3.+Catcher+-+Literary+Analysis

Here is our analysis of __The Catcher in the Rye.__

1. J. D. Salinger – the author - Memona, Nooria - It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to. By J.D. Salinger

A BBC article, published in 1999, says it has gone 34 years since J.D. Salinger spoke to any news reporter, and his friends have also been loyal about keeping his life private. It has been cleared that he is still alive and lives in a small town, Cornish, in New Hampshire, where the townsfolk have seen him around.

Jerome David Salinger was born in 1919 in New York, USA. Salinger grew up in a beautiful apartment on Park Avenue, Manhattan, like Holden Caulfield in the book The Catcher in the Rye. His father, Sol Salinger, was a Jewish importer of kosher cheese. Jerome’s mother, Marie Jillich, was Christian, but she changed her name to Miriam and became Jewish. Jerome didn’t know this about his mother before he had become a teenager. Jerome had only one elder sister, Doris. Salinger acted in several theatre plays as youngster, but his father didn’t like the idea about him becoming an actor. In 1939 Salinger took a course in short story writing at Colombia University and began his writing career from there.

Salinger has been married three times. It was from his second wife, he got two children. Salinger’s last marriage was to a nurse whom he is still married to. Even though Salinger was a Jewish Catholic, he adopted Buddhist and Hindu beliefs. He began also to be known as a Hindu. J. D. Salinger is known as the American novelist and short story writer. He published several short story collections and one novel between 1948-1959. His career as a writer was interrupted by World War II. His comrades considered him as a very brave and a genuine hero. Salinger was actually influenced by a writer named Ernest Hemingway during the war. Both of them were impressed with each other; Salinger with Hemingway’s friendliness and modesty, and Hemingway was impressed by Salinger’s writing. But he soon returned from service in 1946 and resumed his career, writing primarily for the magazine The New Yorker. His first story was published in 1940, Saturday Evening Post and Esquire. Salinger’s best-known work is The Catcher in the Rye (1951) which was his first novel and it won a huge international acclaim. This book was about a very young boy. In 1953 Salingar said to a high-school newspaper that his boyhood was very much the same as the boy in the book and it was a great relief telling people about it. We don’t exactly know how much of his boyhood is relied to his novel. There have been many offers to adapt The Catcher in the Rye for screen, but Salinger has always refused. In 1974 Salinger said to the magazine New York Time that he loved to write. And he also said that he writes just for himself and his own pleasure.

Salinger’s writing has inspired many students and several prominent writers as Harold Brodkey, for instance. Students are still analyzing on his novels and sharing it with each other. In 1946 J.D gave a statement where he said: ‘’I almost always write about very young people’’. It shows for example in his book, The Catcher in the Rye. J.D wrote to youngsters about their innocence, adolescence, bad influence from Hollywood, and intelligence. Salinger mostly wrote about happiness of a person through religion, loneliness, and symbolism. He let his characters go through obstacles, so they could learn more about their lives. The writing style of Salinger has been quite famous because he dares to stand out and show what’s wrong in the society. But it has also been controversial because he shows a negative view of the society during that time. It seems like Salinger speaks to young people with genuine understanding, and that he wants to warn students about making certain steps in life. Sources: [] [] [] [] [] []

= **2. response to the novel through the years - Ida, Elida** = When //The Catcher in the Rye// came out in 1951, it led to a lot of controversy. People reacted to the foul language. Because of this, the book became the one of the most banned books of that time. A teacher was also fired for assigning the book for his students. 17 years after the book was published, a local censorship group in Oklahoma City tried to prevent a bookseller to sell the book. To avoid scandals, the bookseller removed the book from his store. Many were also concerned, because it was “incompatible with America’s positive self-image”. There are also certain content in the book, which was unacceptable for that time. For example, he says that he was glad the atomic bomb was invented so he could sit in top of it. An interesting fact is that Mark Chapman, who killed John Lennon, had asked John Lennon to sign his copy of //The Catcher in the Rye// the same day he killed him. Today there still are people complaining about the book, and //The Catcher in the Rye// is still banned in some US schools. But many teachers, who read the book when they were younger, still love the book and wants today’s teenagers to read the book and get the same positive experience like they did. But the teachers have seen a change of the teenagers since they were young. The book has lost its popularity: the young people today just don’t find the book as good as fifty years ago. It’s harder to have empathy for Holden today, than it was earlier. Ariel Levenson is an English teacher at Dalton School at the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She told //The New York Times// that many of her students told her after reading //The Catcher in the Rye//: “I can’t really feel bad for this rich kid with a weekend free in New York City.” Today most teenagers would have liked to have a weekend free in New York City, and many students find it hard to realize how that could be a problem for Holden. The society has changed, and many would say that this is why today’s teenagers don’t find the book as good as teenagers fifty years ago. Sources: [] []  [] []

