Similarities And Differences Between Salinger And Holden Caulfield

During the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, author J.D. Salinger brings Holden’s pessimistic, antisocial personality to life through what he says, how he says it, and through the characters he meets. Salinger bases Holden’s expressions off of the culture of the 1950’s, his own personal dialect, and the everyday occurrences of Holden’s life in mind. J.D. Salinger manipulates the diction, uses syntax to criticize others, and controls the character interaction and dialogue in order to create the protagonist, Holden Caulfield.

Salinger highlights the struggle after a loved one’s death through the protagonist, Holden, who accounts the memories of his brother Allie: “He used to laugh so hard at something he thought of at the dinner table that he just about fell off his chair. I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage. I don't blame them” (Salinger 38). At an adolescent age, Holden had to go through the tragedy of his brother's death, where he demonstrated strange behavior due to his emotional instability. Holden had ruined his friendship with Stradlater, who’d asked Holden to write him an English prompt where Holden wrote about Allie’s glove, but had disappointed Stradlater, thus Holden tore the paper. Holden became furious due to the connection Holden had with his brother, he portrayed the misunderstanding that society and adolescents have of one another after a

In J. D Salinger 's novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist, Holden, goes through many hardships in his journey to self-knowledge. In the beginning, Holden has to deal with being kicked out of school and not having any place to call home. He is also struggling with the unfortunate tragedy of the death of his beloved younger brother Allie. At the same time, Holden is trying to deal with growing up and accepting the adult world. Throughout the novel Salinger addresses the conflicts faced by a young man struggling with the trials and tribulations of growing up while also confronting personal loss and loneliness along the way.

Salinger uses the characterization of Holden Caulfield to send a message regarding the problems children face growing up, such as struggling to find one’s identity and failure to properly interact with other people, can create a permanent effect on their life making a connection to the real world, and everyone in it, nearly impossible.

Regardless of the time, place, or culture, every generation has unique challenges they must face in order to adapt to the environment around them. While specific situations may vary, the internal conflicts and negative thoughts that one may address during their transition to adulthood are universal. In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the story revolves around the difficulties of Holden Caulfield and his reactions as he navigates through New York City in the 1940s or 1950s. As the novel progresses, the author uses the personal struggles and uncertainty in the life of an adolescent boy to spread awareness about the dilemmas of humanity and the darker perspectives of the world. The consistent cynical outlook combined with the briefly

After his “escape”, from World War II -- Salinger returned to the United States in 1946 -- Salinger’s writing changed drastically again; it no longer reflected a man ashamed of who he was, rather a man with serious mental health issues who was tired of hiding behind a mask of conformity. Nicolaus Mills writes, “By his own admission, Salinger had come back from World War II… a changed man” (Mills). During his time back, Salinger compiled and edited many of his short stories into what became his best-selling novel, The Catcher in The Rye. The author adapted Holden Caulfield to represent himself again, although the war had left its mark on Salinger’s psyche, turning Holden into an angsty, depressed teen with a tragic backstory of loss and abandonment. Holden’s idiolect changes; the protagonist frequently uses profanity, talks about how depressed he is, and calls other people “phonies” for not seeing the world in the same way that he does. Additionally, the point-of-view changes back into first-person, closing the fissure between Holden and Salinger which Salinger created in his choice to use third-person in “Slight Rebellion Off Madison”. The reader gets the chance to see Holden’s inner, often hypocritical, thoughts like the following: “I am always saying Glad to've met you to somebody I'm not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you

The way that Salinger writes gives the audience a very personal and insightful look into what Holden is feeling. It’s told in the first person, in a confessional style, and utilises digression. This creates a sense of closeness with the protagonist. It’s like Holden is talking directly to the reader. Salinger’s use of stream of consciousness also makes it feel like it really is coming from the mind of a seventeen-year-old boy:

Between laser dogfights in space and apocalyptic car chases across the desert, it seems unlikely that the story of a mundane and particularly uninteresting week in New York has any relevance to our culture. It seems even more improbable that it can turn a teenager that hates everyone into the sympathetic and relatable character of a literary classic, but J.D. Salinger gets away with this in his novel “The Catcher of the Rye”. The protagonist and narrator, Holden Caulfield, is characterized by his sympathetic nature, whether it be towards his sister Phoebe, his late brother, Allie or his acquaintance, Ackley. Holden uses his sensitivity and insightfulness to cope with his transition into adulthood by Firstly, Holden demonstrates a lot of affection towards his sister, Phoebe. Of all the plain and simple characters in the story, Phoebe stands out as she is the one that Holden cares the most for.

