Preview

Catcher In The Rye Research Paper

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
336 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Catcher In The Rye Research Paper
J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye demonstrates that life is what one makes it; good or bad. In the novel, there are a lot of people who teach us what the good life is, but the good life is explained by Holden as his brother, D.B lives it. Holden also talks about D.B’s past life and what he does with all his money.
A screenwriter who lives in Hollywood, an hour away from where his brother
Holden is being held in a rest home, D.B. lives the good life where there are no worries. He does not think about the past and is focused on making his future better. In D.B’s past years, he did not have a lot of money. He started writing stories and moved to Hollywood to better his career. He is called a prostitute by his brother, Holden because he is

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Catcher In The Rye Summary

    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages

    "The Catcher in the Rye" opens with Holden Caulfield at Pency Prep, his high school, where he has just been kicked out for failing almost all of his classes. Holden, as a lost and frustrated teen, goes to his room for his last night before planning to run away from Pency Prep for some "alone time" before telling his parent he was kicked out of another school.…

    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Directions: Write a five paragraph essay on one of the following topics. Provide specific examples from the text and quotes that are relevant and effectively explained to prove your point.…

    • 1375 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    catcher in the rye essay

    • 1422 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In the Catcher in the Rye written by J.D Salinger Holden follows in the footsteps of tragic heroes in ancient myths. Throughout Holden’s journey he endures many unique experiences he must overcome in order to succeed. In addition he also possesses a tragic flaw just as all the heroes do. This tragic flaw will bring about their demise if they do not properly deal with it, and cope with the aftermath. In The Catcher in the Rye author J.D Salinger explains how Holden journeys to find the meaning of life in the Hero’s journey.…

    • 1422 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In contrast to Holden’s younger brother, Holden’s older brother D.B does not provide Holden with a sense of security. “If there’s one thing [Holden] hates, it’s the movies” (Salinger 2), and coincidentally D.B just happens to work in the movie industry. Holden mentions multiple times how D.B has sold himself to Hollywood and “prostituted “ (Salinger 80) himself to become a screenwriter despite being a fantastic novelist, in Holden’s eyes. In the beginning, when Holden introduces his family, he implies that his relationship with D.B is not the closest; he says that he only told D.B some of the story of his three day journey, despite D.B being his “brother and all” (Salinger 1). During his three day journey, after arriving in New York, Holden considers calling up D.B, however decides against it since “D.B was in Hollywood” (Salinger 59).…

    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Good people... are good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure”. This quote from William Saroyan means that wise people acquire their insight from experiences, especially unsuccessful ones. I agree with the quote and the idea of people being knowledgeable because of the hardships and journeys they had endured. The two novels Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger both support the idea of gaining wisdom through experience.…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Holden Caulfield Changes

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Life is one of the hardest thing to change in the world, In JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, trying to change his life through series of emotional events, but fail to became a successful man as stay with his characteristics from the beginning of the novel. Novel itself uses Holden as an example of how growing up is a difficult situation. Many people in real life after life experience became more of an successful person then they are. In the novel, Holden been through series of events about growing up as an adult, but turns out he didn't learn from these experiences, in fact his thoughts still remains childish and violent. Throughout the novel, Holden imagines himself protecting Jane, killing people, see women as phony,…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everyone has had a dream job since they were small, it might have changed over time but it was always something they loved. In “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger we meet Holden whose dream job is to be a catcher in the rye. Holden states that in his dream job he would “catch everyone if they start to go over the cliff- I mean if they’re running and they don’t see where they’re going I have to come out of somewhere and catch them.” (Salinger, 173)…

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Stress, depression, and confusion, has made the protagonist a interesting character. The author J.D Salinger represents Holden in The Catcher in the Rye as a failing student at Pencey Prep trying to go through life the best he can. However Holden's life has not been easy many things have happened to Holden. Throughout Holden's life many things have hurt him and many things have helped him such as adults, children, women, and peers. How ever as throughout the book Holden has changed how he interacts with people.…