3. setting, context, point of view - Alexandra, Karunya

= Setting and Context = // Alexandra & Karunya // The catcher in the Rye is set around 1948-1949, three year after the Second World War. You know this, because Allie died three years earlier, when Holden was thirteen years old. Since Allie died on July 18, 1946, the story can be either in 1948 or 1949, depending on when Holden’s birthday is. Incredibly, the story takes place over just two days, from Saturday afternoon to the following Monday. The story-telling, however, is when Holden is seventeen years old, approximately one year later. In the start of the book, the story takes place in a boarding school called Pencey Prep School, located in the fields near New York City. He then takes the train to the centre of New York City, which is an entirely different kind of environment. New York acts as the background of this story. The city represents what Holden sees as bad in the world. From his room in Edmont hotel, he could see into some other guest’s room. He gets upset of seeing a man and a woman take a mouthful of their drinks and spit it on each other’s face on turn. He takes it as a form of sexual play, and he hates it. This is just one example from the text, you can find many others like this, like when he is waiting for Phoebe and he sees that someone has written “fuck you” on the walls. Holden is visiting many places in the story besides Edmont hotel. He is visiting his former English teacher also called Mr. Antolini, Ernie’s jazz club, Phoebe’s school and many other places. Still, it seems like if Central Park is the only place he actually likes. It probably has something to do with the fact that he used to visit Central Park as a child, were he used to watch the ducks. The story was published at a time when the American industrial economy was growing quickly and successfully. They had helped to win the war and had become a” super power”. The people in America were wealthy and people around the world started to think that America is the greatest country in the world. The social rules influenced the attitude of the younger generation. As you probably have noticed the author of //Catcher in the Rye// has used slang and discussed adolescent sex, which have offended many readers. The story dealt with teenager’s feelings. The generation gap between the adults and their parents got bigger. Holden Caulfield was one of its first speakers. He rebels against these social attitudes and values. According to many readers Holden was a bad example to young people.

Sources: [] The book Julia brought with her.

=4. Holden Caulfield - Henrik, Sveinung=

Holden is a very suave and handsome person who is quite tall for his age. He is 6ft 2” and half of his hair is grey even though he is only seventeen years old. He is unfit because he smokes quite frequently, and people believe he’s an adult because of his height and grey hair. He is very skinny and can therefore get drunk pretty quickly. He also wears a red hunter’s hat.

It's a funny thing, this hunting hat of his. He bought it for a buck somewhere, because he thought it was cool and different. What's funny is that he doesn't use it when he's with people he knows. When he's with people he knows, or wants to become friends with, he takes it off and puts in his pocket. As soon as he leaves them, and is on the street again, he puts it on, even though he is quite embarrassed by it. He //hides// in it, if you know what I mean. When he is out in the streets, or in a cab or something like that, he puts it on, and sort of changes identity. He's no longer good old Holden, he's just some guy. I think he needs this hat, and uses it just like 4 year-olds use sunglasses to "protect" them from the world. You seen that film, "Daddy"? The one with Adam Sandler adopting a kid. That kid uses sunglasses to hide from the world, he believes he gets //invisible// whe he puts them on. In the same way does Holden use his hat, to protect himself, and to be invisible for everyone that doesn't know him. He needs this //change of identity// because he thinks of himself as a boring guy, or something like that. He is unsecure after his loss of his brother, Allie, and even though he thinks he's over the death of Allie, he isn't really. He acts weird, lies to people, and puts on this hat so that he gets the feeling of fitting in to the society. He is a strange, strange guy.

He is the narrator of //The Catcher in the Rye//. The novel tells his tales following from his expulsion from Pencey Prep, an expensive school in the US. His family is financially well off. His mother is stay-at-home, and his father works. Despite the financial comfort, he has a somewhat troubled life, caused by the death of his brother, Allie. He tells his story in a very disparaging language. He uses the word ‘’phony’’ unnecessarily much for people who are unreal and not true to themselves.  As a matter of fact, Holden is quite a phony himself; dropping out of school, drinking while being a minor, smoking, you get the idea. He hates almost every single person around him, calling them phonies. The jockeys with all body, no brains. The piano player that isn’t as good as the former one and the singer too. He thinks of everyone as a phony, and he doesn’t realize he’s the biggest phony himself.

Holden has two other siblings: His 10-year-old sister Phoebe and an older brother D.B. He is a screenwriter in Hollywood, who Holden thinks of as a prostitute, wasting his talent on Hollywood junk instead of writing decent and intelligent stories. Holden believes that D.B. has been corrupted by society, but that Phoebe still is an innocent and beautiful child. Holden, as the catcher in the rye, wants to catch Phoebe to stop her from taking part in the ugliness of adulthood. In the end of the book, Phoebe ends up saving Holden from failing.

Written by Henrik, and Sveinung.

[]

5. Schoolfriends: Stradlater, Ackley - Philip, Askar
 * Ackley** (Askar)

Ackley is Holden's dormmate. He is a weird guy who goes out quite infrequently. When it comes to his personal habits, they can be described with one singel word: bad. An example is when Ackley cuts his nails on the floor instead of the table. Holden realizes that Ackley never brushes his teeth and that his room always stinks, and one of those things wich is really nasty with Ackley is his pimples. Sometimes Ackley can be such a annoying guy, he always pickes up other persons personal stuff, and after that, he always put it back in the wrong place. Everytime Holden tells him to stop cutting his nails on the floor, he dosen't listen to him, he just keep utting it on the floor. If there is one guy Aclkey hates, is it Stradlater. He even calls him a "sonuvabith". He hates Stradlater's guts and he never come in the room if Stradlater is around, he hates everybody's guts, no matter who.

6**. Holden’s family, Holden & girls (Jane, Sally, Sunny)** - Yu-Qi, Thea, Karoline  __**Holden’s parents**__ Holden does not tell us much about his mother, only that she has ears like a bloodhound and she’s very nervous and gets headaches quite frequently. Half the night she stays up smoking cigarettes. He thinks his mother is good at buying clothes to Phoebe, but not ice skates or anything like that. Out of the conversation between Phoebe and his mother when Holden is hiding in the closet, we can tell she is quite normal and does not get mad easily. Holden’s father is a lawyer and a very busy worker. We get to know that when Phoebe says that he is not coming to the play, because of work. Holden tells us that; when his father is sleeping, you can hit him with a chair, over the head. With out waking him up.

Phoebe Josephine Caulfield is Holden’s little sister and is ten years old. Holden tells us very much about her. She’s very good in all of her subjects and gets A’s every time since she began at school. Her best subject is spelling. Holden describes her as roller-skate skinny and that she has sort of red hair like Allie’s, and that it’s short in the summertime and pretty long in the wintertime. In the summertime she sticks her short hair behind her pretty little ears. He also tells us that she can be a little too affectionate sometimes and that she is very emotional, for a child. She understands everything you say and is a good listener. Sometimes she can be a madman. Other times she can be very snotty or stubborn when she wants to. She’s strong and gets awoken easily. The conversation between Holden and Phoebe at D.B’s room, we can tell that she’s very smart and a very high spirit person. She knows more about Holden. Then Holden knows about him self. At almost the end of the book. Phoebe demands to go with Holden on the trip. When Phoebe tells him she wants to go with him, he gets very angry and begin kind of hating her and wanting to hit her. Here Phoebe is a very mature and very childish in a kind of way. I think when Phoebe told Holden about her wanting to go along, she made Holden think more clearly and got him realize something important. Like it's not as easy as he thinks. Phoebe saves Holden in the end. **D.B Caulfield** Holden’s older brother. We never get to know D.B’s real, full name. D.B lives in Hollywood and writes screenplays. Before, D.B was a novelist and wrote a novel Holden liked very much. But when he left for Hollywood, Holden thought he behaved like a prostitute by selling his talent for lousy movies. There might be a connection between Holden not really enjoying movies and D.B wasting his talent. Because Holden is disappointed by D.B, since he’s only doing It for the money, and only phony guys do that, which makes D.B phony and Holden doesn’t like phonies. But we understand he does like his brother and is proud of him. “My brother D.B is a writer and all (...) I’m the only dumb one.” ”He’s fine. He’s in Hollywood ”. 
 * Phoebe**

