This Crazy Life

so strongly it drove him into depression. That experience and suffering has matured him, to a point that has forced him to become isolated. Holden is empathetic and sensitive enough to actually be aware of the true deepness of grief. It’s because of this, when he looks at materialistic and shallow teens like Stradlater, and Ackley, it's no wonder Holden calls them “phonies”. Holden says, “ I felt like giving somebody a buzz… but as soon as I was inside, I couldn't think of anybody to call up.…

young, it is easy for Holden to hold onto this part of his childhood and to prevent change while he is there. He also knows that unlike the museum, he changes and is different every time he visits. He observes, “Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.” (121). Although Holden does not like it, he recognizes that each time he returns to the museum he is older and closer to adulthood. The museum is the one thing in Holden’s life that he can rely on to stay the…

referring to is the professionals helping him in the mental institution open up about what happened a year ago when he was 16 and he is now telling his story a year later. This quote doesn’t show his unreliability but rather what were the mental break downs that has brought him into the mental institution in the first place. In this story Holden had many scenes with him being unstable. For example when Holden was explain to us about the time his brother Allie had died he had a mental break down…

truly admires Allie and for this reason Allie’s death has a tremendous impact in his life, an impact that leads Holden into a path of depression. Along with Allie’s death, Holden’s parents inability to cope with the loss of their youngest son affected Holden’s emotions and views on the world that surrounds him. Though Holden begins to face emotional struggles after Allie’s death, he displays his ability to maintain some hope, despite the negative influences caused by this…

said: “A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it”. This can be related to the protagonist, Holden Caulfield in the J.D. Salinger Bildungsroman, Catcher in the Rye, as an adolescent searching for his purpose in the world. Many literary works explore the struggle of finding one’s identity within society, such as Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. The timeless essence of this best seller elucidates the vigorous study of the novel over the…

his brothers death and also is very angry at the world which gets him into multiple conflicts. Salinger shows throughout the book that dreams can be good and bad and that Holden appears to be morally superior to other he has been acquainted to in his life. When Holden runs away from his fourth school he encounters many people that try to take advantage of him. Some of these people include Maurice who is a pimp and Sunny who is a prostitute. Although Holden's dream to be the “catcher in the rye”…

The viewpoint of this class changing its title from "Interdisciplinary Humanities" to "American Identities and Experience" is better and it fits the course syllabus. The reading that I suggest to continue being part of the course is Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. This reading would be a great fit for the Fall 2019 semester. The book Catcher in the Rye explains the new course title, an American going through identity issues and its experiences. The main character from the book Holden, is an…

In J.D. Salinger's book, “Catcher and The Rye” the main character, Holden is a young man who has already had much to deal with in his life. After dropping out of his boarding school, he travels back home and begins to spiral into a breakdown. Holden’s infatuation with protecting childhood innocence stems from the loss of his brother, Allie. Not being able to fulfill his wants to keep everyone around him “innocent” contributes to his eventual breakdown. Holden becomes obsessed with protecting…

around the world. Throughout this novel there are many versatile examples of victimization towards Holden and how he turns it around to help protect the innocence of children. For example, when he tells Phoebe he is a catcher in the rye, when he sees the swearing words on the walls of the elementary school, and when people in real life associate themselves to this novel. In J.D. Salinger’s novel Catcher in the Rye, Holden is a victim of a mental illness whose only goal in life is to protect the…

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 in childlike views is Holden's idea of putting things into a glass case so they never change, Holden hating the phoniness of the adult world, and Holden’s main focus to protect the innocence of children. Holden has…