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Three seconds remain in the tied basketball game. The point guard shoots and scores right before the buzzer sounds off. I bet for a long time, that player worked hard in the gym to practice and perfect his shooting for game time situations like that. It just goes to show that nothing great can ever be achieved without hard work. Holden Caulfield from The Catcher In The Rye, however, does not quite understand this saying. In the story, Holden does not apply himself to his education at Pencey Prep, which results in his expulsion from school. Throughout the story, Holden, as well as a few other characters, represent the terms expressed in Freud’s Theory of Personality known as the id, superego, and ego.…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The theme of alienation is relevant in both "The Catcher in the Rye" and "The Grapes of Wrath. It is an idea presented very prominently in both books, expressed through characters, actions, and events.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The novel starts out with Holden telling the reader the flashback of three days he spent alone in New York City last winter. He was kicked out of Pencey Prep, the latest in a long string of exclusive boarding schools, and wanted to leave the school before his parents found out. Before Holden leaves, he is warned by his teacher that he is heading down a bad path, foreshadowing his later troubles. As Holden leaves his dorm, he shouts “Sleep tight, ya morons!”, and cries, although he doesn’t know why (Page 52) . Throughout the book Holden often has reactions like this, hating people but still wanting to be close to them. He takes the train into New York City, and heads for a hotel after being too scared of talking to his parents to call his little…

    • 1330 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine what it feels like to be a teenager. Is a teenager considerate and open minded? The novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger talks about a teenager named Holden Caulfield who tells his story about a school named Pency Prep in Pennsylvania, away from his sister and parents. Throughout most of this book, Holden explains his inner thoughts regarding everyone he knows, and most of them are judgmental. Holden is considered to be a typical American teenager in this novel. First of all, teenagers like to express their thoughts. In Sylvia Plath’s article “Sylvia Plath at Seventeen”, she begins saying,“As of today I have decided to keep a diary again―just a place where I can write my thoughts and opinions when I have a moment. Somehow I…

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in Rye speaks to core of being an outsider, but beyond the anti-hero, anti-establishment persona that Holden reflects, Salinger wrote a portrait of a boy deeply troubled by the end of simplicity. Past the cynical nature and the reclusion from people, Holden is a little boy saddened by the death of his brother. Holden was never able to get closure over Allie’s death and because of this he has never been able to move on. To remember his brother and a simpler time Holden treasures innocence and has remained a child himself in many ways. Through the uses of metaphorical landscapes, a relatable anti-hero, and the setting of a repressed post-war American society Salinger depicts the journey of a young boy fighting, resisting the transition from childhood to adulthood. Holden Caulfield’s cynicism and reclusion are his defense mechanism, they warn of phony and slobs alike, but leave him lonely. He is both a figure for the youth and old alike, because Holden’s disdain of hypocrisy, longing for innocence, and his need for acceptance transcend age groups, these are human emotions that bother any age group. At the end of the novel, Holden says “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do you start missing everybody” (Salinger 214). There are times when Holden comes off as neurotic, but in this case he meant that you will the way life used to be if you remember it. At the end Holden realizes that Allie’s death and his longing to go back to his childhood were holding him back, keeping him from applying himself. Many readers come away from that last line and feel that there is no happy ending for Holden, but the negative tone of the comment is less of a warning and more of a new being for Holden, meaning that Holden’s dream of being the catcher in the rye can can…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel The Catcher and the Rye by J.D Salinger, Holden expresses his hate for the idea of growing up and becoming an adult, as he sees the majority of adults as phonies. Along with that, he regards the process as taking away your innocence and freedom. With his view of adulthood, he hates the idea of children having to go through what he did and losing their innocence. He often praises children, placing them as superior to adults.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel “The Catcher in the Rye”, the character Holden Caulfield demonstrates his unusual behaviour. The narrator introduces the story of an emotionally hurt teenager whose suspicions and personal issues prevent him from being normal in a society full of “phonies” that he does not seem to get along with. It becomes clear that Holden has clouded judgement as he has multiple mood swings with the people he likes, and dislikes. Therefore, it becomes obvious that some of his personal flaws include his distrust, depression, and unreasonable attitudes and thoughts are based on his underlying emotional problems. Holden Caulfield has a variety psychological problems, such as his skepticism, depressive behaviour, and his unjustifiable attitudes…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays