The Catcher In The RyeEssay Preview: The Catcher In The RyeReport this essay“I swear to God Im crazy. I admit it.” It is very easy to automatically assume that Holden Caulfield is crazy. Its even a logical assumption since Caulfield himself admits to being crazy twice throughout the course of the book. However, calling Holden Caulfield crazy is almost the same as calling the majority of the human race crazy also. Holden Caulfield is just an adolescent trying to prevent himself from turning into what he despises the most, a phony. Most of Caulfields actions and thoughts are the same as of many people, the difference being that Holden acts upon those thoughts and has them down in writing.
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The Catcher in the RyeEssay: http://catcherinthery.com/?p=2d59f4ec4a40d1d9a5d6d2ab>The Catcher in the Rye
If you like this essay, I’ve provided links for a bunch of other websites. For more great writers who are writing articles about human psychology, click on the links below:This article was originally posted on the blog The Catcher in the Rye. For those who don’t believe they’ve been in the room, click on the link below. This post was not written as commentary, other than to share and share, but I’d welcome any and all constructive criticism. Thanks.<*> I’m not too keen on the comments. What I do like being forced, or just not feeling appreciated, is just the way the author describes them. In any case, if you want to hear more of how human psychology works, I have written this to talk about the various ways that humans interact with each other. A lot happens together in this complex world. These people share a common passion. Their differences are so important in how we perceive and we feel about each other, that what we share is so important to so many of them too. I’m grateful for everyone’s help, particularly those of you who write along with me. I can’t express your support because the world doesn’t seem to care. I need your help to make sense of what happens during our social times, what we feel and how things happen in the world when we’re not interacting with each other. In any case, I’m really sorry I haven’t included enough information on what your support means to me.
I will happily answer any questions you may have.
What’s going on in our world?”
The catcher in the ryre is not only the only one I love, but the world he is living in. He is so cool, he is even more alive than I’ve ever seen him. He’s funny, he has such a cool mind, it just makes me think he is the nicest guy I have ever had the privilege of having meet. He even has the most caring personality you could ask for. It just makes me think that sometimes, it doesn’t matter. Sometimes. It doesn’t matter if you want to find out exactly
Holden Caulfield is a teenager growing up in New York in the 1950s. He has been expelled from school for poor achievement and “was flunking four subjects and not applying myself and all.” He decides to leave school a few days than what he is supposed to in an attempt to deal with his current situation. “Besides, I sort of needed a little vacation. My nerves were shot. They really were.” Caulfield goes to New York to take a vacation before having to face his parents inevitable wrath. During this time, he experiences a nervous breakdown that was characterized by his sudden unexplained depressions. “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide.” “I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden.” Before his eventual nervous collapse he experienced impulsive spending and generally odd, erratic behavior. “All I had was three singles and five quarters and a nickel left – boy, I spent a fortune since I left Pencey. Then what I did, I went down near the lagoon and I sort of skipped the quarters and the nickel across it, where it wasnt frozen.” “About halfway to the bathroom, I sort of started pretending I had a bullet in my guts.”
During Caulfields psychological battle, life continues around him. His condition is being ignored which arises the thought whether society chooses to ignore the emptiness that can be shown in humans. “..but people never notice. People never notice anything.” As Caulfields condition deteriorates, he declares the world is full of phonies and that people are out there for their own gain. He is aware that most people are phonies but is not as critical of them towards the end.
One aspect of Holdens personality is his criticism toward the phony things in society. Holden considers the movies and anything having to do with it phony, including theatrical performances. “I dont like any shows very much, if you want to know the truth. Theyre not as bad as movies, but theyre certainly nothing to rave about. In the first place, I hate actors. They never act like people. They just think they do. Some of the good ones do, in a very slight way, but not in a way thats fun to watch. And if any actors good, you can always tell he knows hes good, and that spoils itIf an actor acts it out, I hardly listen. I keep worrying about whether hes going to do something phony every minute.” He finds the theater phony because instead of demonstrating reality as it is, the emphasis is placed on polishing it theatrically. Holden feels anger towards his brother because “hes out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute.” He considered that D.B. was selling himself to Hollywood, which is why he called D.B. a prostitute. He considers the movies phony and hates them so much that “… I dont think I could ever do it with somebody that sits in a stupid movie all day long” when Sunny the prostitute was in his room. When he dances with Bernice Crabs/Krebs, he considers her a moron partially because she was on the lookout for actors at the bar because she had seen an actor the previous night. Also, it depressed him that they were planning on waking up early the next day to see the first show at Radio City Music Hall. Holdens criticism towards the phony things in society is the most important part of his personality because it shows that for him it is very important to be real and honest and not phony.
Another aspect of Holdens personality is his perception that laws or rules are childs play for the strong and a difficult struggle for the weak. His understanding is that rules were meant to serve for the strong and since he considers himself part of the weak people, he ignores them completely. Holdens favorite author besides his brother is Ring Lardner. There is one story that “kills” him that shows his understanding of laws. “…this one story about a traffic cop that falls in love with this very cute girl thats always speeding. Only, hes married, the cop, so he cant marry her or anything. Then this girl gets killed, because shes always speeding. That story just about killed me.” There are two types of laws being broken here. The policeman fell in love with another woman while he was married which is the breaking of a social law. Then the girl was always speeding so she broke traffic laws. Holden enjoys this story so much because there was no direct punishment for the breaking of the social law. The girl died because of speeding but nothing happened to the policeman who also broke a rule or law. Holden also sees that rules are applied to life depending on who you are and that life really isnt a game. His history teacher, Mr. Spencer tells him, “Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.” He tells his teacher that he agrees but his thoughts are really, “Game, my ass. Some game, if you get on the side where all the hotshots are, then its a game, all right- Ill admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there arent any hotshots, then what a game about it? Nothing. No game.” Caulfield considers himself to be on the side without game, rules, and hotshots. But there is a contradiction with this aspect of Holdens personality. He doesnt accept the rules set before him by phony adults. He believes that rules are only for the strong, yet he makes rules for himself although he never keeps them. “Im always setting myself rules about sex and I immediately break them.”
The final aspect of Holden Caulfields personality is his respect for others. He cant stand people who dont respect or listen to what others have to say. He also thinks it is important to listen to people and respect their privacy. This is shown when he is willing to stop in the middle of a sexual act at the request of the girl which is something that not a lot of teenagers would do. Holdens respect for others is also evident in the respect he shows towards the nuns. “They didnt seem to know what the hell to do with their suitcases, so I gave them a hand.”