Allie is Holden’s dead little brother. He tells us that Allie is two years younger than him and he died of leukaemia in Maine, on July 18.1946. Allie was just eleven years old then. Holden thought that Allie was the nicest person, in lots of ways. He describes Allie’s hair as very red and that he was like a wizard. He tells us that Allie is left handed and that he likes to read poems, when he is writing the baseball mitt.
 * Allie**

__**Holden and Girls**__

The three girls Holden meets can represent three different things. First Jane who can be the symbol of Love/a dream /the good old times, Sunny who would be the part where Holden talks about sex, and Sally as the part where he talks about girls in general, and how he totally fails. The problem is that Holden wants to believe his older and more mature than what he really is. This makes the scenes with the girls very awkward. Especially because he seems to have a lack of social skills. Every time he talks about girls in general, he think they are stupid, or that they are losing they brains. He feels sorry for them; they are probably going to marry some phony guys, which is probably the most horrible thing Holden can think of.

__**Sunny**__

Sunny is a prostitute. She is not especially nice, she never says thank you, and she is witty. Before Sunny is coming up, Holden prepares by brushing his teeth, taking on a new shirt, putting some water in his hair. He starts to get a little nervous because he is actually a virgin. Then he thinks that he could practice on her to become good at having sexual intercourse. And he starts feeling “sexy”. But when she finally comes, he gets really nervous. He has to face the truth: he has asked a prostitute up to have sex with him. But he realize it’s not as easy as he thought and he doesn’t manage to do it, so he starts lying as always. It ends with Holden paying her for having a conversation with him and Sunny is leaving sore.

__**Sally**__

Sally is a regular teenage girl. She is good-looking (Holden’s opinion), has a loud voice, nice legs and a cute butt. Everything is for her “marvelous”. He says she’s surely intelligent because she reads books, but he insists on the fact that she’s pretty dumb. Holden invites her on a date. When he sees her, there is a lot of feeling coming up. He wants to marry her and sort of things. He tries to deny it, but we clearly understands that he can' control his feeling/the reaction og his body. They have just got out of the cab and suddenly Holden tells her he loves her. She doesn’t take bad. But when they are talking to each other in this cafe, he starts talking about things Sally doesn’t give a damn about. Then he tells her to leave with him and gets all exited. Holden do not see how stupid or at least how unreal his idea is. But Sally does, and when she refuses, Holden insults her of a “pain in the ass”. This shows us once again that Holden has no idea how to behave properly with girls. He even feels relived when she leaves. (again a girl leaves sore). Holden is surely a bit afraid of girls and what they do to him. Feelings he doesn’t know how to handle.

 __Jane Gallagher__ Jane doesn’t actually appear in the book, however, Jane is very much present in the book and she is extremely important to Holden, because she is one of the few girls whom he both respects and finds attractive. He sees her as a connection to his childhood, in a way, she is an image of frozen perfection Holden has a small crush on this (or the idea of an) attractive and interesting young woman, who dances well and plays golf. Even though his mother does not like Jane, Holden’s affections towards Jane are so strong that he doesn’t care that his mother doesn’t approve. He doesn’t like the fact that his roommate, Stradlater, takes her out on a date and suspects that Stradlater, who likes to brag about his alleged sexual conquests, has forced her to have sex with him, when Holden and Jane didn’t do more than hold hands. Holden remembers personal and revealing details about Jane. He doesn't focus on the physical, as Stradlater does, and he obviously cares about Jane as a person and as a “Childhood sweetheart”. When he first arrives in New York, Holden wants to talk with her but he never actually does so, because Holden is afraid that she is not the same as in his childhood memories. And he needs something to believe in and he wants Jane to stay as he remembers her for ever. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">www.sparknotes.com @http://www.bellmore-merrick.k12.ny.us/catcher2.html <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">@http://www.gradesaver.com/the-catcher-in-the-rye/study-guide/section4/ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">@http://www.deadcaulfields.com/CatcherChronology.html <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">@http://wiki.answers.com/Q/FAQ/7058 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">@http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> Max Notes J. D. Saliner's the Catcher in the Rye By Robert S. Holzman, Gary L. Perkins