Salinger’s narrative strategy of making Holden being quick to judge makes his point come across, but at the same time makes the audience feel that Holden is not a credible source because he does the same things that he calls people out for doing. Holden does the same things he calls people “phony” for doing, making the audience consider if they can trust him. Holden himself is guilty of being phony because he feels the adults in his life have forced him to be. Holden has no one that he is able to vent to because he pushes them away by being hard headed and not listening to anyone thus causing him to lie to himself which keeps the truth even further away from him. Seng makes it a point in, “The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield”, to show that, “While holden is quick to pass judgement on others he is not so quick to see the faults in himself.”(Seng 205) Seng makes it a point that in order for the audience to understand the novel as a whole it is crucial for the audience to realize that Holden is also

Throughout The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden a 16 year old male flunks out of School and returns to his home (New York City) but decides to hide in the city from his parents and have a little fun in town. Holden’s attitude on the atmosphere and surroundings around him (in school and the City) contributed to his outcomes in life.

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is a novel published in 1951 that describes the struggle of the main character, Holden who is a teenage boy that is alienated from everyone around him and struggles to build connections with anyone that he meets. Readers can identify Holden as a lonely and complicated character, and are able to feel the pain that he is going through. Holden Caufiled represents an alienated adolescence who is unable to move on from a painful past and struggles to accept the reality of adulthood. Holden’s red hunting hat is a symbol of his alination that directly represents his attachment to both his past and his childhood.

J.D. Salinger, in his novel The Catcher in the Rye, centers around the life of Holden Caulfield past experiences that contributes to his personality; these obstacles makes him afraid to grow up and become an adult. Salinger details major events such as facing exile in his school because of failing classes, coping with death and trust, and being able to connect with people. These events that occur in his life, illuminates a the meaning of the book as a whole--young character’s growth into maturity and dealing with alienation. In the beginning of the book we introduced with Holden “standing way the hell up on top of Thomsen Hill,” watching a game between Saxon Hill and his school, Pencey Prep.

In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger writes about a troubled teen named Holden Caulfield, who underwent failing school, traveled through New York City at night, and met many people. Salinger depicts Holden as someone with uncontrollable anger, many anxieties, extreme loneliness, powerful love, and numerous fears. All of this mold Holden into a complex person with an unusual personality and unique traits that make him different from society and unable to accept or appreciate most of the people around him. There seems to be a strong connection between his speech, actions, and thoughts and his prominent personality traits: being judgmental, lonely, and unhappy.

J.D. Salinger embodies immaturity in Holden's character in order to demonstrate his desire to hold onto his depleting adolescent years. Salinger demonstrates Holden's juvenile outlook as he incorporates other characters of similar age throughout the novel. These characters, when compared to Holden, help Salinger portray a clear difference between their maturities. This was apparent after Salinger had Holden shy away from engaging in sexual intercourse with a prostitute, "I don't feel very much like myself tonight...I'll pay you and all, but do you mind very much if we don't do it." His immaturity is clearly exposed as he fails at a task that other kids in his Pency Class, like Stradlater, had already completed.

J.D. Salinger’s school life had many significant events that are shown through Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye. In the novel, the 17-year-old Holden Caulfield leaves Pencey Prep. In chapter one, Holden states “...I’d just got back from New York with the fencing team. I was the goddam manager of the fencing team. Very big deal. We’d gone in to New York that morning for this fencing meet with McBurney