Joan Caulfield

While trust is a somewhat common theme in modern novels, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time manages to show how this idea affects people who live under atypical circumstances. Haddon tells the story through the eyes of Christopher, a fifteen-year-old autistic boy whose view of life, as well as his understanding of the world, is drastically different from that of any other teenager. Christopher is extremely sensitive, and is only comfortable in familiar surroundings and with familiar people. His daily routine consists of a series of complicated systems and he is very deeply affected when treated badly by other people. The book's two major themes come into play when Christopher must begin to face the real, adult world, where webs of lies, deception, and complex emotions reside. For the past two years, Christopher has believed his mother to be dead from a heart attack. He accepts this even though he never validates it- he never saw the body, never attended a funeral. It is easier for him this way, or course- it saves him from entering new places and encountering strangers. Venturing out of his comfort zone is a stressful and very difficult task for Christopher. With his mother gone, Christopher's family consists of himself, his father, and his pet rat, Toby. Since Christopher doesn't react well to change, he becomes very distressed when he discovers that his mother is alive, quite the contrary to what his father had told him. Also, his father killed…

Symbolism in The Catcher in the Rye Like all great pieces of literature, J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye owes much of its fame to its ability to connect with the reader’s emotions. “Holden’s discontents and diatribes are infectious because we all have our irascibility and fastidiousness, and Salinger has managed to play on us by summoning up the perfect details” (Castronovo). The troubled teen story of Holden Caulfield depicts a young man unable to face his own reality. A struggle, many…

Many people have fears regarding the act of growing up. For a small group of people, during their teenage years, these fears of innocence lost can be crippling, constantly affecting actions and moods (Participial phrase). They are reluctant to give up the innocence of the past and accept the cold, hard reality of the adult world. Holden Caulfield is one of these people. J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, follows Holden’s actions over three days throughout New York City as he attempts…

The book is set in the 1950 's and starts with the main character, Holden Caulfield, narrating the story while being in a mental or sanatarium of an unspecified location. Holden is overlooking a sporting event on a nearby hill in first sentence. At this time, Holden is sixteen years old and has already failed out of three schools. He is currently attending Pencey Prep school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. At Pencey Holden has failed four out of five classes and is once again being expelled from…

“4 Minute Mile” is a movie that goes through the life of a troubled teen who uses track to escape his social status. Throughout the movie, the boy overcame struggles and experienced failure, but with the support of one individual he overcame those hard-ships. Drew needed guidance, and he needed a strive for something. At the beginning of the movie, Drew’s dad overdosed on drugs, leaving his older brother to be the “man” of the house, and his mom was never really seen. Drew was growing up in an…

composes his own character, Holden Caulfield, as someone who desperately endeavors to maintain his own purity. Although at first glance it may appear as if Holden is attempting to be more like an adult through his actions such as smoking and drinking, upon closer inspection, it is made clear that his true intentions are to avoid growing up by neglecting his responsibilities and failing to move forward in his life. Holden describes his own personality by saying that “...I act quite young for my…

Holden’s alienation is a result of his need for some type of reassurance regarding his authenticity.Throughout the chapters he subtly mentions the hardships he had faced in his 16 years of life.Between his brother’s death at a young age, he alludes to being a victim of assault after Mr.Antolini's strange behavior and his strained relationships regarding his parents and romantic interests.According to Freud A. Strachey in his introductory lectures on psychoanalysis states that regression is an…

Holden on to Innocence (Formalist Approach) Through his emotional roller coaster across Manhattan, Holden Caulfield insists on obtaining something that is impossible: the ability to preserve innocence. From the start of the novel, J.D. Salinger straps us in and keeps us gripping on to the bars by revealing detail after detail of Holden’s life, allowing us to better understand his unwillingness to desert the comfort of innocence and conform to adulthood. For example, while speaking to his younger…

The Truth: Behind Gunnar Kaufman’s Eyes Paul Beatty’s hilarious and humorous apprising of Gunnar Kaufman in The White Boy Shuffle is about an inopportune surfer bum who moved from the house that he grew up in, in Santa Monica, to a town called Hillside in West Los Angeles. Throughout his life, Gunnar was only surrounded by people who were dependent on him and who tried to control him. So he does not take charge of his life and because of this, Gunnar is heavily affected by mental stress…

Parents often find themselves frustrated and lost when they fail to understand the actions of their children, but try their best to adapt to new situations. In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, the protagonist, Christopher Boone is a fifteen year-old autistic boy living in a dysfunctional family. Ed Boone and Judy Boone, the father and mother to Christopher, are estranged, with Ed being the primary caregiver to Chris. Ed faces many difficulties in raising his son…