7. Holden's teachers: Mr Spencer, Mr Antolini - Lan, Johannes

Mr. Spencer At the second chapter, where Holden visits Mr. Spencer, you clearly notice that Holden looks at Mr. Spencer as an old man that caught a cold and wearing a “ratty old bathrobe” while noticing the smell of Vicks Nose Drops.

Mr. Spencer is Holden's history teacher at Pencey. Holden goes to Mr. Spencer's house to say goodbye before leaving Pencey. During the visit, Mr. Spencer read Holden's half-done essay about mummies loudly. He also reads the note Holden wrote at the bottom that he's apologizing about that he failed, and it's not Mr. Spencer's fault that he flunked. The note was made to assure that Mr. Spencer wasn't a horrible teacher, but that Holden was himself to blame.

Asides from that, Mr. Spencer is the first person who shows us how Holden thinks about adults, and how adults think of him. The problem with Mr. Spencer is that he doesn't understand what's wrong with Holden, neither understanding ow to help him.

He also asks questions that makes Holden feel a bit insecure, such as: “How do you feel about this?” and what his goals in life may be. __[]__ __[]__ __[]__ __[]__

Mr. Antolini Mr. Antolini is one of the characters in “The Catcher in the Rye. Mr. Antolini is Holden's favorite teacher, at Elkton Hills. Holden admires and respects him because he is perceptive, intellectual and has a heart for his students. Antolini is a role model, you could call him a “brother” for Holden. One of the reasons why Holden freaks out is that he felt he had lost a brother again, when Mr. Antolini pats his head.

It is strange, for Holden to see that the drunk Mr. Antolini is as boring as Mr. Spencer and to some degree a scary experience. Holden felt close to Mr. Antolini and Holden could go to him with his problems at anytime. Mr. Antolini even says that Holden has a mental illness. He gives Holden a note that makes Holden realize that he is still a child. When Holden meets Mr. Antolini the book changes. But Mr. Antolini is important in the book, because he is the reason why Holden says “no” to Pheobe, when she wants to leave (in chapter 25) and travel around with Holden. If he hadn’t met Mr. Antolini he most likely would have taken Pheobe along, but because he visited Mr. Antolini he ended up staying home.

=**8. Language and style - Hanna, Nora**= <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The novel is written in first person, from Holden’s point of view, as if he wrote the book himself. Therefore, the language style is the same as his: immature and petty, with detailed descriptions, containing contemporary slang and inconsequent digressions. Holden writes very orally, expressing himself in a way which is not normal to see in a novel, especially not in a novel from the early 1950s. The language is highly colloquial, and very creative and unusual for its time.

When the novel first came out in 1951, people were shocked, mostly because of the vulgar language and the discussable topics Salinger introduced, such as blasphemy, sexual references and undermining of moral codes and family issues. On the other hand, this was what made the novel path-breaking in so many ways: the language was different and Salinger dealt with topics considered highly outrageous and inappropriate. Holden swears, leaves his sentences dangling with the words “and all” and “or anything” and repeats himself, saying “if you want to know the truth” and comment on his hatred towards what he looks upon as phonies.

Repeatedly Holden says “if you want to know the truth”, “I know what I’m talking about” and “I’m not kidding”. When doing this Salinger shows the reader how insecure Holden is of what other people may think about him. Holden is unsure and desperately tries to hide it under his strong words and supposedly mature façade – he uses the language to show he is not a phony like everyone else.

