Fermat's Last Theorem

In coming of age stories, the protagonists often experience a grave or dramatic moment in which they take a step into adulthood through a mock heroism - in this moment the reader realizes that who someone claims to be in their imagination is different from who they are in reality. In the story, The Intruder, a boy named Kenneth represents the grave moments in coming of age stories when the protagonists realize they live covered by a mask of heroism. The story starts off with Kenneth is in…

The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger, objects the academic and social norms of the time period. Salinger expresses his disapproval through Holden Caulfield, a reckless teenager, who feels a strong sense of hatred for adult society in the book. Holden Caulfield was also supposed to give an insight of what he thought were the right methods of dealing with children being rushed into the corrupted adult world. Holden poses as an excellent example of how children can be disturbed by the unethical…

In the novel The Catcher in the Rye authored by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, is a teenager who refuses to accept that he is becoming an adult. Holden is obsessed about being a child and refuses to stop horsing around. He chooses to place himself between the world of simple innocence and complex adulthood. Holden is the narrator and he chooses to tell the story in his own contradicting manner. Holden controls his experiences and his narrations of the same are distorted from…

Although most children appear to want to grow up, most do not. In fact most kids are extremely afraid to grow up. This is certainly the case for 16 year old Holden Caulfield. At the beginning of the book The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden finds himself being kicked out of boarding school yet again. Instead of doing the reasonable thing, he decides to run away and roam the streets of New York City all alone. He has some wild adventures along the way. Including but not limited to;…

Lysette Anthony once said, “Mental illness leaves a huge legacy, not just for the person suffering it but for those around them.” In J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, the main character Holden, leaves a huge legacy for himself and the people around him with his mental illness. He hints that he is mentally ill but only says it outright at one point in the book. Holden is a 16 year old guy living in New York City. He is a troublemaker and routinely gets kicked out of multiple, very expensive…

Literary Analysis Essay contrasting Into the Wild and Catcher in the Rye with phoniness of the adult world When someone is thinking of the idea of phoniness, they might recall something like diamonds, teenagers antics, or TV shows. However, in Into the Wild and Catcher in the Rye, the two main characters Chris McCandless and Holden Caulfield think of adulthood and adult society as phony and constantly criticize it. Even though they both try to move away and not experience adulthood,…

Tobias Wolff is the author of This Boy’s Life. Tobias, or Toby for short, writes this memoir about his own life when he was a young boy. Toby lived a difficult childhood and caused a lot of trouble because of it. He didn’t grow up with a father figure, and he was constantly moving around because his mother couldn’t stay put. Even though his childhood living situation was terrible, it doesn’t exonerate the juvenile acts he performed in his judgement. Based on what Toby went through when he…

The Phoney in the Catcher in the Rye The Catcher in the Rye is a novel where the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, tells his story about being a normal sixteen-year-old boy struggling to move into adulthood due to being afraid of growing up. This even inspires him to want to save all the children from growing up, desiring to be the Catcher in the Rye. Holden appears to be normal, but exhibits an abundance of signs of depression throughout the story. In this book consisting of 26 chapters is Holden…

Flight “Call me Zits,” (Alexie 1). Zits is a teenage boy facing many problems in his life. Zits says his own name does not matter because all he is seen as is his zits. Zits does not have many morals to begin with, but throughout the story he develops his own morals. We meet Zits in a new foster home in which he hates, and pushes the mother and runs off. Two critical approaches that can be seen in Flight by Sherman Alexie, are biographical and moral. One way to approach Flight is…

It is sometimes difficult for children to realize when is time to mature and grow out of childhood. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a coming of age novel about sixteen year old Holden Caulfield’s weekend adventure. Salinger describes Holden's extreme depression, his beliefs that just about every adult is a phony, and his protection of innocence. Holden’s most significant character flaw is him being stuck in childlike views. Some instances in Holden’s life that prove that he is stuck…