Catcher In The Rye #3

The main goal of “Catcher in the Rye” was to illustrate the struggle of growing up. Holden was technically a grown up, for that was how his age classified him. Yet, he was still a child when it came down to his maturity and behaviors. When talking with others that he didn’t want to talk to, like Ackley, he’d sometimes begin doing things to annoy them. Due to being bored with Ackley, Holden pretended to be an blind child and said, “Mother darling, give me your hand. Why won’t you give me your hand? (page 21)”. Instead of being able to deal with a boring ten minute conversation he decided to act immaturely even though he was an older boy. Also, Holden has been kicked out of many schools due to not caring and not doing any work. A mature kid would do all their work or at least do the best they could in order to graduate and move on to something better. Holden doesn’t take his life seriously enough and acts like a fool at school, which only gets him kicked out. Also, Holden proves that he is scared of growing up when he refuses Sunny. He tells the elevator boy that he wants a “girl” to come to his hotel room late at night. Sunny shows up and begins her routine, but Holden stops her and says he has just had a surgery so he asked her, “Don’t you feel like talking for a while? (page 95)”. I’m not saying his reaction was immature, because it was a very mature stance for him to take. Yet, part of growing up is encountering new experiences, which here he refused one that has been seen as a rite to adulthood for decades. Another way Holden shows the struggle of growing up is when he misunderstands the lyrics of a song. He believes the lyrics are “if somebody catch a body in the rye”, yet Phoebe proves to him the lyrics are “if somebody meets a body in the rye”. The way he interprets the lyrics is that someone’s job is to prevent children from falling over the cliff, where the cliff symbolizes adulthood. Holden knew he had to grow up and it was the experiences that he encountered that pushed him through his struggle of growing up.

Catcher In The Rye #2

Holden is a very insecure teen. His preference of words throughout the whole novel are curse words. I believe that is because he wants to come off as a tough guy, when in reality he isn’t. A few times in the story he mentions wanting to beat someone up, but knowing in his heart that he wouldn’t be able to because he states, “I’m not too tough” (page 46). Along with his choice of curse words he also is also very sarcastic and a huge liar. Whenever people bother him or if he is in a “mood” he gets sarcastic. In the beginning of the story Ackley comes into his room talking and asks how his book is. Holden replies, “This sentence I’m reading is terrific”. Then he goes on to tell the reader, “I can be quite sarcastic when I’m in the mood” (page 21). Even before he teaches the reader that he is sarcastic he brags to them about how good of a liar he is. On page sixteen he says, “I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It’s awful. If I’m on my way to the store  to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I’m going, I’m liable to say I’m going to the opera. It’s terrible”. The fact that he lies so much goes to show how immature he is, but also how insecure. He can’t even give some innocent stranger on the street an honest answer about where he is going. Someone who is secure about themselves would be able to tell the truth no matter what. Another reason I find Holden insecure is his need to talk to Phoebe, his little kid sister. When life gets tough for him he sneaks back into his parent’s house in hopes of talking to Phoebe. If he was secure about himself he could either work it out himself or go home to talk to his parents, but not run into the arms of a child. Lastly, Holden is insecure because he isn’t comfortable about who he is. Instead of being a teenager he tries to pass himself off as an older man. He tries telling the hooker he’s older, along with the girls at the club, and any bartender he met in hopes of getting alcohol. Just by trying to be someone he’s not shows that he is insecure about himself.

Catcher in the Rye #1

The book I read was Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger. A variety of symbols are used throughout this story to portray who Holden truly is. Even his name is a symbol that demonstrates his need to stay in touch with his innocence. I won’t lie that I used spark notes to help me understand this book more in depth. The “Caul” in his last name Caulfield means a covering over a fetuses head. His name broken down can be Hold-on Caul-field, meaning he wants to hold on to the innocence of a child and not experience the world in a less positive light. Another symbol in this story was his red hunting hat. Detail means everything, so the fact that his hat was red is also a symbol. In the story it is stated that both of his siblings he was close with, Allie and Phoebe, had red hair and were either a child or never reached adulthood. I think the fact that his hat was red means that he wants to be stuck in childhood. Yet, the hat itself is a symbol of his need to maintain innocence. Whenever he wears the hat he swings “the peak way around to the back” (page 18) just like most children do when they wear a hat. Teenage boys and men wear their hats facing forward, for wearing it backwards is deemed childish or immature. Another point that can be made about the hat is that he puts it in his pocket when he doesn’t want to wear it, but he only wears it when he doesn’t want to be around others or is depressed. In other words his hat can be viewed as a “security blanket”. Most children have an object that they constantly keep in their possession in order to feel safe. For Holden I believe this is object that comforts him and protects him from what the real world has in store. In the very end of the story it begins to pour and Holden states, “My hunting hat gave me quite a lot of protection, in a way, but I got soaked anyway” (page 213). I believe the rain was a symbol of a new beginning. It shows that Holden had finally discovered that he had to grow up and the rain washed away all of his childish ways. His hat protected him literally from the rain, but symbolically from adulthood for a very long time. When he says he got soaked anyway, I believe he means that the hat could only protect him from adulthood for so long and now he had to face growing up. This story was full of symbols, but these are the few that I found were significant.