It is clear that Salinger uses the youthful language to make Holden [|Wikipedia- J.D. Salinger]sound like an average teenager, and not a writer in his 30s from the 1950s. Critical reviews agreed that the novel accurately reflected the teenage speech of the time, even though people did not approve of the slang and the swearing. Sources ** · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[] · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[] · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[] · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">

9. Theme 1: Holden as an outsider, incapable of forming relationships with other people - Andreas, Frank** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Holden is in the midst of a “childhood vs. adulthood” crisis. The adult hypocrisy, phoniness and ugliness surrounding him just about makes him jump off the cliff. Literately, that is. (There are most likely a number of factors provoking this depressive view of adulthood, some may be: Allies death and the fact he never truly settles down.) Holden strongly wants to distinguish himself from the brutal reality – and he does so by his cynical critic of a sarcastic, cruel, and rude character -- and by stating visually his uniqueness by for example wearing the red hunting hat. Ironically the criticism he fires at every movement also hits himself.

By distinguishing himself from reality, Holden somehow distinguishes himself from society. An outsider: He does not want to be a part of the cruel hypocrisy.

Society is made by people. People are society. Seems logic enough – the same believes Holden. Given society is hypocritical, phony, ugly, and cruel – //people// are hypocritical, phony, ugly, and cruel. As a result, Holden distinguish himself from people because //they// //are// society. He believes he is so much better than everybody, as if above interacting with anyone.

Strange enough, Holden desperately seeks conversations and company. Somehow he seeks company, but not the ones //providing// company.

There are plenty of episodes where Holden desperately hooks up with some distant friend – often in the middle of the night – and where he ends up insulting his companion. The book is practically nothing but such episodes. The most extreme is probably the meeting with Sally Hayes in chapter 17. He begs her to join him on a date – she ends up leaving in tears.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning Holden’s conversation with the nuns: These he finds of no lies, of no nastiness. He finds them authentic and trustworthy – much like himself. In other words, there are //some// in this defected society that provides hope.

__References:__ [|SparkNotes analysis of Holden]

10. Theme 2: Holden as an outsider, incapable of “fitting in” in society - Said, Rahela <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Holden Caulfield is incapable to connect to society, because, as mentioned before he sees society and everyone in it as phonies. The question that rises here is: In what kind of ways can he not fit in soscity? //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">People never notice anything – Holden Caulfield // <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">This line is repeated through the book many times. People never notice anything, people never listen, people think this and people think that. It’s always people and //not// him. In Holden’s mind, everyone is against him; this gives him the excuse for not connecting with other people. We see this abnormal behaviour towards the people he is talking to, and the way he is thinking about people. For example; he lies too much, an example is when he is having a conversation with Ernest Morrow’s mother. He criticizes people who are boring, disgusting and phony and promises too much, but does almost nothing. In his mind he is better than other people, not because he’s not a phony, but because he sees through the phoniness of the world while other people accept it. Holden appears to be a smart student, but never works hard to get good grades, except the only subject which he likes a lot, English, and he seems to have lost his motivation. The problem with Holden is; he spends //so// much energy searching for phoniness in others, he never directly observes his own mistakes and hypocritical behavior. Another point on why Holden can’t seem to fit in society is because he is not what you would call a typical teenager. He views the external world as having lost its beauty and innocence. He feels that no one understands him, no one on his age; only Pheobe, his younger sister. He thinks everybody wants to be hot-shots, and those who are, are too busy being hot-shots. He also feels a tremendous loss. His younger brother Allie died of leukemia. Holden talks really good about him. He also “loses” his older brother to the phoniness of Hollywood. He describes him as prostitute; selling stories to only make money, and not for intellectual redemption. The last thing that contributes to him being the outsider is that he feels betrayled. His parents send him from one school to another school; he didn’t even make it to his brother’s funeral because he was in hospital. He feels Stradlater betrayes him because of his date with Jane. When Holden returns home to see Phoebe, she is disappointed in him that he failed out of Pency. He thinks that she should accept him unreservedly, so he feels betrayed. [] []

