Let's Go Crazy

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…

D. Salinger’s ideas, and is an important topic even today. Holden thinks about is the lagoon in Central Park, and the ducks that occupied it. He wonders, “I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and if it was, where did the ducks go. I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over" (Salinger 67). Holden is curious about the ducks in the lagoon, because, possibly subconsciously, he himself does not know where he is going, or how to get there.…

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…

that growing up sucks, because you become a phony, and the world around you is not an easy place to live, also loneliness and oblivion are waiting for you. So you need to learn how to deal with them while trying to understand something or else you’ll go mad. Number Two Sadly, my impression of “The Catcher in the Rye” was negative. I did not enjoy this particular book as much I hoped I would. I didn’t not like the excessive amount of profanity. For example, on page one through three,…

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…

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 and he’s afraid to go over the cliff because he doesn’t know what will…

In New York Holden thinks about killing himself multiple 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…

“Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.” - J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye. The Catcher in The Rye is a novel about a 17 year old boy living in a “phony” world who ventures throughout the streets of New York to possibly find purity. J.D. Salinger’s reason for writing such a controversial novel was to appeal to the teenage mind. Holden is sexually confused and struggles expressing his…