I'm Crazy

Holden Caulfield is a 17 year old, who just got expelled from Pencey Prep, for failing all his classes except English. He makes it clear that he doesn’t feel sad about leaving the school because he didn’t connect with his fellow students. When he was at his dorm room his other roommates came in, the one telling him about his date tonight with Jane Gallagher, a friend of Holden. The roommate talks Holden into doing a homework assignment for him while he’s out. He writes about his deceased…

In J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the author uses symbolic images that the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, encounters. Holden in the novel goes through several life obstacles and tries to find acceptance to adulthood. Throughout the novel, Holden often acts the opposite of society and wishes for the present day to have more of the nostalgia he had in the past. The Catcher in the Rye illustrates how Holden tries to find stability and acceptance in a broken society full of phonies…

While some may think Holden Caulfield brought his depression on himself, others argue he just could not help it. J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye touches both on the main antagonist Holden Caulfield’s disapproval of his social class and Holden’s journey of descending deeper into his mental state of depression. Due to his dislike of his social class, Holden finds himself separating from them and falls into a deep hole of depression and isolation because of the increasing pressure put on him…

Throughout the song “Help!” by the Beatles, the singer is directly calling for assistance to get back up for the hardships in life that have brought him down. Related to the protagonist from Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden is also in need of help. The lyrics: “Help me get my feet back on the ground Won't you please, please help me”, demonstrates the singers signal for assistance, since he is pleading for guidance. Holden’s main hardships throughout the course of the book were fearing…

Theme is the subject, or topic, of a piece of writing, consisting of the main idea of the story. Authors will usually make the theme of text clear and consistent throughout the story. In the book “The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger, there are a couple of different themes throughout the book. The two main themes in this novel are the feeling of exclusion and dealing with the reality of having to grow up, both in relation to depression. The feeling of exclusion is that Holden is feeling…

A Comparison of the Narrators of The Catcher in the Rye and “A & P” Both The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and “A & P” by John Updike use careful choices of language and details that aid in the characterization of their narrators. Salinger’s narrator, Holden, is a seventeen year old boy who is telling presumably a therapist the events that occurred after he was expelled from Pencey Prep. He tells the story in a first person “stream of consciousness” style and often goes off on…

Number One The main idea of the story is basically Holden Caulfield's motivation throughout the story. Holden goes to New York City and spends most of his time looking for something, but he never tells the reader exactly what he is looking for, I don’t even think he knows exactly what it is he is looking for. He seems to be looking for friendship or just genuine communication, but he is looking for it in the wrong place. Nobody else is concerned with friendship or honesty, besides his little…

J.D. Salinger’s character, Holden Caulfield, in the controversial novel, Catcher in the Rye, struggles with alienation, drugs, and alcohol due to his tragic past. Growing up, Holden lived a pretty normal life, until his brother’s tragic death. His brother, Allie, even though he was younger than Holden, was Holden’s inspiration in life. When Holden discovered that Allie was dead, he slept in the garage, and at one point during that night, Holden managed to break all of the windows in his garage…

In Catcher in the Rye, Holden decides to leave New York to head out West after he experiences a frightening feeling of “just go[ing] down, down, down, and nobody’d ever see [him] again” (217). Yet, Holden decides to visit Phoebe one last time before leaving, so he pays a visit to her school. Holden’s experience of “go[ing] down, down, down” mirrors the image of someone falling off a cliff like in Holden’s imagination as a “catcher in the rye” (191). In a way, Holden himself is a child in the rye…

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. The reason he was so afraid to jump out the window might be believed due to an acutance he once had in school. He…