11. Theme 3: Growing up - Charlotte, Vilde __ The Catcher in the Rye (growing up, part 1) __

//Growing up// poses challenges to most people at some point in their lives, inevitably these challenges must be dealt with, something which can be quite the task. In our adolescence, we often escape from our problems, and Holden is no exception. He uses different methods for escaping his problems, but in the end, it just causes him more trouble. It’s like postponing writing an essay until the last hour before the deadline, it makes the problem/situation go away for some time, but comes back to bite you in the ass! J. D. Salinger’s novel, “The Catcher in the Rye”, shows that often times when an individual faces problems in their life, they will try to find a means to escape, instead of solving the problems. From the beginning of the book, we notice that Holden gets excluded from any group. I think he feels alienated from the rest of society, but furthermore, it looks like Holden stays bitter on purpose. His outlook on life is filled with sarcasm, and distrust, a way to hide his real emotions. This correlates with the fact that people who’s having trouble, often struggles to accept their own problems. When Holden criticizes other people, he lacks the ability to see that he is what he loathes. For example (page 13):”One of the reasons I left Elkton was that I was surrounded by phonies". Holden refers to the term “phony”, a negative word he uses to describe things that are “geeky”, boring etc. This childish way of behaviour has consequences for his social life, being alone and such. Holden doesn’t want to communicate with people that may want to help him and we can also perceive that he doesn’t have many close friends. This way of behaviour shows us how obsessed Holden is with childhood and how he struggles through teenage life because he can not accept the given responsibilities that come with growing up. He chooses to be caught between a world of the innocence of children and the complex world of adulthood. Throughout the book, we notice that Holden refuses to grow up, because he is afraid of the responsibilities that come with the role of being an adult. Since he is afraid of communicate with people close to him, he tries to get strangers to talk to him, so the conservations he has with them won't go too into depth. He does not want to face the world of reality. For example, in chapter nine, Holden asks his cab driver, who is a complete stranger to him, for a cocktail once he's done driving Holden to the Edmont Hotel, the name of the hotel Holden stays in during his time in New York, after being kicked out of school for the fourth time. (Page 60): "Would you care to stop on the way and join me for a cocktail?” In addition to all this, Holden knows that he lies and pretends to like people he’ll rather not spend time with. For example (Page 125):"I told her I loved her and all. It was a lie of course". He hides behind the web of lies he weaves to distance himself from strangers, and fear makes it impossible to contact the people close to him. He’s afraid they will criticize him, yet he is torn, divided between his shield from reality and his desire to contact people. It is obvious that he is a complex individual, unable to really make decisions when it comes to matters of the heart, again his shield the obstacle standing in the way.

=__The Catcher in the Rye, Growing up, part 2__=

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Growing up is an important theme in the book “The Catcher in the Rye”. Throughout the book Holden, the main character, is pretty much confident that he himself is a mature person, and often tries to come across more experienced than he actually is. This act that he puts on often gives quite the opposite impression though. An example of this is his conversation with Luce, an older boy that he used to go to school with, where he comes across as both childish and stupid, and annoys Luce a great deal. When at bars, Holden also tries to give the impression of being older than he is, buying drinks and chatting up people much older than him. In general Holden finds it difficult to be himself as a grown-up, and ends up, though he doesn´t see this himself, what he hates most of all; a phony. While at the same time wanting to be perceived as an adult, Holden is reluctant towards accepting certain aspects of adulthood, for example sex. He thinks the other guests at the hotel where he is staying are perverts, and at one point he invites a prostitute to his room, only to realize he doesn´t want to have sex with her after all.======

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One thing that is very important to Holden is the innocence of children. At the end of the book he describes to us how he wants to be the catcher in the rye, meaning that he wants to save children from falling down the cliff of adulthood, losing their innocence and becoming part of this ugly, perverted adult world that Holden himself can´t handle. A concrete example of how he tries to shield the children is when he visits Phoebe´s school, sees the f word written on the wall, and erases it, simply because he hates the thought of the children seeing it. His sister, Phoebe, becomes a symbol of innocence and childhood to Holden, and Phoebe also ends up being the one to save him, becomes his “catcher in the rye” and breaks his great fall, something neither Luce nor Mr. Antolini or anyone else had managed to do. I think one of the main reasons Holden has such difficulty growing up and becoming part of the adult world is that he wants everything to be the way it was when Allie, his brother, was alive, when they were both children, and the world still seemed a safe place to be.======

12. Theme 4: Phoniness vs. innocence, adulthood vs. childhood - Even, Martin