I'm Crazy

“In my mind, I’m probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw” (62). In a sense the reader can infer that Holden is fascinated with the idea of sex, however he claims that sex is something he doesn’t understand. He later stated he was feeling horny and attempted to…

I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.” Through the use of figurative language, Salinger highlights Caulfield seeing himself as protector of the children which is a metaphor of him protecting the children from losing their innocence, this metaphor emphasises Caulfield’s obsession of keeping the younger children ‘pure’ and positions the reader to feel positive of…

inevitable because it shows that even in one of the most innocent places there is still corruption. Holden realizes this when he is walking up the stairs of Phoebe’s school and says: Somebody’d written “Fuck you” on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought…

Phoebe, questions him on what he wants to do with his life. Holden respond “I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye… And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they go over the cliff… I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing…

Teenagers are faced with a significant amount of adversities throughout the transition to adulthood. In J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”, the main character, Holden Caulfield, is a teenager who is overwhelmed by the internal conflicts he is facing. This story is talking about how he went from initially feeling despondent to eventually obtaining happiness. Holden has been faced with several obstacles throughout his lifetime such as losing his brother at young age, having a distant…

Correspondingly, Holden was trapped in the moment of his brother’s death, struggling to transition into adulthood. Holden told Phoebe, “I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye […] And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff […] I have to catch everybody if they start to go over […] That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye” (Salinger 173). All throughout Holden’s life, he had observed kids in their youth and longed to experience…

“Thousands of little kids, and nobody around- nobody big, I mean- except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff- I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they are going…. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all” (191)…

companionship, but unfortunately people keep denying his request thinking he is too young to hang out. As Holden says to his cab driver: “Well-take me to the Edmont then ,” I said. “Would you care to stop on the way and join me for a cocktail? On me, I’m loaded.” “Can’t do it, Mac. Sorry” (The Catcher in the Rye 60). Even the cab driver rejects Holden’s invitation to go grab a drink with him even though Holden offers to pay for the drinks. This is how desperate Holden really is for…

Holden would also go back and forth about if he’s missed home: "Oh, I have a few qualms, all right. Sure. . . but not too many. Not yet, anyway. I guess it hasn't really hit me yet. It takes things a while to hit me. All I'm doing right now is thinking about going home Wednesday. I'm a moron"( ) Here you can see Holden is wrestling with his mind about if he should go home or not. He didn’t know the right answer and he had no one to talk…

Author J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye features Holden Caulfield, a young man who struggles through getting kicked out of multiple private boys schools, society’s expectations, and depression. The lense this book is being analyzed under is psychoanalytic theory. Psychoanalytic theory is the concept of the unconscious part of the human brain contains biological motivators and conditioning from past experiences. The specific part of psychoanalytic theory that is being used is the idea of…