J D Salinger Essay

Holden’s Struggle with Mental Illness J.D. Salinger is the author of the controversial novel The Catcher in the Rye. The story depicts the short span of Holden Caulfield’s few days in winter after being kicked out of Pencey Prep, a prestigious school Holden was attending. His journey is off to a rough start after Holden still has not completely accepted the death of his younger brother, so he tries forming new relationships with people and rekindle old friendships. After numerous failures,…

The first thing that I did for this artwork was to look for pictures by him which were difficult because the pictures that he takes all look so beautiful and has such contrast that it was hard just to pick one. My artwork is a lake somewhere in Turkey, the picture that I picked shows the lake looking gloomy while giving a calm sort of vibe. In the drawing there is a lake with some trees it looks like it may be autumn or the end or beginning of winter as the trees have no leaves by the trees…

In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, it is clear that the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, struggles to deal with a myriad of issues that weigh heavy on his mental health. Salinger utilizes cynical narration to display the difficulty Holden has blending in with a world full of “phonies” as he calls them. As the story progresses Holden’s imagination and fantasies stray further and further away from reality, to the point where he even longs to live in solitude in a cabin in the woods. Holden is also…

wanders aimlessly around New York in the winter for two days and attempts to save children from falling into adulthood and becoming what he calls, phonies. He, generally, will settle until genuine feelings are shown, which leads to his running away. Salinger captures the significance of Holden’s late teenage experience through various symbols. One of these symbols is the catcher in the rye, which references the title and what Holden truly wants to be. Another symbol is Holden’s hunting hat,…

involves saving children from falling off of a cliff. He states “Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around...except me. And I'm standing on… (a) cliff...I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff ...That's all I'd do all day.” (Salinger 173). Even though this specific situation is completely unrealistic, there are many different jobs Holden could do involving helping people, or more specifically, caring for children. Obviously, since this is the only job that Holden…

Within Catcher in the Rye, without a doubt the theme of alienation is prominent throughout. The Webster dictionary defines alienation as “a withdrawing and separation of a person or persons affection from an object or position of former attachment”. This explanation helps the reader to set the scene for the novel and the isolated presence the main character Holden withholds throughout the course of the story. The negative energy Holden Caufield displays automatically at the beginning of the…

The Upward Appeal of Love: Sexuality in Will Eisner's A Contract with God Many genres of literature utilize the coming-of-age narrative when exploring growth of an individual, a community, or, even, humanity as a whole. In reminiscing upon the tenements of the Bronx in his childhood, Will Eisner presents his audience with a captivating glimpse into the lives of the downtrodden of 55 Dropsie Street. Discussing his childhood home, Eisner evokes the inevitable loss of innocence brought forth by…

Saul’s Loss of Moral Compass and Progression into Alcoholism Often, one progresses into substance abuse as a result of facing various challenges and experiences. This is in through Richard Wagamese’s novel Indian Horse. This is a story about an Ojibway boy named Saul who faces many bumpy roads in life and as a result, loses his sensibility. When Saul was haunted by the ghosts of his past such as the loss of his family, the loss of his identity, and the trauma from residential school experiences,…

McCarthy Interview Succeeds in Publicizing The Road Cormac McCarthy is a highly regarded author who began his career in 1965 with his first novel, The Orchard Keeper. Although he began writing and publishing so long ago, it was not until 2007 in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that he made his first appearance on television. McCarthy never fully admitting to anything about why this is, but one can assume that he simply likes his privacy. This is why the interview between Winfrey and McCarthy…

In his journey from childhood to adulthood, Holden Caulfield feels surrounded by dishonesty and phoniness. “Phoniness” is a constantly repeated word in the novel because it is the word Holden uses to describe the adult world. “Phoniness” for Holden, stands as an embodiment for everything that’s wrong in the world around him. Holden considers himself a representation of the world of childhood, which is to him the opposite of “phoniness”. In J.D. Salinger’s, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden learns…