman,” which is then compounded by his poor decision-making, (Salinger, 149). Towards the end of the story, as he is deep in his desolation, he begins to hallucinate that, “every time I’d get to the end of a block I’d make believe I was talking to my brother Allie,” (218). Contradictory to Holden believing that everyone is a “phony,” he gains a false persona based on who he is around and what he wants others to believe. From lying about…

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The catcher in the rye An individual's life is full of traumatizing events that can twist and turn one's view of the world upside down unexpectedly. The protagonist in the novel Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger is introduced as an unstable young man who is full of emotional pain buried inside him but won't seem to let it out. "I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life" (Salinger 16). Psychoanalysis theorist Sigmund Freud created the psychoanalytic theory that sets a base for Holden Caulfield’s thoughts and behaviors.…

    • 1155 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    J.D Salinger’s novel, Catcher In The Rye is on the subject of a adolescent, Holden Caulfield, the central character of the story. Holden is piled with distinctive difficulties and for the most part absorbed in his own mind, which causes him being able to not come to realism. The psychoanalytic theory coordinates a position of definition when working with Holden Caulfield. Holden is viewed as a cut off, insubordinate teenager who failed out of an all-boys exclusive school, Pencey Prep.…

    • 1752 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Reminscing In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield reflects on many adolescent memories that are important in his life. Holden’s childhood was far from a normal child’s. Therefore, Holden was torn between two worlds. He was not a young child, but he was not yet a grown man either.…

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays